Battery storage fire at solar site in Geochang County, South Korea
EIR-0150In 2018 a fire broke out in the battery energy storage room of a solar power generation facility in Wicheon-myeon, Geochang County, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. The fire burned through a single storey prefabricated sandwich panel structure housing the storage equipment, affecting an area of around 17 square metres. Fire crews extinguished the fire in about one hour and thirty minutes. The site operated without on-site personnel and no injuries or fatalities were reported. The fire service estimated property damage at around 400 million won. Authorities opened an investigation, and the cause remained unconfirmed at the time of reporting.
Reporting indicated that the battery system, manufactured by LG Chem, used a nickel manganese cobalt chemistry and had been in service for approximately seven months, in an outdoor, unmanned installation integrated with solar generation. No further contributing factors were confirmed in the available source.
- Battery systems paired with solar generation and housed in prefabricated structures should be provided with fire detection and suppression suited to unmanned, remotely operated sites, together with automatic alarm transmission to a staffed control point.
- Early life installations can still experience thermal failure, so monitoring of cell and module temperatures, voltages and alarm trends should be closest during commissioning and the first year of operation.
- Separate the battery enclosure from other site equipment by distance or rated construction so that a fire in one room does not spread to inverters, transformers or control equipment.
- Where investigations identify a root cause, publishing the findings allows other operators to act on chemistry specific or installation specific failure modes.
Published 2026-09-07. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.