A coal-fired energy plant in South Korea will use tools from GE Vernova’s Fuel Energy enterprise as the power switches to burn pure gasoline as quickly as 2027.
GE Vernova on April 8 stated it might provide a 7HA.02 gasoline turbine and a H65 generator for Korea Western Energy Co.’s (KOWEPO’s) energy station in Gongju-si, Chungcheongnam-do. KOWEPO is a subsidiary of Korea Electrical Energy Corp. (KEPCO). The five hundred-MW mission additionally will allow the facility plant to burn a gasoline combination of as a lot as 30% hydrogen.
GE Vernova is a part of a consortium creating the mission, together with Korea-based Daewoo E&C, an engineering, procurement, and development firm. The hydrogen part of the mission will probably be decided by the size of South Korea’s future hydrogen manufacturing.
Coal- and pure gas-fired era present about two-thirds of South Korea’s electrical energy era, based on the U.S. Power Info Administration. Nuclear energy offers about 26% of the era combine. The nation depends on imports of coal and liquefied pure gasoline as a result of its doesn’t have home manufacturing of fossil fuels.
Pure Fuel and Hydrogen
A KOWEPO consultant in a information launch Monday stated, “This energy plant will add new capability, anticipated to extend energy provide safety in South Korea whereas persevering with to section out coal energy era. As well as, it’s going to assist develop a extra dependable deployment of renewable power assets in our nation as we’ll be extra succesful to dispatch energy rapidly in response to grid fluctuations. The brand new energy plant will probably be succesful to function on as much as 30% hydrogen by quantity, according to the nationwide objective to deploy renewables and inexperienced hydrogen at massive scale and obtain carbon neutrality by 2050.”
Development of the brand new gas-fired facility is predicted to start subsequent yr. Officers on Monday stated that burning pure gasoline as an alternative of coal on the energy plant might cut back carbon emissions by as a lot as 60%, and in addition would decrease emissions of mercury, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter.
The Heart for World Sustainability, a part of the Faculty of Public Coverage on the College of Maryland, stated that in South Korea, “as of September 2023, a complete of 85 items [40.2 GW, including collective energy and intense gasification combined coal cycle (IGCC)] had been working in 30 coal vegetation throughout the nation. Making an allowance for retirement plans and design life, 51 coal vegetation will stay in Korea in 2035, and the nation won’t be coal-free till 2050. The report requires quicker phaseout of coal and transition to scrub power if Korea is to attain carbon neutrality and adjust to worldwide local weather targets.”
Officers final yr stated South Korea, as a part of its phase-out plan, may very well be anticipated to retire a minimum of 30 coal-fired items by 2034.
Coal Plant Retirements
“In a rustic with an growing energy demand as a result of deliberate coal-fired energy plant retirements, we’re proud to assist a lower-carbon future in Korea,” stated Ramesh Singaram, president and CEO GE Vernova’s Fuel Energy enterprise in Asia, in a press release. “We’re dedicated to offering KOWEPO with our superior gasoline turbine know-how to speed up coal phase-out and assist a rise within the share of renewables as we work in direction of lower-carbon gas-based energy era with hydrogen. As soon as in operation, Gongju-si energy plant is predicted to be among the many best and versatile energy vegetation within the nation.”
The 7HA.02 gasoline turbine is taken into account one among GE Vernova’s most-advanced items. The corporate has a robust presence in South Korea, with as many as 78 gasoline generators—each easy cycle and mixed cycle—able to producing greater than 14 GW of electrical energy throughout that nation.
GE Vernova has operated in South Korea since 1976. The corporate in 2015 acquired Doosan’s warmth restoration steam generator enterprise, taking up a significant manufacturing plant in Changwon.
—Darrell Proctor is a senior affiliate editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).