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Sihwa Tidal Barrage Power Plant
Sihwa Lake is a 43.8 km2 artificial lake constructed as a land reclamation project by the South Korean Government in 1994, using a 12.7 km long seawall at Gyeonggi Bay. It was created to provide reclaimed land for the nearby metropolitan area, flood mitigation and secure irrigation water by converting the coastal reservoir to fresh water. However, once the seawall was closed and the natural tidal currents were cut off, water quality deteriorated. This was due to a combination of factors, including low natural freshwater inflows and the increase of wastewater from the industrial complexes.
In 2011, the Korea Water Resource Corporation installed a tidal power plant which, in addition to generating power from the tidal ranges of the western coast, would distribute sea water and save the dying Gyeonggi Bay. With an installed power output capacity of 254 MW, the Sihwa Tidal Barrage Power Plant currently has the largest tidal plant capacity in the world. The Sihwa Tidal Barrage Power Plant boosts South Korea's energy self-sufficiency by supplying power for a population of 500,000, cutting down petroleum imports by 862,000 barrels per year, and reducing the generation of CO2 by 315,000 tons per year.
The Sihwa power plant generates one-way power twice a day at high tide using ten 25.4 M submerged bulb turbines. The sluice gates are closed as the tide comes in which isolates the reservoir at its lowest level. When the tide is high, water then flows from the West Sea to Sihwa lake via the ten turbines, generating electricity.
Technical details:
- 10 turbine/generator units
- Runner diameter 7.5 m
- Turbine Output 25.4 MW
- Generator Output 26.8 MVA
- Rated speed 64.3 rpm
- Rated head 5.82 m
- Rated discharge 482.1 m³/s
- Rated voltage 10.2 kV
- Rated current 1515 A
- Annual energy production ~ 550 GWh.
tethys.pnnl.gov
Additional Information
Project Status
Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?
Active
Project Life Cycle
Project Progress through life cycle:
- Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment
- Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active
- Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water
- Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations
- Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water
Operational
Max Rated Power Capacity
The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.
254 MW
Operational Start Year
August 2011
Project Start Year
2007
Energy Resource
- Tidal
Project Scale
Full-scale
Number of Devices
10
Grid Connectivity
Not Grid Connected
Waterbody
Sihwa Lake
Site Characteristics
Geographic characterization for the project location:
- Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land
- Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary
- Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water
- Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land
- River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water
Enclosed Bay
Country
South Korea
Last Modified
9 June 2025
Citation Formats
“Sihwa Tidal Barrage Power Plant.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Sihwa_Tidal_Barrage_Power_Plant. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.
Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Sihwa Tidal Barrage Power Plant." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Sihwa_Tidal_Barrage_Power_Plant.
