South Korea

The Samcheok Green Power Plant requires less maintenance and is more cost-effective than conventional coal plants, and more environmentally friendly with its use of once-through ultrasupercritical boilers

More than two dozen people have died in southeastern Laos after part of a newly built hydroelectric dam broke on July 23, flooding nearby villages. Government officials on July 25 said it had confirmed 26 deaths, with fears the death toll will rise with more than 130 people officially listed as missing and heavy rain […]

The first of four nuclear reactors at the Barakah plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was completed in late March, a milestone both for the UAE and for South Korea, which supplied the APR-1400 pressurized

The South Korean government said the country’s coal-fired power generation hit a new high in 2017, helped by three thermal power plants that came online with combined generation capacity of 5.3 GW. The

Zurich, Switzerland, February 26, 2018 – ABB FACTS technology to boost transmission capability and improve power stability for electricity consumers in Seoul area ABB has won an order from Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) to supply technology that will help strengthen long distance transmission and provide more reliable power to the North Eastern part of […]

The global solar industry on January 23 reacted to President Trump’s announcement on Monday that the U.S. will enact a 30% tariff this year on imports of solar cells and modules, a levy that could begin as soon as next month. Some groups said they will take a “wait and see” approach to the charge, […]

Construction of two nuclear plants in South Korea, halted this July by President Moon Jae-in’s announced policy to phase out nuclear power, will continue after a citizens’ jury voted to resume the projects. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) was building Shin Kori 5 and 6, two AP1400 units, but the company decided to suspend […]

During his electoral campaign, South Korean President Moon Jae-in vowed to end the country’s reliance on coal and also said the nation would move away from nuclear energy. He took a major step in that

The world’s nuclear sector saw a flurry of activity during April and May, though most of it wasn’t good news.  First Unit at Barakah Built, but Regulatory Delays Prevail. Initial construction activities

• 60.6 megawatts wind power plant in Gyeongsangbuk Province • 17 direct drive wind turbines including new model SWT-3.6-130 • Second project for customer SK D&D Co., Ltd. Siemens Wind Power has received an order to supply 17 direct drive wind turbines for the Uljin onshore wind power plant in Gyeongsangbuk province on the east […]

October 24, 2016 09:39 AM Eastern Daylight Time SEOUL, Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Westinghouse Electric Company and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Co. Ltd. signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to form a technological exchange committee to promote a discussion and exchange of engineering capabilities between both organizations. The bilateral MOU will fully engage the partners’ capabilities in […]

Includes more than $660 million in Power Services orders First total power island order in Asia and first HRSG technology use following Doosan acquisition in August 2016 Strong customer support of high efficiency solutions throughout region September 19, 2016 09:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time SEOUL, Korea–(BUSINESS WIRE)–GE Power, a division of GE (NYSE:GE), today announced […]

When completed, the 36-megawatt frequency regulation project will increase the total ESS capacity delivered by Kokam to South Korean utility KEPCO to 92-megawatts  Seoul, South Korea – August 8, 2016 – Kokam Co., Ltd, the world’s premier provider of innovative battery solutions, today announced that South Korea’s largest utility, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) [NYSE: KEP], […]

Court Forces Bulgaria to Pay for One of Two Canceled Reactors at Belene. Bulgaria’s National Electricity Co.(NEK) should pay Russia’s Atomstroyexport nearly $620 million in compensation for its canceled two-unit Belene nuclear plant, an international arbitration court in Geneva ruled in mid-June. The 2-GW plant was in the offing for more than two decades before NEK […]

In a major shakeup of a power sector currently monopolized by a state-owned giant, South Korea has moved to partially open its electricity generation market to private companies in a bid to improve efficiency

The world’s power sector last year emitted a third of global sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, 14% of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and 5% of total particulate emissions (PM2.5), but those emission values have fallen drastically over the last decade even though coal power generation has seen a surge, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a […]

The world’s frenzied economic growth through 2040 won’t be matched by electricity demand growth, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) says in the International Energy Outlook 2016 (IEO2016 ) released on May 11. World net electricity generation will jump 69% by 2040, the IEO2016 reference case projects, but that is still well below “what it would […]

The world’s first 1,400-MW Advanced Pressurized Reactor (APR1400), a South Korean Generation III design, has now been connected to the grid. Nearly eight years since construction kicked off in October

Editors note: Corrected (Dec. 7). A previous version of this infographic listed Russia’s nuclear total as 1.9 GW. It is 2.9 GW.

Nuclear costs aren’t on the rise globally as has been widely thought, says a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) surveying the levelized cost of generating electricity (LCOE).  The eighth edition of the report, “Projected Costs of Generating Electricity” compiles data for 181 plants in 19 OECD and […]

The Korea Radioactive Waste Agency (KORAD) on July 13 disposed its first waste in a newly completed low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste disposal facility underground at Gyeongju in North Gyeongsang

Several major nuclear announcements surfaced from around the world this week. South Korea plans to retire its oldest nuclear reactor early, Nigeria selected two sites for the construction of four nuclear reactors, while Pakistan approved the construction of two China-assisted reactors.  KHNP Moves to Retire Kori 1 Early  Amid growing concerns about the safety of […]

NRC Advances Design Certification of Westinghouse SMR, South Korea’s APR1400. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Feb. 27 approved Westinghouse Electric Co.’s testing approach for its small modular reactor (SMR) design—a “significant” step that the Toshiba Corp. company said will reduce the time ultimately needed to obtain design certification. By granting a safety evaluation report […]

Coal has dominated fuel choices in Asia since 2010, even in gas-centric Southeast Asian countries, and many forecasts assume that coal will remain the region’s most economical option. But lower natural gas prices and individual market conditions are putting a dent in coal’s future in the region, some experts note. According to Graham Tyler, Wood […]

Cyberattacks on Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power’s (KHNP’s) computer systems last December were committed by a group of North Korean hackers, an interim South Korean investigation has concluded.  The Seoul central prosecutors office said in a March 16 statement that the malicious codes used for the nuclear operator hacking were “the same in composition and […]

Power plants are, with good reason, almost universally regarded as fixed assets to be operated, maintained, and retired on the spot where they were built. The idea of relocating something as large and

S. Korea Extends Renewables Target Deadline. South Korea’s government on June 9 said it would push back the target for mandatory use of renewable energy by two years to ease requirements for the

Japan and South Korea, countries that depended heavily on nuclear power before the Fukushima catastrophe in 2011 (Figure 3), separately released draft long-term energy plans in December, both placing renewed

South Korea in the past week indicted 100 people—including officials from the state-run nuclear power plant operator—of corruption in a scandal over forged nuclear safety certifications. It is now also considering freezing ambitions to maintain nuclear’s 29% share in its total power mix—which means scrapping a previous goal to increase it to 41% by 2035. The scandal […]