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 would be supplying 13,000 battery modules for an energy storage system (ESS) being built for Hawaii’s massive solar energy storage project.
he 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.
Samsung SDI did not disclose the value of the contract.
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.