Coal power plant in Gangwon-do, South Korea. Approximate location 37.4069, 129.1778.
CoalGangwon-doSouth KoreasupercriticalCO₂ modelled
Samcheok Blue power station is a 1,050 MW coal power station in Gangwon-do, South Korea. It is operated by Samcheok Blue Power Co Ltd. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 1.3 million homes (estimated). It ranks #40 of 216 South Korea power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 2024, it is around 2 years old — recently built. Its modelled annual emissions are 3,169,200 t CO₂/yr (Climate TRACE), equivalent to about 739k cars driven for a year. In context, coal supplies about 31.1% of South Korea's electricity; the national grid averages 417 gCO₂/kWh (40.0% low-carbon) (2025).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id CT-5411.
Known, modelled and calculated values are kept separate. Missing fields are shown as unavailable.
The capacity and/or fuel fields on this page include a source-backed provenance label from GEM, an official registry, Wikidata, OSM, or a cross-source match.
capacity: GEM tracker 2026 (location L100000103461); fuel: Climate TRACE source-record fuel
At 1,050 MW, Samcheok Blue power station is well above the median coal plant in South Korea (400 MW). Technically it is described as supercritical. Coal plants burn pulverised coal to raise high-pressure steam for a turbine; they run as baseload but are the most carbon-intensive mainstream source and the first targeted for retirement or efficiency retrofits.
Capacity comparison computed from the WRI Global Power Plant Database; fuel-type context is general engineering background.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies; modelled emissions from Climate TRACE.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Samcheok Blue Power Co Ltd.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 37.4°N — which shapes how much energy it can produce and how its output varies through the year.
Monthly mean temperature
Heating degree-days here run 19% above the median power plant in this dataset — a proxy for how much extra energy heated equipment must replace through its surfaces in winter.
Climate heat-demand index: 60/100 — this site sits in the mid third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
Climate normals: WorldClim 2.1 (1970–2000 monthly normals, 10 arc-min, CC BY 4.0); zone: Köppen-Geiger world climate classification (Kottek et al. 2006, 0.5° grid). Degree-days & heat-demand index computed by PowerAtlas — a modelled heat-demand proxy, not a measured site figure.
For a plant’s outdoor hardware — heat-recovery steam generators (HRSG), expansion joints, valves, flanges and their insulation — the local climate sets how fast unprotected steel and coatings degrade. This site sits in a corrosive environment (estimated ISO 9223 class C4 — High), with humidity / wetness the leading environmental stress.
Higher environmental severity is exactly where protective removable insulation pays back most: a sheltered micro-climate slows corrosion, UV and thermal-cycling damage and extends outdoor hardware service life. This is an indicative site-climate context — not a condition assessment of any specific plant or operator.
Indicative estimate via the ISO 9223:2012 informative method (atmospheric corrosivity from temperature, time-of-wetness and airborne salinity), using WorldClim climate normals, the Köppen-Geiger class and coast distance. Indicative, not a measured corrosion rate.
The #13 largest coal power plant of 34 in South Korea by capacity.
South Korea has 34 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 46,928 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 37.4069, 129.1778 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
Samcheok Blue power station is a 1,050 MW source-record coal power plant in Gangwon-do, South Korea, commissioned in 2024.
Its output is enough to supply roughly 1,314,000 homes (estimated).
Samcheok Blue power station is operated by Samcheok Blue Power Co Ltd.
Samcheok Blue power station has modelled emissions of about 3,169,200 tonnes of CO₂ per year (Climate TRACE).
