Massive hydrogen plant to be built in Incheon by 2024
![Incheon Metropolitan City mayor Park Nam-choon, third from left, and Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Park Ki-young, third from right, attending a ceremony celebrating Incheon as the center of hydrogen economy at the city government office on Wednesday. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2022/03/31/208fb1a1-338d-41b3-bc2f-7eb3bf417ff6.jpg)
Incheon Metropolitan City mayor Park Nam-choon, third from left, and Vice Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Park Ki-young, third from right, attending a ceremony celebrating Incheon as the center of hydrogen economy at the city government office on Wednesday. [MINISTRY OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND ENERGY]
It is part of the government's plan to turn Incheon into Korea's center for the hydrogen economy, including transforming all buses there into hydrogen-powered vehicles.
The Incheon Metropolitan City, SK E&S and Latham, New York's Plug Power, which provides turnkey hydrogen solutions, signed an agreement on Wednesday for building a "Gigafactory," which will produce electrolyzers, green hydrogen and fuel cells within the industrial complex in Incheon.
The products will be sold domestically and overseas.
While the ministry did not offer details about the investment, it noted that if it is followed through according to the agreement, it would be the biggest foreign investment made regarding the hydrogen economy in Korea.
SK E&S and Plug Power in October agreed to establish a joint venture for building the Gigafactory.
SK E&S holds a 51 percent stake in the venture, while Plug Power owns the rest.
SK E&S and SK Inc. bought 9.9 percent Nasdaq-listed Plug Power in January last year for $1.5 billion.
At Wednesday's ceremony, Incheon city announced plans to convert public buses to hydrogen power.
First among roughly 2,000 public buses, 700 will be converted to hydrogen by 2024. All public buses will be running on hydrogen by 2030.
The city will build 13 liquefied hydrogen charging stations exclusively for buses by 2025.
"Hydrogen is a key means of achieving carbon neutrality," said Vice Minister Park Ki-young.
BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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