Doosan to Manufacture 70 Power Plants for S. Korea

Samsung C&T Corp., based in Seoul, and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) have partnered with Connecticut’s Doosan (000155.KS) Fuel Cell (Doosan) to develop a massive clean energy project that can power as many as 71,500 Korean homes. Doosan will manufacture and ship 70 fuel cells that will produce 30.8 megawatts (MW) of clean energy and heat, Samsung will serve as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, and KHNP will provide the power to a new residential complex in Busan. (KHNP, Korea’s largest utility, and Busan, Korea’s second largest city, will share ownership of the fuel cells.)
 
“The ‘Busan Green Energy Project’ illustrates how companies can collaborate to create and implement a plan that minimizes harmful greenhouse gas emissions and moderates everyday energy costs,” says Doosan President and CEO Jeff Chung. “We’ve developed the largest urban fuel cell site in Korea and the largest PAFC (phosphoric acid fuel cell) generation project in the world, reinforcing the fact that fuel cells are the premier clean energy alternative in large cities.”
 
All utility companies in South Korea must adhere to a renewable portfolio standard (similar to government mandates in 29 U.S. states), which establish regulations for clean energy integration throughout the country. As such, there is a growing acceptance of fuel cells, which produce power through an electrochemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen with no combustion and near-zero air emissions. Korean utilities are finding that fuel cells are a low land-use, high-energy option compared to traditional renewable solutions, including wind and solar.
 
Doosan will begin shipping PureCell® Model 400 power plants this year and complete the delivery of 70 units by August 2016. When these fuel cells go live by February 2017, Doosan, which already has six projects (35 active fuel cells) in Korea, will be responsible for 105 fuel cells that generate 45 MW of electricity throughout the country.
 
“This project is a landmark agreement for Doosan in terms of size, power output and partnership,” says Chung, who has led Doosan Fuel Cell since the company opened its doors in July 2014. “For the past 15 months, we’ve been investing in our production facility to expand capacity, which allows us to manufacture power plants in a short timeframe. Additionally, the Busan 70 fuel cell installation will be fully scalable. The power plants will be installed on a multi-story structure that will occupy less than one acre in Busan – compared to solar panels requiring over 231 acres to generate the same amount of power.”