Battery storage fire destroys solar facility in Hongseong, South Korea

On 6 April 2021, a fire broke out in an energy storage system supplied by LG Energy Solution at a solar power generation facility in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea. The fire, which involved an explosion, destroyed the solar facility, which was operated by an individual, and caused property damage estimated at 440 million won. Firefighters extinguished the blaze approximately four hours after it started. Police and fire departments stated that the fire appeared to have started inside the energy storage unit and said a joint inspection would be carried out to determine the exact cause. The battery system was approximately three years old at the time of the incident and used nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) chemistry in an outdoor architecture.

The energy storage system used lithium-ion battery cells supplied by LG Energy Solution. The source notes that LG Energy Solution cells of similar type had previously been linked to fire incidents in electric vehicles, though no direct causal link to this specific incident was confirmed at the time of reporting. The cause of the fire had not been formally determined and was subject to a joint police and fire department investigation.

1. Outdoor battery energy storage systems co-located with solar generation should have robust fire detection and suppression systems given the potential for rapid escalation to explosion.
2. Battery cell chemistry and manufacturer history of related failures elsewhere, including in other applications such as electric vehicles, warrant closer monitoring by operators of similar installed systems.
3. Joint investigations involving both police and fire authorities can help establish root cause and should be a standard response protocol for ESS fires.

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