Minister Kim: Power and water infrastructure for 2 Honam semiconductor fabs to be ready by end of 2029

The government said it will build the power and water infrastructure needed to operate at least two of the four planned semiconductor fabrication plants at the Honam semiconductor cluster by the end of 2029. The announcement marks a concrete step toward addressing what has long been considered the biggest challenge facing the semiconductor complex planned for the site of a relocated military airfield in Gwangju.

Minister of Climate, Environment and Energy Kim Sung-hwan said Friday on CBS Radio's "Park Sung-tae's News Show" that supplying power to the Honam semiconductor cluster would require a new 345-kilovolt transmission line extending from the Hanbit nuclear power plant to the Nam-Gwangju substation and on to the military airfield site. He said the government has already reviewed potential routes and plans to move forward with the project after consulting with the companies involved.

Kim said building a new 345-kV transmission network typically takes five to 10 years, but the government plans to install a substation at the airfield site and complete the transmission connection by the end of 2029 — enough to supply power and water for at least one fab each from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. He added that the timeline does not appear to pose a major obstacle under the current plan.

The government's position is that the cluster's power demand can be met primarily through existing generation capacity and renewable energy. Kim said experts assess that the six Hanbit nuclear reactors in Yeonggwang, the region's abundant renewable energy resources and power generation facilities in the Yeosu area would be sufficient to supply electricity for the four planned fabs.

Kim said the government is also factoring in the possibility of additional fabs being built in the area. He said the military airfield site in Gwangju spans about 8.26 million square meters — large enough to accommodate not just four fabs but potentially double that number. However, when asked whether the government was already in talks with companies about building additional fabs, he drew a line, saying, "We are not at that stage yet."

Kim said the concern is one of timing: while a semiconductor fab can be built in two to three years from groundbreaking to completion, supplying power and water takes longer, raising the question of how to prepare sufficient electricity capacity in advance to meet long-term demand.

He added that the 15-year Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand, which projects national power demand through 2040, must address how much more renewable energy to add and whether additional nuclear capacity will be needed — tasks he described as key challenges for the 12th edition of the plan.

On the intermittency of renewable sources such as solar power, Kim cited TSMC in Taiwan as an example, saying solar and wind power complement each other across day and night hours, with battery storage systems filling the gap in between. He said the goal is to deliver a stable, round-the-clock power supply.

Kim also reaffirmed that water supply for semiconductor manufacturing processes would not be a problem.

He said the four semiconductor fabs would require 650,000 tons of water, while eight dams on the Seomjin and Yeongsan rivers hold about 1.5 billion tons in storage. He said that beyond water for residential, agricultural and industrial use in the Yeosu and Gwangyang areas, careful management of that volume would be sufficient to supply the four fabs.

Rather than building new dams or weirs, the government plans to raise the water level at Dongbok Dam to supply the 650,000 tons needed for the four fabs while minimizing environmental impact.