wiredInUSA November 2020

Power boost

Stepping up aluminum wire production

Image courtesy of Trungnam Group

Vietnam’s has celebrated the launch of a 450MW solar farm and power transmission system built in the country’s Ninh Thuan province. Representing a $603.4 million investment, the Thuan Nam solar plant, with 500kV transformer station and 220/500kV power line network, will boost Vietnam’s grid capacity and help resolve nationwide power shortages, while increasing the share of renewables in the energy supply. By mid-2019 Vietnam had 4,464MW of solar farms, most located in Ninh Thuan province. The surge in capacity led to overloading of the grid, especially in the Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan provinces: Trungnam said some solar farms had been forced to reduce their capacity by up to 60% for the sake of grid stability. The situation prompted the company to invest in two transformers and 17km of power lines, together with the country’s largest solar farm. Supported by a fast-track procedure, Trungnam completed the entire project in only 102 days, the company said. Trungnam Group

LS Cable & System employees are producing aluminum cables for electric vehicles. LS Cable and System has started mass production of aluminum wires for electric vehicles, and has developed a new facility exclusively for aluminum wire production. Major automotive electronics companies in Japan and elsewhere are also building aluminum-only facilities because, when production facilities for copper and aluminum wire are combined, copper particles can corrode the aluminum. LS Cable currently supplies Korea’s largest automotive manufacturers, Hyundai Motor and Kia Motors, and is expecting the proportion of aluminum wires in the Korean wire market will be more than 30% by 2025, compared with around 5% at present. “Through LS Alsco, a subsidiary that specializes in the aluminum business, we can supply high-strength aluminum and produce them in batches from materials to finished wire products,” the company said. “We are also considering additional investments as we are about to sign a supply contract with a global wiring harness company.”

35

wiredInUSA November 2020