A battery factory in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, caught fire and exploded.
In early morning of Jul 14, A fire erupted in Sanyuan Energy company at Kaohsiung, Taiwan with explosion, injuring 15 individuals, including 3 firefighters who sustained burn injuries.
The factory caught fire is Taiwan's first super battery factory, belonging to Sanyuan Energy Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Taiwan Cement Group. It began operation in 2023. The factory produces high-end, high-capacity, and high-charging-discharging -capability Ternary batteries with an annual capacity of 1.8 GW (gigawatts), equivalent to the battery requirements for 24,000 electric vehicles per year. The fire originated in the warehouse for semi-finished batteries undergoing their first charging operation in the plant
Local Fire Bureau Chief Wang Zhiping stated that firefighters encountered battery explosions while extinguishing the fire, causing several firefighters to be injured. Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai rushed to the scene and ordered the complete shutdown of the Sanyuan battery production line. Chen Chi-mai said that the main area of the fire was in the finished product area, and the explosion was caused by the need for charging of the finished products.
So far the root cause of the fire and explosion is not revealed by neither the company nor local authority, but from the press information It is highly likely that the thermal runaway occurred during the ternary battery charging and discharging process which caused fire and explosion. Hence it is highly recommended a strict rule, monitor & emergency shutoff system setup for all the battery plants during production. This is proved again and again by different disasters happened in battery plants at different location. The nearest one is fire and explosion in a battery recycle plant in Spain on Jul 4. 2025.
On July 28th, Taiwan Cement Corporation -TCC released initial investigation report on the fire incident on Jul 14th, stating "multiple systems failure & events superposition". There were three types of abnormalities:
1: Chain reaction triggered by abnormal heat source in the storage area 2: The “instant response automatic fire protection system” failed to activated promptly and effectively upon fire alarm
3: Power outage caused the fire suppression system to fail.
These safety systems, which were supposed to operate independently, failed to function as expected. Coupled with the successive incidents, they collectively led to the expansion of the fire. The most thorough investigation into why these systems malfunctioned and the interrelationships between the events is still pending. It can only be finally determined and confirmed after the critical data from the mainframe of the chemical processing equipment has been excavated and restored.
From the initial investigation report by TCC, we fully agree with the conclusion esp. on multi systems failure is the key, but it is still questionable from where and how such a sudden high temp thermal source came to the battery cell storage area as plant clearly did not setup any charging or discharging facilities and work in the room. As practitioners in the battery industry, we all aware of uncontrolled heat of battery will cause energy run away with both smoke and fire even explosion happening etc.
We will keep monitoring the case and give more analysis based on new findings.