| Abstract |
Geothermal utilization in Korea showed remarkable increase in the recent 10 years, especially in geothermal heat pump (GHP), which is mainly due to strong governmental supports including various subsidy programs, R&D expenditures, mandatory public new and renewable energy use act, flat electricity charge rates, etc. Total installed capacity for direct use is estimated to be 551.7MWt at the end of 2012, most of which is for GHP installation followed by hot spring usage. GHP installation in Korea has increased more than 50% annually for the last five years and total installed capacity exceeded 500 MWt in 2012. This rapid increase was possible thanks to active government support programs and legislation and we expect it will continue to increase at least for the next five years. As for deep geothermal resources, although Korea does not have high-enthalpy geothermal resources from volcanic sources, it still has huge amount of geothermal resources at depth. An EGS potential assessment was made following a recently announced protocol in 2010. Theoretical potential for EGS power generation in the depth range 3-10 km was estimated 6,975 GWe which is 92 times of total power generation capacity. Technical potential considering depth limit, land accessibility, recovery factor and temperature drawdown factor reaches 19.6 GWe. Increasing interests in geothermal power generation has resulted in launching the first EGS pilot plant project at the end of 2010. Geothermal power generation is going to be realized within five years by EGS technology. National technological roadmap (TRM) aims to achieve 200 MWe install capacity by 2030. R&D programs according to the national geothermal TRM will support the technical background for nationwide deployment of GHP and EGS systems. |