The Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water) is building a water-source energy convergence cluster on an 816,000-square-meter site in Jinae-ri, Dong-myeon, Chuncheon, Gangwon State, and plans to supply water-source energy to data centers and other tenants there. Water-source energy is a renewable energy that exploits the fact that water is cooler than the air in summer and relatively warmer in winter, converting the heat in water through heat pumps for cooling and heating. A K-water official said the technology "is regarded as an eco-friendly energy source that can address the enormous power and cooling demands of data centers, so we plan to keep increasing its share of our business."
K-water said on the 30th that it plans to expand its water-source energy capacity, which stood at 50.5 megawatts across 45 sites in the first half of this year, to 1 gigawatt by 2030.
The utility is focusing on water-source energy because the number of data centers is expected to rise sharply with the spread of artificial intelligence. A single data center uses an average of 25 gigawatt-hours of electricity a year, and 30% of that goes to cooling. Cutting the power consumed by cooling itself is critical. Water-source energy is estimated to save roughly 30% to 70% of the energy used by conventional gas- and electricity-based heating and cooling systems, making it a preferred option for data centers. K-water said it "holds nationwide water infrastructure including dams, rivers and wide-area waterworks, which makes it easy to expand the water-source energy business."
K-water plans to supply water-source energy not only to the Chuncheon convergence cluster but also to a data center complex near Daecheong Dam in North Chungcheong Province. Following the Trade Center in Samseong-dong, Seoul, it plans to apply the technology to public and commercial facilities including the Yeongdong-daero underground transit center and Hyundai Motor's Global Business Center. It recently extended the business to apartment complexes in Hanam Gyosan, one of the third-phase new towns.
K-water also plans to further expand energy businesses that use water. Floating solar power, currently operating at seven sites with 105 megawatts of capacity, will be expanded to 5.6 gigawatts by 2030. Floating solar has the advantages of easier site acquisition than land-based solar and more efficient use of the power grid through cross-transmission linked to existing hydroelectric plant facilities.
The company also plans to expand tidal power, which uses the difference between high and low tides, to 0.58 gigawatts and pumped-storage power, which generates electricity using the drop in water levels, to 1.55 gigawatts by 2030.
A K-water official stressed that the company "will move beyond traditional water management and expand water-based renewable energy to establish itself as a state-owned enterprise leading the great energy transition."
