강원풍력발전단지의 에머지 평가

Emery evaluation of the Gangwon Wind Park in Korea

The emergy methodology was applied to the evaluation of Gangwon Wind Park in Pyeongchang, Gangwon-do, Korea, to assess its feasibility and sustainability in the emergy perspective. The wind park is the largest wind power plant in Korea with a capacity of producing 98 MW of electricity with 49 2MW-class wind turbines. Total emergy required to produce 8.01×10¹⁴ J/yr of electricity in 2008 was calculated as 4.21×10¹⁹ sej/yr. The solar transformity of the electricity produced was 5.25 ×10⁴ sej/J. The emergy yield ratio of the electricity production was calculated as 3.85, indicating that the wind park contributed to the Korean economy 3.85 times the emergy investment for the wind park. The construction and operation of the Gangwon wind park caused little stress to the surrounding environment with the environmental loading ratio of 0.35. The wind park was evaluated as a sustainable system with the emergy sustainability index of 11.0. Even though the wind power plants in Korea are not yet economically feasible without the government subsidy for their electricity sales, the emergy evaluation of the Gangwon Wind Park suggested that wind power could provide a viable option for the Korean alternative energy portfolio in the emergy perspective.