SolarEdge Technologies has entered into definitive agreements to acquire a major stake in Kokam. Headquartered in South Korea, Kokam is a provider of Lithium-ion battery cells, batteries and energy storage solutions.
Kokam: provider of battery cells, batteries and storage solutions
Founded in 1989, Kokam has been manufacturing Lithium-ion cells and providing reliable, safe, high-performance battery solutions for the past twenty-nine years. Kokam provides battery solutions for a wide-variety of industries, including ESS (energy storage systems), UPS, electric vehicles (EV), aerospace, marine and more.
SolarEdge: Widened product portfolio
“The acquisition of Kokam will enable us to grow our offering, adding already proven battery storage to our product portfolio,” said Guy Sella, CEO, Chairman and Founder of SolarEdge. “Our technological innovation combined with Kokam’s world-class team and renowned battery storage solutions, will enable seamless integration with our current solutions, taking us a further step toward making solar installations smarter and more beneficial.”
The acquisition of approximately 75% of outstanding equity shares of Kokam reflects an aggregate investment of approximately $88 million, including related transaction expenses. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the coming weeks. Over time, the Company intends to purchase the remaining outstanding equity shares of Kokam that are currently listed on the Korean over the counter exchange through open-market purchases and otherwise, eventually resulting in Kokam becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary of SolarEdge.
Market ready hybrid inverter
KACO New Energy is increasingly also pushing its way into the growing market for power storage. With the acquisition of the Constance-based company Energy Depot, the German PV inverter manufacturer is supplementing its range of energy storage systems with a market-ready hybrid inverter and gaining further development expertise. The existing customer relationships of Energy Depot are to be continued and expanded. The Constance location will be retained.
"Energy Depot has developed technically superior storage solutions from its start-up mentality. Together with the market access and production know-how of KACO, this creates an excellent combination that promises long-term success," says Ralf Hofmann, CEO of KACO New Energy, explaining the strategic decision for the acquisition.
Maintain and intensify existing customer relationships
"We will maintain the Constance location from Energy Depot and integrate the staff into our global research and development team. In this way, we will create continuity in order to maintain and intensify existing customer relationships," Hofmann continues.
KACO not only gains further development expertise through the takeover, but also an increase in its product portfolio: Energy Depot's products include the Centurio 10 hybrid inverter, which combines solar inverter and battery inverter in a single device and is now available via KACO new energy. The energy storage system based on this received the prestigious ees Award as the most innovative storage solution at Intersolar Europe 2017 in Munich.
Offer complete systems
"We met with great interest in the spring with a bidirectional inverter whose modular approach from 50 kilowatts fits large energy storage systems up to the megawatt range. With the plug-and-play solution from Energy Depot under the umbrella of KACO, we are now following up: with a state-of-the-art product that can be supplied immediately, we are also opening up the rapidly expanding market for private and small commercial energy storage applications. We offer the complete system, including the lithium-ion batteries: plug the devices together, connect them to the grid and the solar modules – and you’re done. This is what the future of storage technology looks like," says Ralf Hofmann in characterizing the storage offerings of the two new partners. (HCN)
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More useful information:
https://www.pveurope.eu/Products/Storage/Energy-Depot-Centurio-a-DC-coupled-energy-storage-system
https://www.pveurope.eu/News/Energy-Storage/KACO-new-energy-Blueplanet-gridsave-50.0-TL3-S
