Owners of sonnen batteries in Australia may be able to extract even more value from their innovative energy storage systems soon.
The Financial Review has revealed the multi-award winning German company intends introducing sonnenFlat to its Australian customers within the next couple of months.
The sonnenFlat concept is already active in Germany, with approximately 6,000 participants. It creates a pool of sonnen battery systems that is capable of performing tasks usually only carried out by large power stations; such as grid balancing.
Under the optional arrangement, participating households and businesses receive free electricity to help address times their solar power system output and storage isn’t covering consumption. In return, sonnen is permitted to utilise the storage capacity of the batteries in the pool to provide short-term grid balancing services to network operators. This could include absorbing surplus energy on the grid, or supplying energy in case of a deficit.
Engaging the pool only occurs if there are short-term fluctuations in the electricity network; i.e. a few minutes a week; ensuring minimal overall impact on stored energy. The functionality is enabled in part via the addition of a small plug-in device called the sonnenFlat-box.
In Germany, sonnenFlat works on tiers – the capacity of the solar + storage system determines the amount of free electricity the owner is entitled to. If above this level is used, then the system owner is charged for that energy, but at a rate significantly lower than standard retail electricity rates.
We’ll publish more details on how sonnenFlat will be applied in Australia as they become available.
In other recent news from sonnen, the company has announced a new North American Innovation Center that combines the company’s U.S. manufacturing operations and product research and development in a single facility.
It’s expected the InnovationHub will commence production of sonnenBatterie systems in the second quarter this year.
“We expect that linking our U.S. manufacturing and R&D teams in one facility will increase the rate of product innovation, and enable us to better adapt to the future needs of the high-growth U.S. residential energy storage market,” said Christoph Ostermann, sonnen Group CEO.
16,000 sonnenBatterie systems are installed worldwide and the company has won a slew of awards and recognition; most recently gaining a spot on Fast Company’s 10 Most Innovative Companies in Energy for 2017.
