By Kim Hyun-cheol
Staff Reporter
Korea has completed its first tidal power plant on an island in the Southwestern region of the country, as part of an ongoing effort to diversify the country's energy sources.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said Thursday it completed construction on the 12.5-billion-won ($10 million) Uldolmok Plant at Jindo Island, South Jeolla Province, four years after its ground-breaking.
Built completely with domestic technology, the 1,000-kilowatt plant will produce 2.4 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually, enough for over 400 households. Power capacity will be expanded to 90,000 kilowatts by 2013 in the second stage, it said.
Uldolmok is on a 300-meters-wide strait with a maximum water speed of 6.5 meters per second, making it an ideal location for a tidal power plant.
The location is unique geographically but also has special historical significance. Admiral Yi Sun-sin of the Joseon Kingdom defeated 133 enemy warships there with his 12-ship fleet in 1597 during a Japanese invasion.
Another tidal power plant in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province is under construction and will be completed next year. The Sihwa plant in Ansan, near Seoul, will be world's largest plant of its kind, with the ability to generate 254,000 kilowatts per hour using seawater flowing into Shihwa reservoir. Currently the La Rance power plant in France is the biggest with a 200,000-kwh capacity.
Despite being an eco-friendly alternative energy source, tidal power has not yet been well developed. As of 2006, alternative energy accounts for 18 percent of total global energy consumption but tidal power generation takes up less than 1 percent overall.
Following the plant completion, South Jeolla Province plans to develop its southwest coast as the center of tidal power.
``This is a meaningful achievement, in that we completed the construction with our own technology, overcoming lots of difficulties," Governor Park Joon-young said at the plant's opening ceremony. ``The rest of the project will be successful with the know-how accumulated during the first-stage.''