SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, nicknamed ‘ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) Evangelist’, is continuing his ‘green’ stride recently.
This is because Chairman Choi reorganized the business structure centered on the spin-off of the company and future business, and has recently been meeting with global leaders who lead the green energy industry regardless of domestic or overseas.
According to the industry on the 8th, Chairman Chey Tae-won met Andrew J. Marsh, CEO of Plug Power, an American hydrogen energy company, and Jeff Bishop, CEO of Keycapture Energy (KCE), a US grid solution company.
Chairman Choi’s move is a reflection of his long-standing Carbon Neutral (Creating ‘0’ carbon dioxide emissions) management philosophy, which he will speed up and stand tall as an ESG leader.
In order to achieve carbon neutrality in the near future, it is necessary to switch from traditional energies such as oil and coal to green energy. Accordingly, Chairman Choi met with leaders of leading green energy companies who are leading hydrogen energy and grid solutions to find ways to cooperate.
Grid solution is an energy industry that allows the supply of electricity produced by renewable energy to be kept constant.
Renewable energy produced by wind and solar power has high production volatility depending on weather and time of day, so the power grid is unstable. Accordingly, the grid solution is an industry that stably supplies electricity by combining the energy storage system (ESS) of electricity storage facilities with artificial intelligence (AI) technology to solve these problems.
◇ Chairman Choi, ‘Going beyond ‘chemicals’ and fostering ‘green’ as a core business
SK Group, led by Chairman Choi, recently carried out a business restructuring that focuses on eco-friendly technologies such as hydrogen while removing carbon.
Accordingly, SK Innovation, an energy company focused on the oil refining business, recently declared ‘Carbon to Green’ and is changing its business direction.
SK Global Chemical deleted ‘Chemical’ and changed the company name to ‘Geocentric’. This is a passage with the meaning of putting the global environment first and solving environmental protection problems.
Earlier this year, SK Group had its affiliates SK Corp. and SK E&S invest 900 billion won each to jointly take over Plug Power, a US hydrogen company.
SK Energy plans to use part of the proceeds from the sale of gas stations to build charging stations for electric and hydrogen vehicles.
In addition, SK Group is said to have shown interest in acquiring a stake in Korea Electric Vehicle Charging Service, a private electric vehicle charging company of Korea Electric Power Corporation.
This shows the deep change (fundamental innovation) centered on eco-friendly energy that SK Group has been promoting.
◇Meeting with the CEO of a US green energy company one after another to explore the hydrogen ecosystem
The reason that Chairman Choi met with Plug Power CEO Andrew J. Marcy at SK Seorin office building in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the afternoon of the 6th was also based on his plan to establish a global hydrogen ecosystem.
Chairman Choi said, “The hydrogen-related core technology secured by Plug Power and the energy-related infrastructure and network possessed by SK Group are significant in that both Korea and the United States can create synergy in achieving carbon neutrality early. Let’s work together to accelerate our entry into the Asian hydrogen market.”
Regarding this, CEO Masi said, “We have received cooperation proposals from many Asian companies, but we decided to cooperate with SK Group in consideration of the trust and network that SK Group has. replied.
Accordingly, the two companies will build a ‘Giga Factory & Research and Development (R&D) Center’ in the metropolitan area that can mass-produce key hydrogen business facilities such as hydrogen fuel cells and water electrolysis facilities by 2024. It plans to supply water electrolysis facilities and fuel cells produced here not only in Korea but also in the Asian market.
Chairman Choi also met with KCE CEO Jeff Bishop on the 6th to discuss cooperation in the energy solution market. KCE is where SK E&S secured a 95% stake last month.
Chairman Chey said, “In order to accelerate the spread of renewable energy in the future, it is important to secure grid stability, so grid solutions are a key technology that can accelerate Net Zero. We can realize ESG value by growing into a grid solution company.”
SK Group plans to increase future investments based on its battery technology and software capabilities to foster KCE as the No. 1 company in the United States by 2025.
An SK Group official said, “Chairman Choi led the carbon neutrality and SK Group affiliates’ RE100 membership because he judged that ESG management has become a universal value. The will to increase the depth and speed of management.”
Meanwhile, SK Group joined the ‘RE100’ campaign last year for the first time as a domestic company to cover 100% of the company’s electricity with renewable energy. In addition, SK Group recently operated the ‘Carbon Reduction Certification Center’ for the first time in a private company. Through this, SK Group presented a blueprint to transform itself into an eco-friendly group in name and reality.
Reporter Han Hyun-joo, Global Economics, kamsa0912@g-enews.com
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