World's Largest Tidal Power Plant Being Unveiled

Siwha plant with an annual capacity of 254,000kW is to be dedicated by December

The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs (MLTM) and K-water held a ceremony to celebrate the inauguration of some power generators that had been test-operated at the Siwha Lake Reservoir Tidal Power Plant, 60 km southwest of Seoul, on Aug. 29.
Escorted by MLTM Minister Kwon Do-youp and Knowledge Economy Minister Choi Joong-kyung, President Lee Myung-bak toured the site of the tidal power plant. Those on hand at the ceremony were K-water President Kim Kuen-ho; Rep. Chang Kwang-keun, chairman of the National Assembly Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Committee; Gyeonggi Gov. Kim Moon-soo; and other notables from political and government circles.
The world's largest tidal power plant is to be dedicated by December, seven years after the project broke ground in December 2004. It will have a power generation capacity of 254,000kW, surpassing France's Rance Tidal Plant with a capacity of 240,000kW. The tidal plant installation will produce 552 million kWh of electricity annually, 1.56 times as much as that of the Soyang River Dam hydro power plant, and sufficient enough to supply electricity to a population of a half million residents year round. It will have a petroleum import substitution effect of approximately 94.2 billion won and greenhouse gas emissions reductions worth 6.6 billion won annually.
The Sihwa Lake Reservoir Tidal Power Plant is the first of its kind in Korea. The successful construction of the tidal plant is significant in that Korea, which has almost no experience in the construction of such tidal plants, has overcome such unfavorable construction conditions as a nine-meter tidal difference during the ebb and flow and the excavating of a rocky seabed 26 meters deep, said Kim Man-ki, director of K-water Tidal Power Plant Construction Dept.
The plant was built by a consortium, led by Daewoo E&C , which included Samsung E&C.
He said the project employed eco-friendly design methods such as the Circular Cell Method, a patented temporary embankment for minimizing sand and earth losses and maritime pollution, and the introduction of generators with a low rotation frequency to reduce fish kills.
The project is designed not only to spearhead the low-carbon, green growth paradigm amid the growing global issue of climate change and pollution-free maritime energy exploration, but also to dramatically improve the quality of Sihwa Lake, Kim said. A daily exchange of seawater with 1.47 million sq. meters of fresh water, equivalent to half of Sihwa Lake's water, is expected to improve the quality of the lake's water to 2 ppm in Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), similar to that of the outer sea of the lake, Director Kim said. The project will create a mud flat area in the upper stream of the lake, thus turning it into a migratory bird sanctuary, he said.
The tidal power plant is forecast to attract some 1.5 million visitors annually in 2013, establishing itself as a center of culture and tourism and a publicity-cum-exhibition hub for promoting green energy, MLTM officials said.
The tidal power plant, being built at a cost of 495.9 billion won, will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 315,000 tons under the Clean Development Mechanism annually and guarantee 315,000 certified emissions reductions (CERs). A CER amounts to one ton of CO2 equivalent. nw

Kim Man-ki, director of K-water Tidal Power Plant Construction Dept., explains the features of the Siwha Lake Reservoir Tidal Power .Plant, the world's largest one.

Kim Man-ki, director of K-water Tidal Power Plant Construction Dept.

Photos by NewsWorld