A report from the ABC’s 7.30 program says sharing solar power, such as the sonnenFlat solar solution, is driving a savings revolution among Australian households.
Skyrocketing east coast power bills plus the plummeting cost of solar panels has seen households jump onto solar battery generation.
New battery technology is also allowing homes fitted with solar panels to connect with other solar households through the grid. They can then share excess solar power, creating “virtual power stations”.
This frees residents from total reliance on baseload power generation. Instead, customers join a community of homes using a revolutionary solar trading scheme.
SonnenFlat solar driving energy sharing boom
The ABC spoke to Stephen Fenech, who, sick of rising power bills, invested in a sonnenFlat solar panel and battery system.
After an initial outlay, Mr Fenech now pays a flat monthly fee to sonnen, which allows him to share solar power with others.
“It’s less than what I pay for my mobile phone a month,” he said.
He also said the sonnenFlat system gave him independence from mains grid power costs.
“I think I’m getting 90 per cent of my power from my panels and from the battery,” he said. “I’m only getting feed in from the grid, roughly, 10 to 15 per cent at the moment.”
Speaking to 7.30, sonnen MD Philipp Schröder said customers could sell surplus solar back to the grid when prices peaked.
“Imagine hundreds and thousands of other users — in Melbourne, in Sydney, in Brisbane,” he said.
“We connect those individuals — small power plants, if you want — to one large virtual power plant.”
Solar panels plus batteries = ‘energy revolution’
A report from Chief Scientist Alan Finkel suggests Australia has enough “behind the meter” storage to meet requirements under a 50 per cent renewable energy target.
Australian energy expert Kobad Bhavnagri from Bloomberg New Energy, agrees. He told 7.30 that sonnenFlat’s solar trading scheme is a “huge revolution”.
“The idea that it’s the the solar panel on your house that is giving power to an aluminium smelter is a revolution in energy,” he said.
Stephen Fenech, for one, has no regrets. “Sonnen will eventually become my power company,” he concluded.
Energy Matters’ parent company Flex is the exclusive distributor of sonnen batteries in Australia. Energy Matters customers can also sign up for sonnenFlat packages.
