Panasonic Corporation has announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance agreement with Power-One of the US. The agreement aims for the global promotion of energy management businesses, such as stationary power storage systems. In the agreement, the two companies have agreed to jointly develop the business of non-residential and industrial large-scale power inverters in Japan. Panasonic will expand the non-residential and industrial energy management systems business.

Panasonic is developing an energy management system business that combines its high-efficiency solar panels and power inverters, power storage systems and Home Energy Management Systems (HEMS), and already has prominent results in the Japanese residential market. Panasonic's strengths lie in the development and production of lithium-ion battery cells, which are vital for power storage systems.

Meanwhile, Power-One is one of the largest designers and manufacturers of inverters used for solar power systems globally with operations in North America, Europe and Asia. As a leading innovator, Power-One markets best-in-class inverters for residential, commercial and utility-scale applications that provide the most design and installation flexibility of any products on the market today while delivering the highest energy harvest.

Power inverters are one of the core components of stationary power storage systems, which have been gaining a lot of attention for their ability to reduce investment required in equipment through power leveling and cutting peak power consumption in the large scale installation of renewable energy systems, as well for their use as backup power supplies in the event of earthquakes or other disasters.

It is estimated that the size of the global market for stationary power storage systems will exceed 1 trillion yen1 by 2020, mainly in Europe, North America, and Japan, where renewable energy technology is being adopted.

Panasonic signed this strategic alliance agreement with Power-One in order to achieve the early introduction of large-scale power inverters to strengthen the energy management system business for the non-residential and industrial sector in Japan.

The company is also aiming to achieve the early launch of a global business for stationary power storage systems with a wide line-up of systems from small to large-scale systems. Based on this alliance, Power-One is also aiming to expand its power storage system business globally with Panasonic's power storage technology, while achieving entry into the growing Japanese market for large-scale solar power generation systems.

Through its strategic alliance agreement with Power-One, the Panasonic Group will contribute to the realization of an Eco and Smart society, and is aiming to achieve sales of 100 billion yen or more for the stationary power storage systems related businesses by 2018, the 100th anniversary of its founding.