ITOCHU Announces Acquisition by TRENDE Inc. of One Energy Corporation's Renewable Energy Business

August 26, 2024

ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will take over the energy storage system rental, solar power generation system leasing, and rental rooftop solar power generation system businesses operated by ONE Energy Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keiichi Ikeya, President; hereinafter “ONE Energy”), via ITOCHU's subsidiary TRENDE Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Masashi Nishio and Tadatoshi Senoo, Representative Directors; hereinafter “TRENDE”), which will acquire these businesses by way of a company split (an absorption-type company split).

Through this acquisition, most of the contracts related to solar power generation systems and energy storage systems installed by ONE Energy's customers will be transferred to TRENDE on October 1, 2024.

While the introduction of renewable energy is accelerating for the establishment of a decarbonized society, significant challenges remain - the fluctuation of the energy supply-demand balance and rising energy prices. To solve these issues, expectations have been rising regarding the popularization of distributed generation, and also regarding P2P electricity trading*1 which can provide an energy management function to control and to adjust the distributed generation.
TRENDE, which ITOCHU converted into a consolidated subsidiary in June 2023, has been working the development of technology related to rooftop solar power services for households and P2P electricity trading since its establishment in 2017. Taking over these businesses will enable the ITOCHU Group to leverage its strengths in the distributed power generation, battery storage and energy management businesses to provide more customers with “Smart Star” energy storage systems for households that are equipped with the “Gridshare” AI software and compatible with the “Teraris” solar power generation system leasing service.*2 In addition, looking ahead to the future, ITOCHU will seek to optimize the energy supply-demand balance within communities and increase the local production of electricity for local consumption by popularizing P2P electricity trading, and by doing so, it aims to create a society in which renewable energy circulates throughout communities efficiently.

ITOCHU has put forth the management policy "The Brand-new Deal -Profit opportunities are shifting downstream-" and is developing our business areas by tracking needs as they diversify with social changes and by pioneering and evolving downstream businesses that are closer to the consumers.

  • *1Peer-to-peer (P2P) electricity trading: A business model in which owners of power-generation and storage facilities (prosumers) and electricity consumers directly trade electricity with each other on a platform.
  • *2Teraris (https://teraris.jp/ ) is distributed power generation device leasing service for devices such as the solar power generation systems and energy storage systems provided by TRENDE. Customers may use the service by paying a monthly usage fee with no initial expenses.

Profile of TRENDE Inc.

Company name TRENDE Inc.
Representatives Representative Director: Masashi Nishio
Representative Director: Tadatoshi Senoo
Headquarters Higashikanda Plaza Building 2F, 1-16-7 Higashikanda, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Established 2017
Business description Electric power retailing
URL https://trende.jp/

Profile of ONE Energy Corporation

Company name ONE Energy Corporation
Representative President and Representative Director: Keiichi Ikeya
Headquarters World Trade Center Building, SOUTH TOWER, 2-4-1 Hamamatsu-cho, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Established 2013
Business description Sales and leasing and rental services for solar power generation panels, energy storage systems, etc.
URL https://oneenergy.co.jp/