Samsung SDI to provide battery modules for Kauai ESS project

Samsung SDI will be providing 13,000 battery modules for an energy storage system project on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, the company said Sunday.

The Lawai Solar and Energy Project, run jointly by the American AES Group affiliate Distributed Energy and the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, will install a 28-megawatt solar photovoltaic system and a 100 megawatt-hour five-hour duration ESS on Kauai. Samsung SDI will be providing approximately 13,000 battery modules for the ESS.

“The project will provide 11 percent of Kauai’s electric generation, increasing KIUC’s renewable sourced generation to close to 60 percent,” said KIUC’s President and Chief Executive Officer David Bissell. 

Through efforts like the Lawai Solar and Energy Project, energy companies in the future will be able to combine renewable energy such as solar and wind power with ESSs to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

Samsung SDI has participated in similar projects in the past. In October 2017, the company provided a 10-megawatt ESS lithium-ion battery for a wind-power ESS built by Younicos and TerraForm Power in Hawaii. In February 2017, Samsung SDI provided a 240 megawatt-power ESS battery in California together with companies such as AES Energy Storage.

According to a 2018 forecast from the market research firm B3, Samsung SDI has the largest market share in the global ESS market with 38 percent. 

By Won Ho-jung (hjwon@heraldcorp.com)