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 capacity of 21.5 gigawatt-hours, the biggest scale in the US.

“After completion, the two plants will generate 2,600 jobs in Georgia by 2024. Also, around 1,000 jobs will be created as early as next year,” an SK Innovation official said.

Last year, SKBA was financed with $220 million of green capital. In June, SKBA raised additional funds of $450 million through syndicated green loans. Combined, the $670 million investment is the largest one funded with green capital ever in the state of Georgia, according to SK Innovation.

The Korean firm is also building plants in Hungary‘s Komarom, and China’s Changzhou and Yancheng, also set for completion in 2023. New factories, including the Georgia plants, will bring SK Innovation’s production capacity up to 85 gigawatt-hours. The company plans to increase the capacity to 100 gigawatt-hours by 2025.

By Kim Byung-wook (kbw@heraldcorp.com)