20 MW fuel cell park for South Korea

Fuel cell technology is being used at a large scale in South Korea, where construction has commenced on a 20 MW fuel cell park in Seoul. Power from the FuelCell Energy facility will be sold to Korean Power Exchange (KPX) and the heat captured and sold to Korea District Heating Company – the largest heat supplier in South Korea. 

The park will be owned by Noeul Green Energy, and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2016. Together with South Korean energy provider POSCO Energy, FuelCell Energy already operates over 20 fuel cell sites in South Korea with over 150 MW of capacity.

Fuel cell plants are a popular choice of energy production in South Korea. They are a good fit for South Korea’s high-density urban cities and urban parks due to their low land requirements, and utilise a relatively small proportion of land in order to generate clean power for a total of around 43,000 Korean households, and heat for some 9,000 households.

In 2014, the Seoul Metropolitan Government launched its Sustainable Energy Action Plan which promotes efficient, low carbon and decentralised energy production. There is currently a fuel cell project pipeline in South Korea of 400 MW.