Korean battery makers showcase advanced ESS in Munich

[Photo by Chu Dong-hun]

South Korean battery makers unveiled new energy storage systems (ESS) at 2024 InterBattery Europe, which is currently taking place in Munich from June 19th, 2024. The battery industry is seeking to diversify its portfolio with ESS as growth slows down due to weak demand and is targeting the European market, where demand for the product is rising due to decarbonization policies and increasing energy prices.

LG Energy Solution Ltd is targeting the European market with two new ESS products for residential and grid applications and the company’s Enblock E, a residential ESS product featuring lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, debuted at the exhibition. It is equipped with the JF1 battery pack, known for its high energy density and cost-effectiveness, and has a modular design that allows for easy assembly and disassembly as well as a capacity expansion of up to 15.5 kilowatt-hour. It can be pre-assembled and installed indoors or outdoors in just 15 minutes.

LG Energy Solution also showcased the New Modularized Solutions, a grid ESS product using high-capacity LFP cells, JF2, for the first time. This product emphasizes safety and comes with fire prevention features due to its high capacity.

For its part, Samsung SDI Co. revealed the Samsung Battery Box (SBB) 1.5, an upgraded ESS product with high-nickel nickel cobalt aluminum (NCA) battery cells and modules. This box-type solution, which can be used immediately when connected to the grid, offers a total capacity of 5.26 megawatt-hour by efficiently using internal space to load more batteries and can reduce installation space by connecting four containers together. Samsung SDI also announced a two-track strategy to penetrate the ESS market by adding LFP batteries to the existing NCA batteries starting in 2026.

According to BloombergNEF, the European ESS market is expected to expand about sixfold, from 13.7 gigawatt-hour in 2023 to 76.6 gigawatt-hour by 2030. For Korean battery companies struggling with the sluggish electric vehicle market, targeting the ESS market is essential.

Battery material companies such as EcoPro Co. and Lotte Energy Materials Corp., who are participating in InterBattery Europe for the first time in 2024, are also accelerating their efforts to tap the European market.

The 2024 InterBattery Europe continues through Friday.