The German solar battery producer sonnen expands its capacities with the top of the electrical energy subsidies – Reuters UK

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – The German manufacturer of solar batteries for private households sonnen is expanding the capacity of its home base in Wildpoldsried. The demand for storage systems for private households is expected to increase as a subsidy program for supplying the grid with renewable energy.

FILE PHOTO: Employees of the startup “sonnen”, formerly known as Sonnenbatterie, are sitting in a meeting room in Berlin on October 14, 2016. REUTERS / Axel Schmidt / File Photo

There are 1.8 million photovoltaic systems in Germany, the majority of which are small solar systems on the roof. Homeowners have benefited from an ongoing 20-year program with generous feed-in tariffs for the sale of renewable energies to the power grid.

However, as these expire, the systems will have to finance themselves and it might be more economical for homeowners to use batteries to store the electricity they generate for later home use.

“We are investing a small double-digit million euro amount in new halls and production facilities,” said Oliver Koch, who will become CEO of sonnen on Thursday and will replace the founder Christoph Ostermann, who will be leaving the company at the end of the year.

“We will expand our business domestically and also grow faster in the international markets,” added Koch.

Founded 10 years ago and fully taken over by Shell RDSa.L In 2019, sonnen has sold more than 60,000 household batteries to date and employed 700 people in Germany, the USA, Australia, Great Britain, France and Italy.

In addition to providing hardware – roof panels connected to batteries – sonnen offers contracts to market the energy output and integrate the arrival of private electric cars.

The broader collection of consumers in virtual communities to interact with power grids is a business model that is also being pursued by competitors such as Solarwatt and the electric car manufacturer Tesla.TSLA.O

Before joining Sonnen, where he has been Chief Operating Officer since 2014, Koch worked for US industry colleague SolarCity, now a Tesla subsidiary, and its predecessor Paramount Solar.

He said the internal promotion showed Shell had confidence in Sunen’s business.

“Other oil companies are planning similar activities. They understood that the future is not fossil, ”he said.

Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Kirsten Donovan