North Korean authorities are actively encouraging state institutions, enterprises, and neighborhood watch units to generate their own electricity through solar power as the country’s chronic energy shortages show no signs of easing. But the steep upfront cost of the necessary equipment means that, in practice, only those with access to significant funds are able to install it, a source in North Pyongan province told Daily NK on Friday.
In Yomju county, lectures are being held at institutions, enterprises, and neighborhood watch units in which the solar setups already operating at select facilities are held up as success stories, the source said. The message being promoted is that, given the instability of state electricity supply, units must take responsibility for securing their own power, particularly in sectors where electricity directly determines productivity.
The urgency is especially acute in livestock farming. After last summer’s extreme heat caused significant losses across the sector in Yomju county, the need for reliable power to run cooling equipment became impossible to ignore. Without cooling systems to regulate temperatures inside livestock facilities, animals die and output falls, yet state-supplied electricity cannot reliably meet that need.
Costs remain out of reach for most
Demand for solar equipment is real, but the price of a full system is a serious obstacle. A functional solar setup requires not just panels but also a high-capacity battery to store electricity and a converter to switch between direct and alternating current, and the combined cost of all components is prohibitive for most.
A source said that even units acknowledge solar power is the most practical solution available. “Each unit recognizes that solar power generation is the most realistic way to solve the electricity problem, but the initial cost is so high that they have no choice but to agonize over it,” the source said. “There is no shortage of people saying that it may sound great in theory, but the upfront costs are just too large.”
For a private household seeking a setup capable of running a refrigerator, television, washing machine, and electric fan with reasonable reliability, the initial outlay comes to more than 20,000 Chinese yuan (approximately $2,750). That sum is comparable to the price of a house in a mid-sized provincial city and is beyond the reach of most institutions, let alone individual families.
Units that need to power production equipment face even greater costs, as they require higher electricity capacity. “The initial cost is already daunting, and now they are being told to normalize production through solar power generation as well,” the source said. “In the end, only units with money are moving forward with installation, and the rest can only watch.”
In practice, solar equipment is currently being adopted mainly by enterprises with independent revenue streams, foreign currency-earning units, and relatively better-off North Korean people. The self-reliance approach being promoted by authorities as a solution to the electricity crisis is playing out on the ground in a way that mirrors existing economic divides.
Demand is nonetheless growing. Once installed, a solar system generates power independently over the long term, which North Korean people and institutions increasingly see as its decisive advantage. The source noted that using solar power for basic lighting has become commonplace among ordinary North Korean people, and that demand is now shifting toward larger systems capable of covering a household’s full range of electricity needs.
“Whether or not a private home has solar panels has become a marker of living standards,” the source said. “Enterprises also see solar power generation as the fastest way to solve the electricity problem, so demand for related equipment will continue to grow.”
Reporting from inside North Korea
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June 8, 2026 at 03:30PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)