Yaskawa Electric Corp. has announced it will purchase Solectria Renewables through its U.S. subsidiary, Yaskawa America Inc. Solectria Renewables will continue to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Headquartered in Lawrence, MA, Solectria manufactures high-performance photovoltaic (PV) inverters for the residential, commercial, and utility-scale power systems. The company employs over 160 people throughout the United States.

Founded in 1915, Yaskawa Electric is a $3.6-billion global company specializing in factory automation solutions, as well as low-power PV inverters.

Yaswaka officials said the 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 knowledge of medium- and high-voltage PV products to Yaskawa.

 “This is an effort to broaden Yaskawa’s exposure in the renewable energy market and expand the use of our technology expertise,” said Mike Knapek, Yaskawa America President and COO. “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.”