LG Chem is taking steps to carry out its pledge to create no more carbon emissions by 2050.

Starting 2021, the company’s cathode material plant in Wuxi, China, will run entirely on reusable energy provided by the local Leyou New Energy Materials, LG Chem said Sunday.

Carbon emissions reduction from the change is expected to be 100,000 tons a year. This has the effect of planting 1.7 million trees every year, the company said.

Leyou New Energy Materials generates reusable energy using wind and solar powers. The Chinese firm will supply LG Chem with 140GWh of reusable energy, annually, which is enough for roughly 30,000 households to live on for a year and more than enough for the Wuxi plant’s operation.

LG Chem said the contract is a Power Purchase Agreement, which is a manner of direct supply from the generator to the plant, at a fixed rate. LG Chem is the first Korean firm in China to adopt PPA.

For the next step, LG Chem is reviewing to apply the same reusable energy solution for its precursor plant in Quzhou, Zhejiang Province in eastern China.

“As both precursor and cathode materials do not incur direct carbon emission in the manufacturing process, merely converting the electricity used in running the plants to sustainable energy will suffice 90 percent of carbon neutrality,” an LG Chem official said.

LG Chem’s precursor and cathode plants on Quzhou and Wuxi supply materials to LG Energy Solution’s Nanjing battery plant for electric vehicles and energy storage system, as well as the plant in Wroclaw, Poland, in Europe for electric vehicles.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)