Page 7 - ESJ – ENERGY STORAGE JOURNAL

NEWS

SK Innovation sued by US arm of

LG Chem over alleged IP violations

The American unit of lith- tional Trade Commission infringing LG Chem’s trade will grasp the situation and
ium ion battery maker LG and the US District Court secrets into the US, accord- clarify allegations raised
Chem has sued its South of Delaware. ing to Reuters. by LG Chem through legal
Korean contemporary SK The suits allege the de- The news agency quot- procedures.”
Innovation to protect its fendants accessed trade se- ed Shin Hak Cheol, LG LG Chem said it expects
‘core technologies and in- crets when SK Innovation Chem’s vice chairman and the ITC’s final ruling on the
tellectual property’, news hired 77 employees from CEO, as saying the lawsuit case in the second half of
agency Reuters reported on the lithium ion battery divi- was an inevitable measure 2020, reported Reuters.
April 30. sion of LG Chem, reported to protect its core technolo- Last November, ESJ
The Korea–headquar- news website Yahoo Fi- gies and intellectual prop- reported that SK Innovation
tered firm has accused SK nance. erty drawn from lengthy was set to invest $1.6
Innovation of misappro- LG Chem has asked the research and immense in- billion in a new
priation of trade secrets by commission to stop SK’s vestment. manufacturing plant in
hiring its former employees, imports of samples of lith- A statement from SK In- Jackson County, Georgia,
and has filed concurrent ium ion batteries and in- novation said: “SK Inno- to build cells for use in
suits with the US Interna- frastructure technology,3 vation’s battery business electric vehicles.

ESS to displace traditional power

streams amid tumbling LCOE

The falling levelized cost dy, with fossil fuel generat- tion was posing an unprec- bination of peaking plants,
of electricity for lithium ed power for the delivery of edented challenge to fossil pumped hydro storage,
ion batteries has made the dispatchable power, espe- fuel power in the dispatch- interconnectors, and large-
technology a challenger to cially in storage+renewable able generation, and flex- scale coal and gas plants.
fossil fuel when it comes projects. ibility roles it performs in The report analysed
to delivering flexibility and The report found that the energy supply mix. 7,000 projects in 46 coun-
dispatch generation, ac- falling LCOE for lithium At present, flexibility is tries across 20 technologies
cording to research compa- ion and renewable genera- provided mainly by a com- from coal to renewables.
ny Bloomberg New Energy
Finance’s New Energy Out-
look 2018 report published Switzerland completes biggest
on March 26.
The latest analysis by ESS a year after initial finish date
BNEF shows the bench-
mark LCOE for lithium-ion NEC Energy Solutions has Zürich, the US energy stor- Volketswil, near Zurich.
batteries has fallen 35% to delivered Switzerland’s age firm announced on First announced in Sep-
$187 per megawatt-hour largest battery storage sys- March 20. tember 2017, the inaugu-
since the first half of 2018. tem, a 18MW/7.5MWh The system will be most- ration comes around a year
The report found that GSS (Grid Storage So- ly used for primary fre- after the initial expected
batteries co-located with re- lution) system owned quency reserve but could completion day.
newable projects are start- and operated by Swiss be used for other ancillary The system is expected to
ing to compete, in many power company Elek- services from its location have a payback of five to
markets and without subsi- trizitätswerke des Kantons at an existing substation in seven years.

LiFePO dominates US BTM deployment despite shortages
4
Alternative lithium battery In the US, lithium ion pany’s US Energy Storage supply, according to the
technologies will fail to batteries accounted for Monitor 2018 Year-in- report.
take lithium ion phos- 97% of all BTM installed Review report published However, the report said
phate’s market share in the capacity, and the trend is on March 4. a surplus of lithium ion
US behind-the-meter stor- set to continue if battery Demand for nickel phosphate batteries had
age industry, Brett Simon, rack prices drop below manganese cobalt oxide made the chemistry a
senior analyst, energy stor- $150/kWh in the next five cells for energy storage more attractive option for
age at Wood Mackenzie years, as forecast in the and transportation ap- both power and energy
told ESJ on March 13. energy research com- plications is outstripping applications.

www.energystoragejournal.com Energy Storage Journal • Summer 2019 • 5