South Korean battery maker SK Innovation has secured a deal to supply a 1MW lithium-ion battery storage system for a microgrid pilot project, led by Frauenhofer-Institut, in Magdeburg, Germany.
The 1MW battery has a capacity of 0.5MWh. It is SK’s first export of its energy storage system (ESS) since the company entered business in 2010.
The microgrid project, initiated by research organisation Fraunhofer, will use the ESS to research the integration of energy storage to smart grids, viable energy supply and advanced ESS systems. According to Fraunhofer, SK’s battery is one of the biggest deployed battery storages in Germany.
“If you follow the German goal to achieve 80% of power from renewables by 2050, then we need to have more storage capacity. The capacity could easily be ten times higher than the one we have today,” said Herman Josef Wagner, professor for energy systems at Fraunhofer.
Demand for ESS is growing as the device is environment-friendly and leads to less pollution, according to SK. “We will work together with Fraunhofer in research and development in order to accelerate our inroads into new ESS markets like Europe,” said Chan-yul Lee, head of new business development at SK.
SK is competing in the ESS market against LG Chem and Samsung SDI.
At the signing ceremony in Magdeburg, regional Saxony-Anhalt Minister of Economics Hartmut Möllring said: “Saxony-Anhalt is the German state with the largest foreign direct investments in the renewable energy sector. We are assuming a leading position nationally in the development of smart energy supply with renewable energies. The state government will be supporting that with specific funding in the future, too.”
