FROM: Daesung Group

Daesung Group Marks Completion of Solar Power Tower System

[June 29, 2011] Daesung Group held a ceremony marking the completion of South Korea’s first solar power tower system on June 29th in Daegu. 

Daesung Group Chairman Younghoon David Kim, Daegu City Mayor Kim Bum-il, Head of the Office of Energy and Resources of the Ministry of Knowledge Economy Jeong Jae-hoon, President of Daegu City Assembly Doh Yee-hwan, Chairman of the Korea Energy Foundation Kim Ki-choon were some of the distinguished guests who attended the ceremony.

The solar power tower system built by Daesung Group is situated on a 20,300m² area with 450 heliostats two meters in diameter, which reflect solar heat, and a 50m tower equipped with a solar heat absorber and a 200kW power generator.

Daesung Energy, one of Daesung Group’s subsidiaries, began construction of the system in December 2008. Daesung Energy was selected to lead the project (launched by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy to develop renewable energy technologies) along with the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning. Construction budget for this system amounted to a total of 11.65 billion KRW, with 7.15 billion contributed by the government and 4 billion from private investment. The site for the tower was provided by the city. A number of companies and public agencies including DyIC, Nano CMS, Max Tech and the Korea Institute of Energy Research participated in this project.

The beautiful natural environment that surrounds Daegu was selected for the building of the solar power tower system because the area receives little rain and is sunny throughout much of the year. In addition, as the 2013 World Energy Congress will be held in Daegu, it is expected this will be a perfect opportunity to let people not only in Korea but also overseas know about the solar power tower system. Moreover, with the 2013 Congress in mind, Daegu wanted to show the world the prominence of the city as an eco-friendly energy city and thus enthusiastically provided the site for the solar power tower system.

Chairman Kim of Daesung Group stated, “The construction of this solar power system developed to be used solely as a power generating cycle is a major achievement for Korea.” He added, “Looking ahead, we plan to build upon this technology and expand into the worldwide solar thermal power market, including countries such as Mongolia and regions like the Middle East and Africa by utilizing high technology such as sun tracking and high-efficient light concentration.”

The IEA predicts that by 2025 solar power will account for 36 GW in generation capacity worldwide and it is anticipated that over 3 trillion KRW per 1 GW level generation facility will be invested. Thus Daesung Group plans to increase its market share to 1 trillion KRW by 2025. Moreover, a sudden increase in demand for solar power means that there will be competition in the cost of generating one unit of solar power and thermal power.

While solar cells can directly produce electrical energy through the photovoltaic method, solar power takes advantage of reflection. The solar thermal power system produces electrical energy using a reflecting mirror to collect from hundreds to thousands degrees of heat to be used as heating sources for various power generating cycles. As a result, when installing a large-scale system, the photovoltaic method is more economical than a solar power system.

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