China Wanxiang Holding will form a joint venture between its wholly-owned subsidiary, Puxing Energy, and NEC Corporation to pursue grid energy storage opportunities in the Chinese market.

The joint venture, 51% held by Wanxiang and 49% held by NEC, is scheduled to begin initial business activities later this year. Its formation is an important element of the recently announced NEC acquisition of A123 Energy Solutions, a provider of grid-scale energy storage systems for applications ranging from grid stabilization services like frequency response to the grid integration of renewable power sources such as wind or solar. Wanxiang and NEC will initially focus on China’s market development of grid energy storage and applications for its technology.

“With more and more renewable energies deployed in China, in which Puxing has been actively participating, the energy storage business has been driven to the front. NEC and the former A123 Energy Solutions Group have developed related technology and successfully executed advanced project solutions in the energy storage field worldwide. Puxing is firmly committed to building a business and technology foundation to meet the growing demand of the Chinese market in partnership with NEC,” said Weiding Lu, Chairman of China Wanxiang Holding and Chairman of Puxing Energy. “We see tremendous business opportunities in the accelerated transformation of China’s development model and its closely related energy structure, a key driver for the changing market landscape throughout the value chain of China’s power sector. By this partnership with NEC as our technology and operating platform, we are well positioned to participate in these opportunities, further leveraging Wanxiang’s financial and business resources in the marketplace.”

China, with its growing infrastructure needs, has some of the largest public works projects in the world related to power generation and transmission, and has installed large amounts of renewable generation that could benefit greatly from the introduction of large-scale energy storage alongside traditional grid assets. A123 Energy Solutions has commissioned two installations of its Grid Storage Solution (GSS™) product line in China in recent months.