Hydrothermal energy will be supplied to the World Trade Center in Samseong-dong, Seoul. It will be part of efforts to convert commercial districts along the Han River area into low-energy consumption areas.
K-water held a groundbreaking ceremony for a hydrothermal energy project for the World Trade Center at COEX in Samseong-dong, Seoul, on July 30.
The project calls for 7,000RT of hydrothermal energy, the most in Korea in one building, for the Trade Tower, COEX and ASEM Tower. The energy has an effect of replacing about 7,000 air conditioning units.
Hydrothermal energy is a high-efficiency, eco-friendly energy resource used for heating and cooling, since water temperatures are lower than the atmosphere in summer and higher in winter.
It is a renewable energy that contributes to advancing the construction of RE100 industrial complexes and transitioning to a low-energy consumption structure.
Hydrothermal energy can solve problems, such as fire prevention, and noise reduction.
It also has the benefit of supplying energy using the existing metropolitan water network, and does not require power transmission lines.
In 2004, K-water proved out the application of 3,000RT of hydrothermal energy for Lotte World Tower, Korea’s first commercial facility to do so, and it subsequently lowered energy consumption by 32.6 percent.
With the launch of the project, efforts to build a “hydrothermal energy expressway” among the Gangnam-gu and Songpa-gu areas, along the Han River, is set to get into full gear.
K-water plans to transition to a renewable energy center by expanding the supply of a combined 18,660RT of hydrothermal energy to neighboring structures, such as Hyundai Motor’s Global Business Complex, the integrated transfer center along the Yeongdong Boulevard and Jamsil Sports Complex.
Hydrothermal energy is expected to contribute to lowering the power load of the Seoul metropolitan area with a low energy-sufficiency rate.
Korea has a potential of about 2.84 million RT (10GW) of hydrothermal energy, according to an analysis. K-water has so far developed about 43,000RT, accounting for approximately 1.5%of the potential hydrothermal energy.
The Ministry of Environment plans to raise the supply of hydrothermal energy to 284,000RT by 2030to support the supply of renewable energy.
The hydrothermal energy is equivalent to a nuclear power plant with a power generation capacity of 1GW.
It is expected to save up to 450GWh of energy consumption annually, which is equivalent to the power generation of the Sihwa Tidal Power Plant supplying power to about 510,000 people.
K-water President Yun Seog-dae said, “As the necessity of urban energy consumption structure and decarbonization transition is on the rise, amid the arrival of energy demand peak, caused by the recent scorching heat spell, hydrothermal energy is a realistic solution to achieve carbon neutrality and the building of RE100 industrial complexes, and we will suggest a sustainable model that raises energy efficiency through hydrothermal energy and reduces greenhouse gas emissions based on the World Trade Center project, and builds a renewable energy expressway along with the government.”
Another New Milestone for K-water
K-water became the first public entity in Korea to carry out a task in the carbon neutrality sector, among land and transportation sector partnership programs in connection with the Horizon Europe.
The Horizon Europe is the EU’s multibillion research and innovation program in which EU and research institutes, global companies and universities participate in a joint international research platform to tackle global challenges, such as climate change, energy transition and smart cities.
The task, a clean energy integration task in the architecture environment, calls for changing structures into an energy self-sufficiency space in which power is produced, stored and shared with surrounding areas.
Photovoltaic power farms produce power, stores it and shares the leftovers with other structures.
It is expected to contribute to stabilizing the national power grid by easing the centralized power demand and preventing power shortage.
A proposal was recently approved by the EU’s secretariat. Prominent European energy universities, including the University of Southern Denmark of Denmark, the Royal Institute of Technology of Sweden), Porto Polytechnic of Portugal, and the Politecnico di Torino of Italy), are cooperating. Dong-A University from Korea is also joining in the project.
The project is scheduled to progress for three years, starting in 2026. K-water is charged with the development and verification of the Building Energy Management System (BEMS) platform based on digital twin and AI.
The related technologies will be verified at the Smart Village in Eco Delta City in Gangseo-gu, Busan. Occupants have lived in the 21,035-square meter Smart Village, built by K-water, since December 2021.
It is outfitted with a variety of technologies, such as photovoltaic power generation, an energy storage system, and a smart leakage detection system. K-water is operating a “living lab”, designed to help occupants experiment and verify technologies during their life.
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