1-trillion-won SK Green Techno Campus is announced

Seven related companies are investing over 1 trillion won ($834.7 million) to build a research and development (R&D) facility centering on electric vehicle battery materials and eco-friendly techniques aimed at curbing carbon emission and generating renewable energy.

The companies are KRX-listed SK Innovation, SK Energy, SK geo centric and SK on, SK E&S, KRX-listed SKC, and SK Materials.

Tentatively named the SK Green Techno Campus, the R&D center will be built in Bucheon, Gyeonggi, in partnership with the Bucheon City government. Ground will be broken in 2025 and construction completed by 2027.

The goal is to coordinate research and development efforts of the companies and achieve synergies in the pursuit of advanced technologies.

The companies and the Bucheon signed a business agreement Monday to establish the facility on 99,000 square meters (1 million square feet) of land in Bucheon Daejang New Town. The actual site has yet to be fixed.

Bucheon will provide support in terms of infrastructure provision and help with the necessary legal and regulatory procedures.

The initiative is intended to pull together resources from the seven companies, accelerate the development of next-generation EV batteries, hydrogen technologies and carbon utilization.

About 3,000 R&D employees from the companies will be relocated to the new facility.

In 2020, SK Holdings, SK Telecom, SK hynix, SKC, SK Siltron, SK Materials, SK Broadband and SK IE Technology applied to join the RE100 initiative, a global campaign to replace electricity generated by fossil fuel with renewable energy.

Held in Bucheon City Hall, the signing ceremony was attended by Bucheon City Mayor Jang Deog-cheon and Lee Seong-jun, head of the SK green R&D center project team.

We expect "to sharpen our competitive edge and achieve net-zero carbon emission" through the project, said Lee.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]