Waukegan, Ill. Yaskawa Electric Corporation and Solectria Renewables, LLC announced that the companies have reached a definitive agreement whereby Yaskawa Electric will acquire Solectria Renewables through its US subsidiary, Yaskawa America Inc. Solectria Renewables will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Headquartered in Lawrence, MA, Solectria manufactures high performance photovoltaic (PV) inverters for the 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 employs over 160 people throughout the United States.

Founded in 1915, 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 20 years of power electronics experience, ten dedicated to the PV industry, and an in depth knowledge of medium and high voltage PV products to Yaskawa. 

Yaskawa America 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 CEO, James Worden,said, “While this is a significant step for Solectria, I am even more thrilled about what it 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 what we have built over the past 10 years, but the best is yet to come.