South Korea’s 812 MW Tidal Power Project to Claim Global Top Spot

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The city of Incheon in South Korea has signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with the ‘clean’ power focused Korea Midland Power (Seoul) and Daewoo Engineering and Construction (Seoul) for the construction of the world’s largest tidal power plant on Ganghwa Island.

The $1.9 billion project will include the construction of a 7.8 kilometer dam connecting the four islands of Ganghwa, Gyyodong, Seokmo and Seogem. Once this phase has been completed 32 tidal power generators will be installed with a combined capacity of 812 MW.

The dam will be positioned to catch the maximum height difference between the ebb and flow of the tide used to turn the turbines to produce power. The dam includes a sluice that opens to allow the tide to flow into a basin. The sluice is then closed, and the sea level drops allowing the head of water to drop and turn the turbines. The islands at Incheon have a maximum tidal difference of 7.64 meters and an average difference of 5.57 meters.

The contracting team and Incheon City will sign an official agreement in June which will include management scope and budgets for the project. This will be based on a research report by Daewoo. Before getting the final go ahead, the project must be approved by South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. The dam is scheduled for completion in 2014 with the turbines installed and power generation to start in 2015. An Incheon City spokesman said that the project will provide 8.4% of the city’s annual power requirement which currently stands at 18,165 gigawatt hours. The power output could power 400,000 of the city’s 930,000 homes and is equivalent to burning 320,000 tons of heavy oil, with resulting emissions.

When completed, the project will claim the number one global spot for tidal power generation. Before Ganghwa Island is commissioned the Shihwa Lake tidal power project, also in South Korea, will claim the top global spot when it starts generating 254 MW in 2009, displacing the La Rance installation in France which is currently in Shihwa Lake in Ansan City in Gyeonggi province. This $400 million project, funded by the Korea Water Resources Corporation, will cater for a large portion of the power needs of Ansan City’s 500,000 population.

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