Industry commentators have expressed shock and surprise that NEC Corporation’s Energy Solutions business has been wound down, while an analyst said the reasons for the energy storage system integrator’s demise are likely to go back further than the COVID-19 pandemic.
A recent report carried by Bloomberg said that the Japanese electronics and engineering giant was closing down the Massachusetts-based Energy Solutions division. The report claimed that despite a global reach and a leading position in the early grid-scale battery storage market, the division had never been profitable.
The report’s headline implied that NEC representatives interview by Bloomberg had cited the COVID-19 pandemic as a reason behind the decision, but within the report itself was the assertion that the coronavirus situation had brought to a premature end the parent company’s search for a buyer for the battery storage system integrator, which NEC had owned since 2014.
Energy-Storage.news was unable to receive confirmation or clarification from NEC directly, with the company declining to comment. It is understood that while the company will remain committed to battery servicing contracts, some of which run to 2030, since the Bloomberg report just over a week ago, leading members of the Energy Solutions team including CEO Steve Fludder, have already left, according to sources close to the company.
Several energy storage industry sources, who asked not to be named, in addition to expressing shock at the news, expressed sympathy with the exiting employees, with one noting that NEC ES’ had “really great people” working there.
Meanwhile, California-headquartered “intelligent energy storage system” provider Stem Inc, which had only recently started a partnership with NEC ES with a view to delivering solar-plus-storage projects from “coast-to-coast” across the US, also declined to comment on NEC’s reported exit from the business when asked by Energy-Storage.news.
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