Korean battery makers moving to snare leadership in global market

By Jun Ji-hye

Samsung SDI and LG Chem, Korea’s secondary battery makers, are concentrating on taking over and maintaining leadership in the global market by boosting supplies to international companies.

Samsung SDI said Sunday that it would supply 13,000 battery modules for an energy storage system (ESS) being built for Hawaii’s massive solar energy storage project.

The energy storage project on the island of Kaua’i at the end of the Hawaiian chain features 28 megawatts of a sunlight generation system paired with a 100 megawatt-hour lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery system based on Samsung SDI’s modules.

The ESS is designed to store excess solar energy for stable power supply.

For the project, which will provide about 11 percent of the island’s electricity, the Korean company will work with U.S.-based AES Distributed Energy and Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) to supply batteries.

It marks the largest solar and storage project on Kaua’i to date, according to PV Magazine, which specializes in the solar energy and photovoltaic industry.

Samsung SDI did not disclose the value of the contract.

“By providing industry-leading technologies and products that meet the demand of our customers and market, we will contribute to meeting the rapid market demand in Hawaii,” said Fabrice Hudry, vice president of Energy Solution for Samsung SDI.

“We are honored to partner with AES DE and KIUC to establish in the state of Hawaii the largest solar plus energy storage system, providing Kaua’i with more reliable and economical renewable energy.”

In October, Samsung SDI also signed a deal to supply Li-ion batteries for the Younicos and TerraForm Power ESS project in Hawaii. In February last year, the firm supplied 240 megawatt-hour ESS batteries for a project of AES Energy Storage and other ESS firms to establish a power supply grid in California.

For its part, LG Chem will collaborate with Mahindra & Mahindra, an Indian conglomerate and owner of Korean carmaker Ssangyong Motor, in the field of advanced Li-ion battery technology to accelerate the Indian company’s electric vehicle (EV) business.

“Under the aegis of this collaboration, LG Chem will develop a unique cell exclusively for India application and will also supply Li-ion cells based on NMC (nickel-manganese-cobalt) chemistry with high energy density,” Mahindra & Mahindra said in a statement. “These cells will be deployed in the Mahindra and SsangYong range of EVs.”

LG Chem will also design the Li-ion battery modules for Mahindra Electric.

LG Chem’s Executive Vice President Kim Jong-hyeon said his company expected the collaboration to be one of the memorable moments in commercializing EVs in India.

Hemant Sikka, president and chief purchase officer at Mahindra & Mahindra, also said, “The EV revolution is taking the country by storm and at Mahindra we are happy to be at the forefront of this change.

“This association with LG Chem will give Mahindra the requisite access to advanced battery technology and will also enable us to deliver globally competitive products.”