South Korea will idle up to 28 of its coal-fired power plants in March, scaling up the country’s ongoing efforts to curb air pollution, the Energy Ministry said on Sunday.
South Korea has implemented temporary shutdowns of the country’s coal-fired power plants that are more than 30 years old since 2017.
Four old coal-fired power plants, up to 16 plants for planned maintenance and up to eight other plants are subject to the shutdown in March, the ministry said in a statement.
South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, has about 60 coal-fired power plants, generating around 40% of the country’s electricity.
The ministry also said it will cap the remaining coal-fired power plants’ operations at 80%.