Kia moves closer to net zero with record renewable energy deal

Kia's solar power generator in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi. [KIA]

Kia, Korea's second-largest carmaker, signed the country's biggest renewable energy deal with Hyundai Engineering & Construction, moving a step closer to achieving 100 percent net-zero emissions by 2040.

Under the power purchase agreement (PPA), the carmaker will secure 250 gigawatt-hours of renewable energy from Hyundai Engineering for a year.

Kia said this will constitute up to 31 percent of the total energy consumption in the country's automobile plants, equivalent to charging around 2.5 million EV9s annually.

With the deal, Kia is expected to exceed the RE100 initiative's recommended level of 60 percent renewable energy use by 2030. It set a goal of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2040.

Kia also said it plans to bolster its carbon-neutral production policy by constructing 61.6-megawatt solar power generators at local and overseas production facilities to produce up to 86 gigawatt-hours of energy annually.

It currently has a 4.2-megawatt solar plant in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, and another 1.6-megawatt plant in India.

RE100, which stands for Renewable Energy 100 percent, was started in 2014 by The Climate Group in partnership with the Carbon Disclosure Project. Its goal is to encourage global corporations to use only renewable electricity by 2050. Some 400 corporations worldwide have joined the campaign, including Apple, Google, Microsoft and General Motors.

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]