Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL) is to develop and sell lithium-ion energy storage systems under a new partnership with Japan’s Next Energy & Resources.
Renewables developer Next Energy said the tie-up aims to mainly target Japan’s lucrative and growing residential solar-plus-battery storage market.
The deal is CATL’s second in Japan within days, following the firm’s agreement to supply lithium-ion batteries to Japanese vehicle OEM Toyota.
Next Energy said on 25 July that the successful introduction of a feed-in tariff in Japan— under which payments are made for electricity pumped into the grid from home generating systems— had boosted the take-up of solar power systems.
The Tokyo-based company, whose range of products includes lithium-ion battery storage systems, said by “promoting the combination of solar power generation and storage batteries, supply and demand adjustment services using storage capacity will also be possible”.
Solar-plus-storage systems can deliver grid services including frequency response to mitigate the fluctuations on the system caused by renewables.
The companies did not give details about their respective roles in the partnership. However, CATL said it had designated Japan as a strategically important area to expand its sales of batteries for energy storage systems and electric vehicles.
