Panasonic to sell lithium ion storage battery by 2011

Panasonic, which recently completed a successful takeover proposal with Sanyo, plans to market around 2011 a lithium-ion storage battery for residential use.

In a dialogue with news agency Yomiuri Shimbun, Panasonic president Fumio Otsubo said that the latest plan would make the electronics firm the first to offer homes a storage battery that can provide sufficient electricity for at least one week of use. He informed that the device will be sold together with a system that will show electricity consumption on a TV display.

Last Monday, Panasonic revealed that it had officially bought over 50 per cent stake in Sanyo, making it the second largest electronics company in Japan, only next to Hitachi. The electronics firm is planning as well to reorganize the two companies’ growth strategies and to present specific approaches to deal with overlapping household appliance product lines. Panasonic has an estimated combined sale of Y8.66 trillion for the business year, ending in March 2010.

In earlier related news, Panasonic had already started the mass production of high capacity 3.1Ah lithium-ion batteries for laptops. Known as ‘18650’, the battery has an insulating metal oxide layer between the negative and positive electrodes, called ‘Heat Resistance Layer’, which prevents it from overheating and catching fire when a short circuit occurs.

Moreover, the battery has a positive electrode made of nickel and an energy density of 675Wh/L. Other benefits of the latest design include increased durability and charge retention, allowing the battery to be stored for a long period of time.