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Although Tesla recently completed the world’s largest lithium ion battery in South Australia, a spinoff of South Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries is hoping to surpass this designation by building its own battery storage system that is 50 percent larger.
Hyundai Electric and Energy Systems is on track to complete a 150-megawatt lithium ion battery that will “go live” by February in Ulsan, the country’s seventh largest metropolis. Hyundai worked with metal smelting company Korea Zinc to build the 50-billion-won system (that’s approximately $46 million).
According to Bloomberg, falling battery prices have jumpstarted large-scale projects all over the world. And each time the global battery supply doubles, prices plummet 19 percent. But it’s Tesla’s Elon Musk that is credited for setting the standard.
“Musk has set a benchmark on how quickly you can install and commission a battery of this size,” says Ali Asghar, a senior associate at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, while tumbling costs are “making them a compelling mainstream option for energy-storage applications in many areas around the world, and projects even bigger than Tesla’s are now under construction.”
Head to Bloomberg for the full story.