How we’re
using
the
sun to fight
climate change

1MWh: Powers 2,000 households for 1 hour
(based on avg. power consumption per household in Korea)

1MWh: Powers 2,000 households for 1 hour (based on avg. power consumption per household in Korea)

To increase the use of renewable energy, we’ve installed an 18,919m² solar power plant in a parking garage on our Giheung site, a 1,350m² plant on a parking garage in Hwaseong and another 409m² plant in a roof garden in Hwaseong. We also installed two 6,600m² solar power plants in the P2 parking garage in Pyeongtaek. But that’s not all, we’re also planning to build a parking lot with a solar power plant at our Pyeongtaek site by 2023 that will produce 1 megawatt (MW) of energy — as well as an additional parking lot and solar power plant by 2025.

Installing these solar power facilities means we are able to replace even more energy with solar power. In 2020, our plant in Giheung produced 961 megawatt-hours (MWh) over seven months, the plants in Hwaseong produced 340MWh over 12 months and Pyeongtaek is expected to produce 496MWh from 2021.

That’s a total of 1,797MWh of power. Based on the average amount of power consumed per household, just 1MWh can power 2,000 Korean households for an hour. With 1,797MWh, we can power 3.6 million households for an hour.

Our largest solar power plant with a single phase inverter is on top of the K1 parking garage at our Giheung site and measures a massive 18,919m². That’s 2.3x larger than a football (soccer) field. It generates about 1,900MWh, which is enough energy to power 470 households for one year.

Building the largest solar plant gave us the chance to think about how to promote
eco-friendly behavior and participation in green activities, and we especially wanted to promote this discussion among clients and employees. So we installed a large LED screen at two garage entrances to show how much solar power is generated in real time, using this as a platform to show how green our sites are. And of course, we replaced the LED power with solar power generated from the plants in our parking garages.

The system works by storing solar energy underneath the Earth’s surface, which is later used to heat and cool. In the summer, the geothermal system absorbs indoor heat and moves it underground to cool, and in the winter it absorbs heat from the ground and moves it indoors to heat — ultimately saving energy.

Hwaseong’s geothermal heat pump system not only requires little upkeep, but is also built to last and minimizes greenhouse gases, waste and exhaust gas. It even eliminates noise and vibrations from the cooling tower, making Hwaseong’s working environment even more enjoyable. With this, we will continue expanding the use of renewable energy while reducing our environmental impact.