Article by: Miku Kudo

Panasonic Energy has revised upward its plan to increase production of industrial and consumer batteries and has decided to invest up to 10 billion yen more by FY2024.

We believe that demand for home-use energy storage systems will further expand due to Tokyo's mandatory installation of solar power and the spread of electric vehicles (EVs). We will quickly increase the share of home energy storage systems, which currently accounts for only a few percent of sales of rechargeable batteries for industrial and consumer use, to 10-20%.

Panasonic Energy has already announced a plan to invest 20-30 billion yen in this business to strengthen its production bases in Japan and overseas. Although details of the newly decided additional investment have not been disclosed, it is expected to cover three plants in Japan and a plant in Mexico that manufactures home energy storage systems for North America.

The company handles the entire process from battery cells to units, and its strength lies in its ability to assemble compact and highly efficient energy storage systems while ensuring high voltage and safety through advanced peripheral technologies such as battery protection circuits, wiring, and mechanism design.

According to Fuji Keizai (Chuo-ku, Tokyo), the global market for rechargeable batteries for power storage systems (ESS) and stationary storage systems is forecast to grow 3.8 times from the 2009 level to 5,441.8 billion yen in 35 years.