{"id":5950,"date":"2016-06-27T14:44:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-27T14:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.portal.solar.com\/learn\/three-reasons-why-ge-is-betting-on-sonnen-battery-systems\/"},"modified":"2019-11-13T22:32:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-13T22:32:15","slug":"three-reasons-why-ge-is-betting-on-sonnen-battery-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.solar.com\/learn\/three-reasons-why-ge-is-betting-on-sonnen-battery-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Reasons Why GE Is Betting on Sonnen Battery Systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of June, German battery system manufacturer Sonnen Inc. announced it had received a significant investment from GE Ventures. According to the company, GE\u2019s investment arm shelled out a <\/span>\u201cdouble-digit million Euro\u201d<\/span><\/a> amount for a minority stake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Until then, it had been mostly Tesla grabbing the headlines introducing its Powerwall a year ago, the first of which are now reaching customers in the US. And competition in the emerging residential storage market becomes tougher as more opportunities are looming.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to GTM Research\u2019s most recent <\/span>US Energy Storage Monitor<\/span><\/a>, distributed battery storage will surpass grid-scale storage in the US by 2020. GTM Research forecasts that America\u2019s energy storage market is going to grow 28 times bigger than it is today, reaching 1.6 gigawatts capacity within four years. Roughly half of that will be behind-the-meter in the form of residential or small commercial battery-plus-solar applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why is GE betting <\/span>on a relatively small German company that just started offering its battery system in the US? The answer boils down to experience, opportunity, and upside.<\/span><\/p>\n

Experience<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Sonnen was one of the first movers in the German market as soon as the question arose how to best store energy from residential photovoltaic (PV) systems after the German government introduced a generous feed-in tariff in 2000. Sonnen understood that batteries will eventually become commodities. Instead of developing better lithium-ion technologies, the company focused on software and system integration. As a result, it was able to offer a competitive battery system for homeowners early while many established players in the German market had to play catch-up.<\/span><\/p>\n

To date, Sonnen claims to have installed more than 10,000 units, mostly in Germany, while aggressively expanding in markets like Australia, the UK, and the US. Tesla had to learn the hard way what this kind of experience is worth when it was faced with customer complaints about its first units delivered in Germany making too much noise. At least in <\/span>one instance<\/a>,<\/span> the Powerwall was replaced with a Sonnen system. Talk about bad publicity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Opportunity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There are no two ways about it: Putting a battery in your basement to store energy from your PV solar system is not economical at this point. The money you have to spend for each kilowatt-hour to be put into the battery and taken out later hovers between 40\u00a2 and 80\u00a2 per kilowatt-hour. That\u2019s way more expensive than electricity from the grid, even if you apply a 30 percent federal tax credit, which you might be eligible for if you charge the battery largely with self-generated solar power. Check this video to find more about kilowatt-hour.<\/span><\/p>\n