South Korea’s government has given its approval to plans for a 2.1 GW floating solar power plant near Saemangeum.
The proposed facility would cover 30 km2 of Saemangeum Lake, located in an area of reclaimed land on Korea’s west coast. If built, it would be 14 times larger than the world’s largest floating solar farm, a 150 MW plant in Huainan, China, according to Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE).
The Saemangeum floating solar plant would consist of over five million solar modules and require around $3.9 billion of private investment. It would also stimulate Korea’s domestic solar power industry and create over one million jobs, MOTIE said.
The project is part of plans in Korea to expand its renewable energy capacity by adding 31 GW of solar PV and 16.5 GW of wind energy by 2030.
Construction work on the solar farm is expected to start at the end of 2020.
