S Korea’s LG Chem starts push for renewable energy across worksites

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–South Korean producer LG Chem will fully run its Yeosu nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) plant, along with its Osan Tech Centre, on renewable energy this year.

The company is procuring an annual 120 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of renewable energy through the Korean RE100 (Renewable Energy 100) system called “Green Premium” Program.

“120GWh is enough electricity for about 28,000 households to use for an entire year,” it said on Tuesday.

The move is in line with the company’s target of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. It is starting a campaign to use 100% renewable energy across its workplaces around the world, LG Chem said.

The South Korean firm “will have a total of three workplaces that will achieve RE100 this year when including the Wuxi cathode plant in China that concluded a renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) last year,” it added.

“The RE100 converts 100% of the electricity used by companies into Renewable Energy, which replaces petroleum fossil fuels such as solar and wind power,” it said.

“Green premium is a system that allows electricity consumers to issue a ‘confirmation on the use of renewable energy’ and use it for RE100 certification if they pay green premium to KEPCO [Korea Electric Power Co],” LG Chem said.