POSCO Opens Biggest Fuel Cell Plant
POSCO, Korea's biggest steel maker, started operation today of a plant in the southeastern city of Pohang, also home to its production facilities, that will produce the world's largest fuel cells. Each cell will be capable of generating 50 megawatts of electricity.
50 megawatts is enough to provide 17,000 households with electricity. The plant was built in an alliance with the U.S.-based FuelCell Energy and is double the size of the latter's plant in Connecticut.
A POSCO official said that a total of 120 billion won ($130 million) was spent constructing the plant, with an additional 40 billion won used for research and development. An additional 10 billion won is earmarked for further R&D efforts up to 2012.
A completion ceremony was held Thursday, 11 months after the ground was broken last October.
The POSCO official said that work is under way to develop fuel cell modules that are 20 percent higher in fuel efficiency and 10 percent lower in cost, adding, ``Our alliance with FuelCell will not cover this project.'' He said that the company hopes to attain 200 billion in sales by next September.
The world's fuel cell market is growing by 80 percent per year and is expected to grow into an $80 billion market globally by 2020.
Korea has designated fuel cells and other alternative energy sources as national priority projects and is planning to spend billions of dollars to jack up its energy portfolio to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels.