South Korea plans to invest 49 trillion won ($42.6 billion) on power generation, including 14 nuclear power plants, by 2024 in a bid to meet growing power demand, the government said on Tuesday.

Total power consumption is forecast to grow 1.9 per cent each year on average until 2024, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said in a statement.

The world's fifth-largest importer of oil and one of the  world's fastest-growing carbon polluters says its dependency  on fossil fuels will slow gradually while investment in  cleaner energy will rise quickly.

South Korea is expected to generate a third of its electricity from nuclear energy in 2024, compared to 25 per cent this year, according to the statement.

"A large gain in the portion of nuclear energy as of power output in 2024 is expected to contribute to a low-carbon, high-efficiency consumption structure," the statement said. – Reuters