LG New Energy wins battery supply contract worth hundreds of billions of won for Google solar project
South Korea's leading battery maker LG New Energy Co. (LGES) said on Wednesday that it will provide the U.S. internet giant with of solar-related energy infrastructure projects to supply batteries, with deals valued at hundreds of billions of won. On Tuesday local time, Google and independent renewable energy producer Cypress Creek Energy jointly launched the Steel River Energy Center, a large-scale solar project, and announced that it will use batteries from LG New Energy. Google said in a press release that the project is planned to be put into operation in 2029. The initial installed capacity of the energy storage system will be 2 GWh, and will be expanded to 2.9 GWh in the future. LG New Energy plans to supply lithium iron phosphate batteries produced at its U.S. factory for the project. Google's press release stated: "This project will all use photovoltaic modules produced by First Solar, a domestic company in the United States, and battery energy storage systems from LG New Energy Vertech. The entire energy storage equipment is assembled in the United States, and the battery cells are all produced in North America, and most of them are manufactured in American factories." LG New Energy Vertech is the U.S. subsidiary of LG New Energy. The Steel River Energy Center is an integrated optical and storage project, led by Google and developed to meet the rapid growth in power demand caused by data center expansion and other factors. Affected by the long-term downturn in the electric vehicle market, LG New Energy is expanding its energy storage battery production capacity in the United States to hedge against the downward pressure on its electric vehicle business. Recently, the company has put into production energy storage cells in two joint venture factories, one of which is with A joint venture factory with L-H Battery Company, a joint venture. In addition, the company plans to start production of energy storage cells at its wholly-owned battery factory in Michigan later this year.