Enormous Fuel Cell Installation to Power Seoul Subway System

We’ve written about many of the efforts undertaken by Korean companies and individuals to be more green but one thing we can’t always change is how green our energy resources are. POSCO is working to change this on a massive scale.

Photo Credit: FuelCell Energy

In Daegu, one of Korea’s industrial hubs, POSCO Power and FuelCell Energy worked with the Korean government to open a massive fuel cell installation. The facility sits on one acre of land – about the same size as a football field but produces enough clean electricity to power 20,000 Korean homes.

Fuel cells make power from a chemical reaction between a fuel source like hydrogen and oxygen. As those of you who studied chemistry will remember, two parts hydrogen plus one part oxygen equals pure, clean water. H2O.

Photo Credit: FuelCell Energy

Fuel cells are also highly efficient, producing the most power possible from a unit of fuel. Unlike other green sources of energy like wind and solar, they can work day or night, wind or no wind. Beyond that, fuel cell installations can easily be scaled up as demand rises.

The reason why Korea is so focused on perfecting fuel cell technology and bringing the price down is because it is a small country in terms of land mass. Compared to other green energy sources, fuel cells take up relatively little space.

After seeing the success of this partnership at Daegu, the Korean government decided to expand its fuel cell efforts to Seoul. This will be the largest fuel cell installation in the world with an output of 230 megawatts! That, will be enough to replace a nuclear power plant.

The fuel cell project will help make Seoul an even greener city and the electricity will be used to power the subway system, public utilities like water treatment and a number of large buildings.


It will be exciting to see what changes this fuel cell plant will bring to Seoul!