Page 11 - AsiaElec Week 23 2022

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec

Israeli tech firm SolarEdge

opens battery plant in

South Korea

SOUTH KOREA LEADING Israeli tech firm SolarEdge has technology sphere of operations, and has already
announced the establishment of a 2-GW battery opened offices in Tokyo, in Japan, and close to
cell manufacturing facility in South Korea. the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers
The facility has been opened south-east of the in Taipei, Taiwan.
capital Seoul in the Eumseong Innovation City, The firm famously partnered with Tesla
Chungcheongbuk-Do, in conjunction with local Motors in 2015 on a number of PV power stor-
SolarEdge subsidiary Kokam Ltd. age development projects, which led to orders of
In a statement released by the firm, SolarEdge between $800mn and $1bn.
CEO, Zvi Lando said: “The opening of Sella II is In 2018, SolarEdge then acquired South
an important milestone for SolarEdge. It allows Korea’s Kokam, a specialist producer of lith-
us to own key processes in the development ium-ion cells and a range of energy storage
and manufacturing of advanced energy storage technology.
solutions for our solar core business and addi- Kokam’s own cell development programmes
tional applications, while further securing the in recent years have proved key to SolarEdge
resilience of our supply chain”, continuing: “We opening the facility in the new Korean tech hub.
are committed to growing our business in the A spokesman for the firm said: “The new
energy storage market, as well as our investment plant will utilise the battery cell technology
in battery cell technology and cell manufactur- developed by Kokam over the years to manufac-
ing, further strengthening our storage product ture Li-Ion cells for the broader company prod-
portfolio.” ucts, and in order to grow the existing business
The name ‘Sella’ comes from the SolarEdge served by the storage division,” adding that with
founder Guy Sella, who died in 2019. time, “the accumulated knowledge of Kokam in
It is understood that following full certifi- developing battery cells combined with the scale
cation tests to be carried out throughout the of the new factory will allow SolarEdge to adjust
summer, Sella II will now allow SolarEdge to the cell chemistry and characteristics in order to
commercially develop its own lithium-ion bat- optimise product cost and performance.”
teries and storage system support for a number The Chungcheongbuk-Do facility is just the
of regional solar firms. latest move in a concerted effort by Solar Edge to
The facility is expected to be up and running develop its Asia-based market base.
and fully operational by the end of the current Sella 1, the original Israel-based facility oper-
year. ated by the company in memory of its founder,
In a press release issued by the firm, when reached its manufacturing capacity in the sum-
finally operating at full capacity, “The factory mer of 2021, with sources indicating that further
plans to mainly produce solar cells for SolarEdge expansion is difficult at best.
residential systems and batteries for various The firm subsequently increased output at its
industries, including cell phone batteries, energy Vietnam-based facility, although a three-month
storage solutions (ESS) and UPS, etc, and can coronavirus (COVID-19) shutdown late in 2021
expand the battery capacity in the future to eventually led to the establishment of Sella 2 in
support the company’s growing energy storage South Korea.
solution needs.” SolarEdge plans to add another manufac-
In recent years, SolarEdge in conjunction turing facility, in Mexico, to its portfolio in the
with Kokam has risen to be an increasingly second half of this year. ™
influential player in the East Asian smart energy

Week 23 08•June•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P11