South Korean energy companies have aced overseas photovoltaic (PV) market auctions, winning orders to build solar power farms linked to an energy storage system (ESS) in the United States territory of Guam at the total cost of $350 million.

According to state-run Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) and LG CNS Co., an information solution unit of South Korean conglomerate LG Group, on Tuesday, a consortium of the two companies has bagged an order from Guam Power Authority (GPA) to build a 60 megawatt (MW) solar power farm backed by an energy storage system (ESS) in Mangilao, located in Guam’s north central region.

The consortium will invest $200 million to build the facilities with an aim to complete it by December 2019. Under the deal, KEPCO and LG CNS will manage the facilities for 25 years after the completion of construction, and they expect to earn about $340 million from electricity sales plus $80 million in dividends over the cited period.

The KEPCO-LG CNS consortium will build a solar power farm linked to an ESS facility capable of generating electricity for 40,000 households every year. The 42 megawatt-hour (Mwh) ESS that will be built next to the solar power plant will store energy for use in case of a power supply shortage. Considering that supply from a solar power farm is heavily affected by weather conditions, the ESS-converged facility is expected to offer more stable power supply.

Separately, Hanwha Energy Corp., a comprehensive energy unit of Hanwha Group, won a $150 million order to build a 60-MW ESS-converged solar power farm in Guam’s southern region of Dandan. The company aims to begin commercial production in October, 2019, after breaking ground in July, next year. When taking account of PV energy to be stored in the 65-Mwh ESS facility, Hanwha Energy’s solar farm facilities in Guam would be the world’s largest in terms of power capacity.

Under the term, Hanwha Energy has also gained the right to operate the ESS-linked solar farm facilities for 25 years once the construction of the facilities is completed. Its sister company Hanwha Q Cells Co. will also benefit from the latest deal because it will supply all PV modules for the solar farm.

The GPA has been aggressively promoting solar power plant projects to improve energy supply in Guam that depends highly on diesel generators for electricity. About seven global energy firms were known to have taken part in the PV energy plant bids this time, and Korean companies won core projects, according to sources.

By Kim Jung-hwan

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