Workers at Doosan Enerbility’s casting and forging plant in Changwon, South Korea, manufacture components for NuScale Power’s small modular reactor (SMR) in May 2023./Doosan Enerbility
South Korea finalized its 11th Basic Plan for Long-Term Electricity Supply and Demand on Feb. 19, outlining energy supply and generation strategies for 2024 through 2038. Released every two years, the plan serves as a 15-year roadmap for the country’s energy development.
Initially slated for approval in 2024, the plan faced delays due to political disputes over new nuclear power plant construction. The draft, unveiled in May 2024, proposed building new reactors—the first since the seventh plan in 2015—but met resistance from opposition parties. A compromise was eventually reached, reducing the number of large-scale reactors by one while boosting solar capacity by 2.4 gigawatts (GW).
The revised plan cleared the National Assembly’s Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee and is set for final approval by the Electric Policy Council on Feb. 21.
Under the new plan, South Korea will build three additional reactors by 2038, raising nuclear power’s share of the energy mix to 35.2%. This includes two large-scale reactors and one small modular reactor (SMR), set to begin operation in the mid-2030s. However, the delayed approval could push the completion of the large reactors to 2039. Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) plans to begin site selection for the two reactors in March.
To offset the canceled reactor, the government will expand solar power capacity by 2.4 GW, bringing the total projected capacity to 77.2 GW by 2038, up from the initial target of 74.8 GW. This will increase renewable energy’s share to 29.2%, while carbon-free energy—including nuclear and renewables—is expected to exceed 70%.
The plan also calls for expanding energy storage system (ESS) capacity by an additional 9 gigawatt-hours (GWh), raising the total to 138 GWh. However, some experts question the feasibility of increasing domestic solar capacity by 50 GW over the next 14 years, given that it stood at just 27 GW as of late 2024.
Source: The Chosun Daily
