2 weeks Ago By [email protected](KoreaTimes)
Gaoncell Managing Director Jang Ha-nyung speaks during the eighth Future Investment Initiative (FII) Conference's session on local strategies for energy transition at King Abdulaziz International Conference Center in Saudi Arabia's capital city of Riyadh, Tuesday (local time). Courtesy of FII Institute Gaoncell underlines stable storage of renewables at FII Conference By Park Jae-hyuk RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Gaoncell, a Korean medium-sized enterprise developing fuel cells in Wanju County, North Jeolla Province, gained an opportunity to propose ways for a successful energy transition at the world’s second-largest CEO and government summit in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh, Tuesday (local time). After attracting the kingdom’s investors with the company’s direct methanol fuel cell system, Gaoncell sent Managing Director Jang Ha-nyung, who oversees its international business, to the eighth Future Investment Initiative Conference to join one of the panels to discuss strategies for ensuring a smooth transition to clean energy.
Jang mentioned Korea’s natural environment is not favorable regarding the use of renewable energies, in order to emphasize the necessity of looking at the entire value chain, which involves energy production as well as infrastructure, grid stability and storage systems. “Denmark and the Netherlands have been blessed with so much solar and wind power,” the managing director said. “Once you have that blessed resources, you need to be able to store it in a stable long-term way.
” Gaoncell was set to help Saudi Arabia distribute and transport renewable energy. Last December, the fuel cell developer became one of the Korean companies to sign contracts with Saudi Arabia’s Royal Commission of Jazan to build the Saudi-Korean Industrial Village (SKIV). The Middle Eastern nation plans to invest approximately $1 billion in Gaoncell, making it the largest investment among all participants in the SKIV project.
“We make methanol fuel cells, and we deploy them to where the local power demand is located,” Jang said. “That’s another way of looking at local strategies.” He urged the use of his company’s technology, so as to transform the world now.
Other panelists in the discussion were CEO Sylvie Jehanno of Dalkia, a subsidiary of the French government-owned electric utility company, as well as Managing Partner Tilleard Matt of CrossBoundary Group, which funds underserved markets, and Olivia Wassenaar, head of sustainability and infrastructure at Apollo Management, which finances decarbonization. The participants also talked about the possibility of workers in traditional energy sectors losing their jobs. Although they acknowledged that the energy transition could be a double-edged sword, they agreed that the problem of job insecurity can be addressed through the retraining of workers and the creation of new jobs in the renewable energy sector.
Additionally, public-private partnerships were mentioned as a critical factor for a successful energy transition..
