A 'Black Hole' in the Middle of a Desert.. Why South Korea, Lacking a Single Drop of Oil, Looks to ESS

A residential neighborhood near Dallas, Texas, USA.

A year and a half ago, Craig Kincaid installed 50 solar panels on his roof and four large energy storage systems (ESS) in his garage to store electricity.

[Craig Kincaid / Homeowner with ESS Installed: The entire neighborhood lost power on the night of the World Cup final, but thanks to the ESS batteries, we were able to keep watching the game. With the batteries, we can live life normally in any situation.]

Having spent 50 million won of our money, how do the economics stack up?

ESS battery prices have already fallen as low as they can go.

Last year, the price of a battery pack per kWh was around 70 dollars, or about 99,000 won in our money.

Dropping 45% in a single year, it became cheaper than electric vehicle batteries, which sit at around 99 dollars per kWh.

This is due to the surge in use of much cheaper lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries instead of nickel, cobalt, and manganese (NCM) batteries.

[Park Jae-hong / Head of LG Energy Solution Vertech: LFP has price competitiveness compared to NCM in terms of raw material costs, and regarding the safety requirements demanded by the ESS industry, such as explosion and fire propagation prevention, it has relative strengths over NCM.]

The fact that electricity can be resold back to utility companies is also a plus factor.

Electricity generated from the roof is stored in these batteries, and any excess is sold back to the power grid.

Even individual households are buying and selling electricity.

[Craig Kincaid / Homeowner with ESS Installed: My electricity bill used to be 400 to 500 dollars a month, but now it is 20 to 30 dollars. Since installing the EG4 batteries, I have earned 1,200 dollars so far. After settling the accounts with the money from selling surplus electricity, my electricity bill comes out to zero.]

Global deployment of residential ESS in the first half of this year increased by 128% compared to last year.

In Arizona, there is a facility equipped with 2.8 gigawatts of solar power generation capacity, matching the output of two nuclear reactors.

Large-capacity ESS units are utilized here.

Electricity generated in the Arizona desert is stored in these batteries and then sold all the way to California by evening.

[Tyler Park / Marketing Team Leader, Hanwha Qcells EPC Business Division: This is to generate energy during daytime hours, store it in ESS during evening hours when sunlight is low, and supply power to AI data centers and households that demand it.]

In South Korea, while the proportion of renewable energy generation including solar is increasing, the market where surplus electricity can be traded remains negligible.

[Lee Si-young / Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Hongik University: Although the power exchange utilizes flexible power sources, it lacks proper compensation systems, leaving ESS operators with no choice but to think that they will not receive sufficient compensation in the market.]

Experts point out that to cope with growing power demands driven by the expansion of AI and semiconductor industries, efficient power operation policies must follow alongside mere electricity supply.

Gathering Electricity on the Roof.. 'Is This Possible?' Electricity Bills Plummet to Zero (August 10, 2026, 8 News)

Reported by Jang Sun-i | Produced by Lee Se-young | Video by Bae Moon-san | Graphics by Choi Hye-young | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.