Yaskawa Electric Acquires Solectria Renewables

Headquartered in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Solectria Renewables manufactures high performance photovoltaic (PV) inverters for residential, commercial and utility-scale power systems. Since being founded in 2005, Solectria has grown to become a leader in the North American solar market. The Company employees over 170 people throughout the U.S.

Founded ninety-nine years ago, Yaskawa Electric is a $3.6 billion global leader in factory automation solutions and has also established a leadership position in the low power PV inverter market in Japan.

This acquisition will benefit Yaskawa and Solectria customers alike. Yaskawa will bring scale, global sales and manufacturing facilities as well as diversification to Solectria. Likewise Solectria will bring over 25 years of power electronics experience, 10 dedicated to the PV industry, and an in depth knowledge of medium and high voltage PV products to Yaskawa.

Yaskawa America’s President and COO Mike Knapek explains, “This is an effort to broaden Yaskawa’s exposure in the renewable energy market and expand the use of our technology expertise. Solectria has built a strong and successful organization in the Solar Inverter market over the past 10 years. The philosophies and strategies of both organizations are highly aligned on enabling sales growth and market expansion through superior customer experiences. We are very excited to bring Solectria into the Yaskawa family to provide world leading Inverter solutions.”

Solectria Renewables’ CEO, James Worden said, “While this is a significant step for Solectria, I am even more thrilled about what this means for our customers. They will have the same management team and personal interaction they are accustomed to, with the advantage of a powerful diversified global partner. Our entire team should feel incredibly proud about we have built over the past 10 years, but the best is yet to come.”