Self-sufficient Zero Energy Expressways
Korea Expressway Corporation will produce all the electrical power needed to manage and operate expressways itself in new renewable energy, including solar and hydrogen power, by 2025. It means that the company will achieve 100 percent of the energy self-reliance rate for expressways.
Korea Expressway announced on April 13 that it plans to turn current expressways into self-sufficient zero energy expressways by 2025 by producing new renewable energy with expressways and affiliated facilities. To this end, the company will diversify solar power generating facilities sites and generate energy using fuel cells and win power.
Korea Expressway currently produces 41.5 MW of new renewable energy per hour by installing solar power generating equipment in 80 sites, including abandoned expressways, mounding areas near expressways and parking lots at expressway rest areas. It is enough to supply power to 60,000 people, about 40 percent of the population in Gimcheon City.
Korea Expressway plans to expand its installation sites to road facilities and rooftops and roofs of buildings, such as offices, tunnel administration buildings and snow-removal storages, in the future. In particular, the company will install and operate the solar power generator of 2.5 MWh on the top of the Gwanggyo soundproof tunnel at the Yeongdong Expressway as part of its pilot project in the second half of this year.
It will also install fuel cell power equipment in rest areas and greenbelt zones in interchanges. After conducting a feasibility study, Korea Expressway plans to expand generators by phase depending on the result. The company will also produce wind power energy in the long term considering changes in the new renewable energy market.
Based on it, the company is planning to increase the annual production of new renewable energy by more than 8 times from 55.2GWh last year, which accounted for 14 percent of the energy used, to 438.8 GWh in 2025, 100 percent of required electricity.