Coal power plant in P'yongan-namdo, North Korea. Approximate location 39.4014, 125.9682.
CoalP'yongan-namdoNorth Korea
Sunchon power station is a 400 MW coal power station in P'yongan-namdo, North Korea. It is operated by Sunchon Power Plant. Based on its capacity (estimated), it can supply roughly 500,571 homes (estimated). It ranks #10 of 31 North Korea power plants by installed capacity. Commissioned in 1984, it is around 42 years old — long-established. In context, coal supplies about 34.1% of North Korea's electricity; the national grid averages 341 gCO₂/kWh (63.4% low-carbon) (2024).
Plant data: WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0), id WRI1019824.
This facility's annual emissions are roughly equivalent to:
Estimated, not measured: from installed capacity at a typical 50% load factor × a typical coal emission factor (~1000 g CO₂/kWh, IPCC AR5 / US EIA). Actual emissions depend on plant efficiency and running hours.Equivalencies via US EPA Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies.
Installed capacity (MW), WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0).
Operated by Sunchon Power Plant.
This coal plant burns coal to raise high-pressure steam that spins a turbine-generator. It sits in a monsoon hot-summer continental climate (Köppen Dwa) — Northern Hemisphere, latitude 39.4°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 44% 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: 77/100 — this site sits in the top third of the power plants we cover by heating degree-days.
In colder climates, uninsulated hot equipment (boilers, turbines, valves, steam lines) loses proportionally more heat to ambient air — exactly the loss Inzonex modular insulation is designed to cut.
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.
The #7 largest coal power plant of 16 in North Korea by capacity.
North Korea has 16 coal power plants in this dataset, together about 5,403 MW of capacity.
Coordinates 39.4014, 125.9682 from WRI Global Power Plant Database (CC BY 4.0). View on OpenStreetMap.
