Battery storage fire destroys solar facility in Hongseong, South Korea
Apr 2021Published 11 Sept 2026Responsible editor: Chief Editor
- Where
- Solar facility in Hongseong, South Chungcheong Province, South Korea
- Manufacturer
- LG Energy Solution
- What
- Fire and explosion in energy storage system destroyed solar facility
- Response
- Firefighters extinguished blaze approximately four hours after it started
- Cause
- Under investigation
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Companies named in the reporting of this entry (being named is not a finding of fault): LG Energy Solution
What happened
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.
Contributing factors
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.
Lessons learned
- Outdoor battery energy storage systems at solar sites need early detection and suppression because a fire can escalate to explosion within minutes.
- Operators of three-year-old NMC battery systems should review cell history from the same supplier in other uses such as electric vehicles.
- Joint police and fire inspections after an ESS fire help determine root cause when the origin is inside the battery unit.
More lessons on detection and monitoring, maintenance, inspection and ageing assets, from every incident on the register.
Not yet known
- Exact cause of the fire
- Battery system model and supplier history
- Duration of site downtime
This entry is updated when these are reported. Get an alert for the next one like it.
Source
Published 2026-09-11. Written from public reporting. Descriptive, not investigative. See the data accuracy disclaimer.
