It was confirmed that SK Innovation developed a technology to block the spread of ESS fires for the first time in Korea amid growing anxiety regarding energy storage systems (ESS) using rechargeable batteries due to a series of fire accidents. As domestic battery makers secure core technologies to expand the ESS market, expectations are growing that the efficiency of new and renewable energy and distributed power generation will increase.
According to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the business community on the 19th, SK On, a battery subsidiary in which SK Innovation has a 100% stake, recently succeeded in an ESS fire prevention experiment and secured related technology. A senior government official familiar with the battery industry said, “SK Innovation has developed a technology that prevents the fire from spreading to other devices even if a battery or ESS catches fire for the first time in Korea. It is important to raise the level of fire, and fire prevention technology is the key step for this.”
Regarding this, an SK On official said, “We have recently completed the development of an ESS product that blocks the inflow of oxygen and prevents the spread of fire. An official from this official explained, “We have applied for a patent in Korea and abroad at the end of last year regarding fire prevention technology.
In general, when an ESS fires, it takes 30 seconds to 5 minutes for the fire to spread from the battery cell (cell) in question to the adjacent cell. SK On applied thermal barrier packaging technology to fundamentally prevent the spread of fire. The key is to block the air, which is the main factor of combustion, and to prevent diffusion by blocking the cell in the form of a partition wall. This is the first time such a technology attempt has been made in Korea. In the past, domestic battery makers responded by installing fire extinguishing fluid or a device that sprays water (water injection device) when a battery caught fire.
As a result of SK On’s own experiments by applying the new technology, it was reported that only one cell on fire burned for 1 to 2 hours, and the rest of the cells operated normally without voltage abnormalities.
The energy industry is paying attention to the fact that it is possible to bundle ESS in large quantities with new fire prevention technology. It is predicted that the distributed power generation market, which stores and uses energy, will greatly expand. Until now, the metropolitan area, which has a high demand for electricity, has mainly used electricity generated from nuclear power plants near the coast. The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy analyzed that if distributed power generation spreads, 251.5 trillion won worth of production and 167,000 jobs might be created through the construction of power generation facilities.
It is fire accidents that block the rapidly growing ESS industry. Since 2017, there have been 34 ESS fires in Korea alone. LG Energy Solution, which implemented a voluntary recall at an expense of 400 billion won due to the recent ESS fire, is also making various technological attempts to prevent the spread of fire.
Various safety devices (module fuses and surge protectors) were installed to protect the battery from external electric shock, and a device to prevent fire by shutting off the power in case of an insulation problem was also added.
Major battery makers are struggling to prevent fire in order to capture the rapidly growing global ESS market. According to SNE Research, a market research company, the global ESS market is expected to grow rapidly at a CAGR of 43% from 11.1 gigawatt hours (GWh) in 2019 to 94.2 GWh in 2025.
Bloomberg NEF, a market research firm specializing in energy, also analyzed that the global ESS market will grow to 358 GWh in 2030 with an average annual growth of more than 37% between 2019 and 2030.
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▷Energy Storage System (ESS): A device that stores electricity produced by solar power or wind power using lithium-ion batteries or lead-acid batteries, and supplies it to an external power grid when needed.
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