Panasonic to Mass-Produce Battery System for European Solar Homes Jun 11, 2012

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In June 2012 Panasonic Corp. starts mass-production of a compact, long-life lithium-ion battery system developed for European solar-powered homes. It is the first time the company is producing in volume a European power storage system.

Panasonic noted that Germany and other European countries are taking steps to cut the purchase price of residential solar power, and it expects a growing need for optimization of self-consumption.

In 2011 Panasonic supplied its lithium-ion battery storage system for the S10 household energy storage system developed by E3/DC, an engineering firm in Germany. Field tests in Germany helped the company prepare for mass-production of the battery system.

The lithium-ion battery system consists of the Panasonic battery module with nominal capacity of 1.35kWh and a battery management system designed to control charge and discharge of the battery in accordance with customer needs. It stores excess energy generated from the photovoltaic (PV) power system during peak hours of PV generation and discharges the energy as needed. It will enable households to reduce the dependence on grid power and facilitate the further spread of green energy.

"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," said Mr. Fumitoshi Terashima, Director, Smart Energy Systems Business Unit, Energy Company of Panasonic.

Self-consumption, by alleviating solar homes' demand or grid power even during hours when the solar system is not generating power, helps protect the power grid.

The lithium-ion battery system has an estimate design lifetime of 5000 cycles.

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