Chinese manufacturer Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL), Japanese operator Marubeni Power Retail and developer Sun Village have signed a memorandum of understanding to build and operate 2.4GWh of Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) infrastructure in Japan. The announcement was made on November 20, without specifying a deployment timeline or targeted locations.
Role allocation within the consortium
In this partnership, Sun Village will oversee project development, engineering, procurement and construction. CATL will supply battery systems and hold a partial ownership stake in the facilities. Marubeni Power Retail will manage asset aggregation for market integration. No additional details were provided regarding the business model or expected project duration.
An alliance built on prior collaborations
This new agreement follows previous partnerships among the involved companies. In 2024, Marubeni Power Retail invested JPY2bn ($13.2mn) in Sun Village as part of a strategic alliance to expand their solar activities. That same year, the two companies announced a joint target of developing 100MW of storage projects by the end of 2025.
The consortium is leveraging complementary expertise, combining CATL’s lithium-ion battery technology, Sun Village’s local presence in high-voltage projects, and Marubeni’s ability to optimise value in the Japanese energy market.
Established players in large-scale energy storage
All three companies are already active independently in Japan’s BESS market. CATL operates via its joint venture CHC, which secured nine contracts in Japan’s first two long-term decarbonisation auctions and commissioned its first project this year.
Marubeni Power Retail connected its first site, a 2MW/8MWh facility in Nagano Prefecture, in October 2024. Sun Village, meanwhile, connected its first owned project to the grid in September 2025, while continuing to develop projects for third-party clients in high-voltage segments.
