Australian households looking to use renewable energy to power their homes will soon have the choice of Europe’s leading producer of smart lithium-ion battery storage systems, Germany’s sonnen. Households potentially can save hundreds of dollars a year in power costs and reduce – or even cut altogether – their dependence on electricity networks.
sonnen’s first Australian partner True Value Solar, will be offering a system of solar roof panels and sonnen’s storage system, the sonnenBatterie. The sonnenBatterie is an All-in-One storage system with many smart functions. In comparison to most other suppliers it integrates the battery modules, the inverter, a smart energy manager and the measurement and communication technology in one package, making it easy to install and being very spaceefficient. sonnen expects to expand its number of installer partnerships in Australia.
Philipp Schröder, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer of Bavaria-based sonnen, said: “Australians are excited about the opportunities for self-consumption and energy storage right now. With our sonnenBatterie we can offer them a real choice of becoming independent and using clean power for an affordable price.” The sonnen intelligent battery system allows households to maximise the amount of power delivered by the battery to save money. The sonnenBatterie system is flexible allowing the household to choose between battery capacities ranging from 2 kilowatt hours (kWh) up to 16 kWh, and can be increased in a modular fashion in 2kWh stages. The optimum size for the average household would be 8-10kWh. A system of this capacity can save several hundreds of dollars a year in power costs.
A self-learning algorithm and data from the weather bureau processed by the smart system can identify the best time to start charging and, even with noone at home, can activate appliances like washing machines. True Value’s CEO, Robert Gattereder, said: “As Australia’s largest solar installer with the ability to provide storage systems anywhere in the country, we look forward to working with sonnen and bringing a premium German-engineered battery to the Australian market to assist households tap into a renewable energy source to save them potentially hundreds of dollars in power costs”
The sonnen system can be connected to any renewable energy source, including a wind turbine. The smart energy manager is the “brains” of the system, converting direct current (DC) power stored in the battery to appliance-friendly alternating current (AC) electricity in the home.
Chris Parratt, Country Director of sonnen Australia, said: “With sonnenBatterie, Australian households get access to a proven, reliable and very economic storage system. It has an outstanding ’Made in Germany’ quality that ensures that a household’s investment in becoming independent of expensive grid power is sustainable and safe.”
Australia has 1.5 million homes already fitted with solar panels, and many of these households will wish to benefit from the retro-fitting of an inverter and storage battery. The Climate Council recently estimated that household and commercial battery storage capacity would grow ten times from 90MW to 900MW in just four years between 2014 and 2018. The Council estimated that half of all households would have battery storage installed by 2030, a potential market worth $24 billion.
sonnen started in Germany in 2010, began marketing its products the following year and since then has sold over 10,000 of its storage systems. The sonnenBatterie is available today across Europe and the US, a market it entered late last year. Since sonnen started marketing its storage systems in 2011 it has moved to its 8th generation of technology with the latest “eco” variant. The composition of the lithium-ion-phosphate battery gives it a long life in terms of its competitors, with 10,000 charge and expend cycles. Recently sonnen introduced the sonnenCommunity in Germany, allowing households to share stored power with friends and relatives, which is commonly termed “peer-to-peer” selling. sonnen also plans to introduce this kind of connected online platform in Australia.