ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Yoshihisa Suzuki, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has agreed with NF Corporation (headquartered in Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa; Tsuneo Takahashi, Representative Director & Chairman) to have the energy storage system (ESS) business, which was developed jointly by the two companies (hereinafter, the “Business”), will be operated as a joint venture by a joint venture company, in which two companies will invest. The joint venture company is planned to be named NF Blossom Technologies, Inc. (hereinafter, the “New Company”).

In response to various environmental risks associated with climate change, the implementation of renewable energy is being accelerated worldwide, aiming to build a low-carbon society. Japan is also seeing the proactive implementation of solar and wind power. However, to maintain a stable power supply has been a challenge with renewable energy, and ESS offering high-efficiency power conditioning capability appears to be a promising solution for promoting renewable energy. Regarding ESS systems for residential use, there is a potential market of 1.6 million households expected to be raise in the coming five years since the period for the solar power generation fixed-price feed-in-tariff (FIT) will begin to expire in November 2019, which makes ESS necessary for the self-consumption of energy from home solar power generation systems. In addition, ESS also gain popularity as an emergency backup power source in the event of a power outage during a typhoon or other natural disaster. It was confirmed that several thousand ESSs from ITOCHU were used in areas where power outages occurred due to the recent heavy typhoons.

ITOCHU and NF Corporation entered into business relations in 2011, focused on ESSs for business use. They began joint development and supply of residential ESSs in 2014. The two companies jointly develop and sell the Smart Star series, ITOCHU’s brand of ESSs for households, which NF Corporation manufactures and ITOCHU distributes. These residential ESSs are enjoying a steady growth of sales with unique functions, such as off grid operation in conjunction with a solar power generation system, which is triggered in the event of a power outage, as well as connection with GridShare AI software from Moixa Energy Holdings in the United Kingdom. In response to the expected expansion of the ESS market, ITOCHU and NF Corporation will build a new factory with an annual production capacity of up to 60,000 units after the two companies establish the New Company and reinforce systems for customer services and maintenance services. The New Company will engage in product research & development, production, and customer support in the Business all on its own.

ITOCHU will contribute to improving the corporate value of the New Company through initiatives including global battery procurement, marketing activities with sales partners, and overseas expansion of the business (planned in the United States and Australia, where growth is expected). The New Company will take advantage of its own development capabilities and technological capabilities for catering to market needs identified by ITOCHU on its own, to develop new products including (1) further ESSs lineups for Japan, (2) ESSs for overseas markets, and (3) larger ESSs for gird and corporate & industrial use.

ITOCHU is reinventing its business to enhance its corporate value sustainably. It has been focusing its efforts on the expansion of business regarding energy storage system and related materials and positions the joint establishment of the New Company with NF Corporation as a core business in ITOCHU’s energy storage system value chain. ITOCHU will further evolve the storage business it has cultivated to date, with NF Corporation, to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases by increasing the proportion of renewable energy, securing stable power supply, and building a distributed energy society.