We caught up with the president of system integrator PotisEdge following news of its acquisition by Longi, which marks the Chinese solar PV giant’s move into the energy storage industry.
News of Longi’s acquisition of PotisEdge first emerged on 13 November, with a public notice on the Shaanxi Provincial Administration for Market Regulation website. It revealed that Longi Green Energy Technology has agreed to acquire c.62% of PotisEdge via an equity acquisition, capital increase and voting rights, giving it sole control of the firm. Prior to the deal, PotisEdge was 44.79% held by individuals.
Longi and PotisEdge are characterising the deal as a partnership via which Longi will launch its ‘Energy Storage One-Stop Solution’, as it now covers solar, hydrogen and energy storage. Longi said its energy storage solution will be deployed first in key markets such as the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
Longi VP Dennis She said in the announcement: “The current development stage of the energy storage industry is very similar to the early days of solar — confidence-driven rapid growth, but also bringing disorderly competition. The future dimension of competition in energy storage has evolved from ‘having the technology’ to ‘value reliability.”
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PotisEdge president: Combination will offer opportunities
Speaking to Energy-Storage.news at an event in London marking the deal, PotisEdge founder and president Minjie Shi said: “Longi will bring the strong brand name and a big market to PotisEdge, and the combination of the two companies offers big opportunities to the market.”
“We are a technology company that designs and manufactures all the key components with the exception of the battery cells. We’re highly integrated, and that’s allowed us to gain a good reputation and solve market challenges,” Shi said.
“Battery cell manufacturing and system integration are totally different. Battery cells are a chemistry process, system integration is about controls, software, hardware and intelligent systems.”
Core technology offering
The firm’s offering is built around the five ‘S’s: BMS (battery management system), EMS (energy management system), PCS (power conversion system), TMS (thermal management system) and its proprietary ICCS (intelligent cell contact system) technology for predicting thermal runaway.
In September, the firm launched a 6.25MWh AC BESS product with string inverters and its ICCS technology for fire safety. The tech is designed for monitoring and protection of battery cells, to prevent thermal runaway and ensure safe operation of the system. It provides early warnings, predictions and an immediate response to potential cell malfunctions.
Before the AC launch, its grid-scale products were DC products. “Amongst the 12GWh of deployments, that has mainly been DC products, especially the 5MWh unit. Now we are shipping the all-in-one AC solution,” Shi said, adding that all regions are showing demand for both DC and AC products.
He added that the PotisEdge brand would remain for the foreseeable future, as it had over a decade of experience in the BESS industry with 12GWh deployed. It has mainly been active in the grid-scale segment, with deployments to date primarily in China, but also in North America, Europe and Australia.
Markets
“Europe is an important market for us, we’ve already delivered for a few sites here like Italy,” he said.
It has 31GWh manufacturing capacity from its facility in Suzhou, China, and a 4-6GWh one in Atlanta, Georgia, US, set to start manufacturing next year. The Atlanta facility will produce the same products as its Suzhou facility, but will be more automated, with only 100 employees needed, Shi said.
“For the US market, the main thing is to localise production, and we’ve focused on solving this for the last two years. All companies are facing that same challenge.”
PotisEdge is also working on a modular BESS solution, as many other system integrators and BESS manufacturers have done in response to transportation issues with ever more energy-dense and heavy 20-foot containers.
As part of its expansion into storage with PotisEdge, Longi will establish a Solar-Storage Technology Innovation Center Center of Excellence in Europe, it said.
Chinese solar PV companies have steadily moved into energy storage, seeking to capitalise on its growth opportunities but also to offset falling profits in their core market as the sector suffers from over-supply. See all coverage of Longi by our sister site PV Tech here.
