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Panasonic ramps up Li-ion battery production

Panasonic Corporation will begin mass production of its lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery system, which has been developed for European residential homes kitted out with solar.

Panasonic believes energy self-consumption is a key market trend.

Panasonic

The Japanese electronics giant will this month begin mass production of its battery system. A spokesperson for Panasonic declined to divulge any concrete details, but did say that several thousand systems will be manufactured annually. They added that the system can be produced on existing production lines in Japan.

While Germany will comprise the initial market focus of the company’s sales efforts, the spokesperson said that Panasonic was investigating other European markets as well.

Panasonic cited the ongoing solar subsidy cuts in key markets, like Germany and said that this is creating a growing need for consumers to generate their own solar energy. "Panasonic is strengthening its storage battery business and the development of large-scale storage battery systems whose demand is expected to expand rapidly," said the company in a statement released.

The Li-ion battery storage system is said to comprise a battery module with nominal capacity of 1.35 kilowatt hours and a lifetime of 5,000 cycles, and a battery management system, which has been designed to control charge and discharge of the battery in line with demand.

"In Germany, there is a concern that the integration of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, into the power grid could cause instability in power distribution because of their unpredictable nature," commented Fumitoshi Terashima, director, Smart Energy Systems Business Unit, Energy Company of Panasonic. "With our … lithium-ion battery technology and … battery management systems, we will promote self-consumption of solar power generated by households as well as reduction of load during peak hours."