[ESG Management Era] Investing in US Teal Hydrogen Company... Aiming to Become the World's No.1 Hydrogen Company

Monolith, a US turquoise hydrogen company, Nebraska production facility

SK is overcoming the uncertainties of the COVID-19 era by strengthening ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management. A representative example is the hydrogen business being promoted at the group level. SK Inc., a holding and investment company, invested in Monolith in the United States earlier this month. Monolith is the first company in the world to successfully mass-produce turquoise hydrogen, an eco-friendly hydrogen, and SK is expanding its hydrogen business portfolio through this investment.

Last year, the group established a dedicated organization for hydrogen business promotion and announced a goal to become the world's number one hydrogen company by 2025 by building a value chain covering hydrogen production, distribution, and consumption by consolidating the capabilities of its affiliates. Using by-product hydrogen from SK Incheon Petrochem, SK plans to produce 30,000 tons of liquefied hydrogen starting in 2023 and an additional 250,000 tons of clean hydrogen from 2025. In January, SK E&S invested 1.8 trillion KRW to acquire a 10% stake in Plug Power, a leading hydrogen company in the U.S., becoming its largest shareholder.

SK E&S is accelerating the Saemangeum floating solar power development project. In April, it signed an agreement with the Saemangeum Development Authority to develop a 200 MW floating solar power project and to create a startup cluster and data center. SK E&S unveiled a blueprint to invest 2.1 trillion KRW in this project to transform Saemangeum into a representative carbon-neutral innovation city in Korea. The company currently develops and operates over 2 GW of renewable energy projects domestically and plans to sign long-term renewable energy supply contracts with eight SK affiliates within this year.

Additionally, SK Ecoplant is shifting its portfolio toward environmental businesses such as water treatment and waste disposal by investing 400 billion KRW to acquire four waste treatment companies. SK Telecom has been recognized for its management performance by raising 200 billion KRW through a three-year ESG-linked corporate loan from DBS Group, Singapore's largest bank.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.