National Growth Fund invests in Korea’s largest solar power plant and semiconductor value chain

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Jiyeon Kim = On the 29th, financial authorities approved a 1 trillion won project, including expansion of solar power generation infrastructure and semiconductor front-end process facilities, through the National Growth Fund.

The Financial Services Commission announced on this day that it approved financial support for four cases, including this one, at the National Growth Fund Fund Management Council.

The solar power generation infrastructure project involves building Korea's largest solar power plant with a capacity of 400 MW (megawatts) in Haenam, Jeollanam-do and operating it for 20 years.

Of the total project scale of KRW 684.6 billion, the Advanced Strategic Industry Fund will provide KRW 100 billion through project financing (PF) loans, and private financial institutions and power companies will cover KRW 584.6 billion.

The Financial Services Commission said that this project is “expected to contribute to achieving the government’s carbon neutrality goal and play a leading role in energy transition.”

The generated electricity is sold to Korea South-East Power Company for 20 years, and Korea South-East Power Company sells this power to high-tech companies engaged in the semiconductor industry.

The Financial Services Commission expected that the long-term contract would contribute to easing the burden of greenhouse gas emissions rights for semiconductor companies and achieving RE100 (only electricity generated from renewable energy must be used).

A 140 billion won loan was also approved to support the expansion of semiconductor front-end process equipment facilities by PSK [319660], a leading domestic semiconductor front-end process equipment manufacturer with the largest market share in the world.

The Financial Services Commission said, "Through this investment, the company is expected to secure leadership in the global semiconductor equipment market and strengthen the foundation of the domestic semiconductor equipment industry by securing supply stability."

In addition, it was also decided to provide a loan of 170 billion won to support the development of Green Cross' next-generation blood products and a loan of 50 billion won to support the construction of a Hana Micron System semiconductor test plant.

The four agenda items approved this time were first discussed by the newly established Risk Management Committee last month.

The Financial Services Commission said it had approved a total of 22.3 trillion won in financial support, including the formation of indirect investment funds, by the end of this month, and predicted that it would quickly achieve this year's approval target of 30 trillion won for the National Growth Fund.