Korea Western Power said Monday it will invest 250 billion won ($231.3 million) to construct three fuel cell-based electricity generation facilities. In a recent board meeting, Kowepo, which aims to increase its renewable power generation capacity to 6.1 gigawatts by 2030 from 490 megawatts as of 2019, decided to establish three fuel cell power plants, in Iksan, North Jeolla Province; Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province; and Goryeong, North Gyeongsang Province. The 15-megawatt plant in Iksan will

AfreecaTV streamers reaped donations of worth 41 billion won ($37.6 million) in December, with the highest-earner recording 452 million won, equivalent to an hourly wage of 1.7 million won. According to Poong Today Sunday, which tracks donations made on the country’s most popular online streaming platform, viewers donated more than 380.5 million “star balloons” in total last month. On AfreecaTV, fans can send streamers bundles of star balloons, a digital currency that costs

Starting in 2030, all new buildings in South Korea, public or private, with a gross floor area of 500 square meters or more must be fully energy efficient, generating the power they need from renewable sources such as the sun, wind and water. Part of the country’s grand plan to go carbon neutral by 2050, the zero-energy building rule is widely expected to boost local demand for solar panels for building walls. Next-generation solar cells made from materials called perovskites are dra

SK Innovation said Thursday it will finance 1.09 trillion won ($986 million) to its battery manufacturing plants in Georgia through green bonds. According to the South Korean refinery-to-battery giant, it will guarantee the bonds to be issued by its US subsidiary SK Battery America in January next year. The fund will be used for the US unit‘s two battery plants currently under construction. Scheduled for completion in 2023, the two factories will offer a combined annual production cap

LG Chem has recently purchased a series of new drug technologies from South Korean bio companies, as part of an effort to seek a new growth engine after it split-off of its battery business. The company has signed two technology transfer agreements with local bio firms Medipost and ICM this month, the company said Thursday, with an aim to introduce two global new drugs within 10 years. The technology transferred from Medipost can grow mesenchymal stem cells in large quantities. LG Chem aims t

Residents of South Korea’s first smart community, to be built in the southern port city of Busan, will be selected Thursday in a 148:1 competition, the company behind the project said Wednesday. The state-run Korea Water Resources Corp., also known as K-Water, will hold a drawing at BEXCO convention center to pick the lucky 36 households who will experience the cutting-edge technologies incorporated in prototype smart residences at the Busan Eco Delta City. They will join eighteen househ

Upon the news that Apple will launch a self-driving electric vehicle by 2024, attention quickly shifted to which batteries it will use. Industry watchers predict that the Apple Car is likely to be loaded with LFP (lithium iron phosphate) batteries made by China’s CATL, but local lithium-ion batteries manufacturers, namely LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI, will benefit from the US firm’s entry into the field in the long term. “Apple’s autonomous EV project, also know

SK Materials said Tuesday it has invested $17 million in a US-based startup developing advanced materials that can enhance the energy density of lithium-ion batteries by 50 percent. According to the South Korean manufacturer of special gases and IT materials, the investments, which were made together with US-based venture capital firm OVP Venture Partners, will allow Group14 Technologies to ramp up its pilot production facility and help with the startup’s groundbreaking of a large-scale

Samsung Electronics will join forces with South Korea‘s largest mobile carrier SK Telecom and the country’s top mobile messenger operator Kakao to develop an artificial intelligence platform that alerts users of coronavirus risks in advance. According to the companies Tuesday, a joint research and development group has been formed with an aim to introduce the platform by early next year. The current emergency text alert system, run by the government, offers information of confirm

South Korea’s Ministry of Economy and Finance said Monday it will establish 110 hydrogen charging stations by the first half of next year, as part of its plan to nurture three target industries -- non-system semiconductor, future mobility and bio-health. The plan was unveiled at the first steering meeting for “the innovative growth of big 3 industries,” presided over by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki on Monday, to draw up a comprehensive blueprint to h

South Korean game companies have long been criticized by local media and analysts for failing to gain success beyond Asia. As of end-2018, the Korean game industry’s exports reached $6.4 billion, 70 percent of which was generated in Asia -- 46.5 percent from China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, 14.2 percent from Japan and 10.3 percent from Southeast Asia, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency. Though pundits reduce the success to a regional one, it would be more accurate to say that

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety said Monday it has approved South Korea’s first N95 respirators for use by health professionals and quarantine workers in COVID-19 situations. Current KF94 masks are available for the general public, as they are not medical devices. However, the N95 masks are classified as medical devices, and are only available to medical personnel. “The N95 masks can filter 95 percent of particles of 0.3 micrometers, offering the same safety and function wit

S-Oil will make a foray into hydrogen, fuel cell and recycling businesses as part of its strategy to transform into a total energy-to-chemical company by 2030, it said Sunday. CEO Hussain A. Al-Qahtani unveiled the new growth strategy, dubbed “Vision 2030,” detailing the Korean refinery’s response to the global trend of energy transition and carbon neutrality. To keep in line with South Korean government’s plan to curb carbon emissions, the company laid out an invest

South Korea’s refinery industry is projected to hemorrhage massive losses of over 5 trillion won ($4.5 billion) this year, but it may be nearing the end of a tunnel with the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines, industry sources and experts said Sunday. As the demand for oil shows no sign of immediate recovery in the fourth quarter of this year, due to the prolonged coronavirus outbreak, four major Korean refineries -- SK Innovation, GS Caltex, S-Oil and Hyundai Oilbank -- are widely expected to

Renewable energy will take up nearly 42 percent of South Korea’s power generation capacity by 2034, according to a blueprint for the national energy mix unveiled Tuesday. The final draft of the Ninth Basic Plan for Electricity Supply and Demand for the years 2020-2034, drawn up and released by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, reaffirms President Moon Jae-in’s commitment to move away from nuclear power and toward renewables. While the country’s electricity generat

Doosan GridTech, a US subsidiary of Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction, won a contract worth 100 billion won ($91.3 million) to install energy storage systems (ESS) in Australia, the biggest ESS contract Doosan has ever signed. According to Doosan Heavy on Tuesday, the subsidiary was awarded the contract from private power utility Vena Energy to supply a 150-megawatt-hour ESS in Queensland, Australia by next year. It will be the state’s largest such facility. Equipped with it

South Korean battery foil maker Doosan Solus said Tuesday it has officially changed its name to Solus Advanced Materials after breaking away from Doosan Group on Monday. In a board meeting, directors of the former Doosan company also endorsed the appointment of SkyLake Equity Partners Chairman Chin Dae-jae as its CEO. Along with incumbent CEO Lee Yoon-seok, the company will be run by two independent CEOs. SkyLake, a private equity fund, is Solus Advanced Materials‘ largest shareholder

Hyundai Rotem said Monday its manufacturing plant for machines to extract hydrogen from natural gas will begin full operations starting this month. The locomotive and rolling stock unit of Hyundai Motor Group renovated a part of its existing plant for electrical parts in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, into one that can produce 20 hydrogen extractors per year in response to a growing number of hydrogen charging stations in South Korea. “Twenty hydrogen extractors can generate 4,700 metric

Krafton, which is preparing an initial public offering next year, suffered a hiccup in its newly released massively multiplayer online role-playing game Elyon. Developed by Krafton and published by Kakao Games, Elyon exposed a bug that compromised its in-game economy, triggering a fierce backlash from users as the bug appeared just three days after the game’s release on Thursday. When a user of an attacking squad hunted down a monster at a specific field and picked up an item the mon

When it comes to pricing, luxury fashion and games may not be so different. As long as there are consumers willing to pay extra for a premium experience, it is that perceived value that could determine the price of a product. WeMade’s Mir 4, despite its notorious pay-to-win system, may prove just that in the local gaming industry. With an intricate storyline and superb graphics, the game is simply irresistible to avid players. Launched on Nov. 25 in South Korea by local game developer