sonnen GmbH (proprietary name and abbreviated form: sonnen) is a company in the

energy industry The energy industry refers to all of the industries involved in the production and sale of energy, including fuel extraction, manufacturing, oil refinery, refining and distribution. Modern society consumes large amounts of fuel, and the energy in ...

headquartered in

Wildpoldsried Wildpoldsried is a municipality in the district of Oberallgäu in Bavaria in Germany. The village has been recognized for its exceptional achievements in renewable energy production and in reducing its carbon footprint. History The earliest know ...

in the district of

Oberallgäu Oberallgäu is a Districts of Germany, ''Landkreis'' (district) in Swabia (Bavaria), Swabia, Bavaria, Germany. It is bounded by (from the north and clockwise) the districts of Unterallgäu and Ostallgäu, the Austrian states State of Tyrol, Tyrol a ...

, Germany. It produces home energy storage systems for private households and

small businesses Small businesses are types of corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships which have a small number of employees and/or less annual revenue than a regular-sized business or corporation. Businesses are defined as "small" in terms of being ...

. The company is considered the market leader in Germany and additional international markets. Moreover, it is the center of a community for supplying power from renewable energies.

Company development

Company

Christoph Ostermann and Torsten Stiefenhofer founded the company in 2010 as a GmbH (German limited liability company). The legal name of the company at that time was ''PROSOL Invest Deutschland GmbH''. In December 2013, the shareholders' meeting decided to change the company name to ''sonnenBatterie GmbH'', in order to adopt the name of its product range and to support the goal of internationalization. Since November 2015, the company has operated as ''sonnen,'' under which all the company's individual activities are organized.

Business development

From 2008 to 2010 above all founder Torsten Stiefenhofer developed a home battery marketed from 2011 under the name of ''sonnenBatterie''. As a

solar battery Solar may refer to: Astronomy * Of or relating to the Sun ** Solar telescope, a special purpose telescope used to observe the Sun ** A device that utilizes solar energy (e.g. "solar panels") ** Solar calendar, a calendar whose dates indicate t ...

, the product is geared especially to independent homeowners with a

photovoltaic system A photovoltaic system, also called a PV system or solar power system, is an electric power system designed to supply usable solar power by means of photovoltaics. It consists of an arrangement of several components, including solar panels to abso ...

. As of mid-2016, eight generations of this power storage system have been developed and marketed. Germany is the main sales market for the devices. The company also distributes the home batteries in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, United Kingdom, Ireland,

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, Italy,

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, the United States and Australia (current as of: October 2016). Along with the renaming of the company to ''Sonnen GmbH'', the company announced in November 2015 that starting in 2016, it would establish its own power community, whose members can trade power among themselves. Andreas Menn: ''Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit''. In: ''WirtschaftsWoche'', November 27, 2015. Since September 2016, owners of a ''sonnenBatterie'', who are a member of this power community, can obtain electricity at a

flat rate A flat fee, also referred to as a flat rate or a linear rate refers to a pricing structure that charges a single fixed fee for a service, regardless of usage. Less commonly, the term may refer to a rate that does not vary with usage or time of u ...

. At the beginning of May 2017,

TenneT TenneT is a transmission system operator in the Netherlands and in a large part of Germany. ''TenneT B.V.'' is the national electricity transmission system operator of the Netherlands, headquartered in Arnhem. Controlled and owned by the Dutch ...

and ''sonnen'' announced their plans to implement decentralized photovoltaic domestic storage batteries using

blockchain The blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of Record (computer science), records (''blocks'') that are securely linked together via Cryptographic hash function, cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of th ...

technology to help stabilize the

power grid ''Power Grid'' is the English-language version of the second edition of the multiplayer German-style board game ''Funkenschlag'', designed by Friedemann Friese and first released in 2004. ''Power Grid'' was released by Rio Grande Games. I ...

and improve the integration of renewable energies. This offers a new source of income to ''sonnen'' customers who take part in the system. Furthermore, the planned blockchain

pilot project A pilot experiment, pilot study, pilot test or pilot project is a small-scale preliminary study conducted to evaluate feasibility, duration, cost, adverse events, and improve upon the study design prior to performance of a full-scale research pr ...

is meant to improve and simplify the networking of storage batteries, photovoltaic systems and power grids, as well as make them more efficient. From an economic perspective, this technology and sonnen’s battery pool (''sonnenCommunity'') could reduce the redispatching costs for stabilizing the power grid.

Business fields

Power storage

Like other home storage systems, the ''sonnenBatterie'' from ''sonnen'' is also designed to increase the rate of own consumption of self-produced energy. Usually, a level of self-consumption of 30 to 55 percent can be reached with a photovoltaic system, when using smart-home functions. With a storage system, this rate is around 60 to 80 percent, as the self-produced electricity can be stored until it is consumed within the household. There is less need to source external electricity, especially mornings or evenings. Since its market launch, the company has designed the ''sonnenBatterie'' as a fully integrated system. In addition to the battery modules, it has an integrated

power inverter A power inverter, inverter, or invertor is a power electronic device or circuitry that changes direct current (DC) to alternating current (AC). The resulting AC frequency obtained depends on the particular device employed. Inverters do the op ...

, a unit for power management, along with electronic meters for power consumption in the building, for photovoltaic power generation and for feeding power into the

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Space partitioning * Regular grid, a tessellation of space with translational symmetry, typically formed from parallelograms or higher-dimensional analogs ** Grid graph, a graph structure with nodes connec ...

or power-sharing in connection with the ''sonnenCommunity''. The power management system evaluates the user's consumption data and takes weather statistics into account, in order to determine the optimal time intervals for charging and discharging the storage system. Moreover, the ''sonnenBatterie'' can be combined with

heat pump A heat pump is a device that uses electricity to transfer heat from a colder place to a warmer place. Specifically, the heat pump transfers thermal energy using a heat pump and refrigeration cycle, cooling the cool space and warming the warm s ...

small wind turbine Small wind turbines, also known as micro wind turbines or urban wind turbines, are wind turbines that generate electricity for Microgeneration, small-scale use. These turbines are typically smaller than those found in wind farms. Small wind tur ...

s or combined heat and power plants.Heiko Schwarzburger: Endkunden virtuell vernetzt. In: ''Photovoltaik'', 12/2015, p. 72–74, here p. 73. The storage elements deployed are

lithium iron phosphate batteries The lithium iron phosphate battery ( battery) or LFP battery (''lithium ferrophosphate'') is a type of lithium-ion battery using lithium iron phosphate () as the cathode material, and a graphitic carbon electrode with a metallic backing as th ...

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

is the main supplier of these components.''Auf dem Weg zur dezentralen Energieversorgung''. In: ''Straubinger Tagblatt/Landshuter Zeitung'', June 21, 2016. The various models of the system differ above all in their rated capacity, expressed in

kilowatt hours A kilowatt-hour (unit symbol: kW⋅h or kW h; commonly written as kWh) is a non-SI unit of energy equal to 3.6 megajoules (MJ) in SI units, which is the energy delivered by one kilowatt of power for one hour. Kilowatt-hours are a common b ...

. In Germany, ''Sonnen'' was one of the first suppliers of lithium-ion batteries for stationary use in homes and is considered market leader in Germany and globally. Products are not distributed via wholesale trade but through selected specialty dealers. From 2011 to mid-October 2016, 15,000 units were sold. Most went to homeowners, along with farmers and small businesses.

Community

Since the first quarter of the year 2016, the company has organized the ''sonnenCommunity''. It involves a power producer community of photovoltaic system operators (homeowners and small business owners), who share surplus power with one another. In order to fill any power gaps in times when there is less sunlight, biogas systems are also included. Operators of small wind generators can also supply the community with power. The community combines three elements: the use of decentralized power generation, modern battery storage technology and digital networking of the participants. The concept is geared towards ''sonnen'' customers. The company grants prospective members a discount on the ''sonnenBatterie'' if they join the community. All members source power from the community at prices lower than from the grid. Moreover, ''sonnen'' handles the sale of surplus community power for them. By building up and expanding the community, the company hopes to boost sales of its ''sonnenBatterie''. Besides, each community member pays a monthly fee to ''sonnen''. The company in return handles the metering infrastructure and the software. The number of members at the beginning of October 2016 was around 3,000 households. In May 2016, the company began building up the community in Austria. The launch of the Swiss customer platform is announced for the 3rd quarter of 2016. Since September 2016, owners of a ''sonnenBatterie'' who are members of the ''sonnenCommunity'' can obtain electricity at a flat rate.

Shareholders

In addition to the founders, several financial investors have equity stakes in the company (current as of: October 2016): * In January 2013, ''eCAPITAL entrepreneurial Partners AG'', acquired a 30 percent share in the company for EUR 3 million. * The investment by ''Chrysalix SET Management B.V. (SET Ventures)'' and ''Munich Venture Partners'' was made at the end of 2014 as part of a

capital increase A seasoned equity offering (SEO) or capital increase is a new equity issued by an already publicly traded company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a st ...

of EUR 7.5 million, in which ''eCAPITAL'' also participated. * In mid-2015, ''Inven Capital, investiční fond, a.s.'', a subsidiary of the Czech energy firm ČEZ, invested in the

Allgäu The Allgäu (Standard ) is a region in Swabia in southern Germany. It covers the south of Bavarian Swabia, southeastern Baden-Württemberg, and parts of Austria. The region stretches from the pre-alpine lands up to the Alps. The main rivers flo ...

-based company as part of an additional capital increase. The investment involved a high single-digit sum in the millions. * In June 2016, sonnen enlisted GE Ventures, the

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

subsidiary of

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

, as an additional investor. * In October 2016, the company closed another

funding round A securities offering (or funding round or investment round) is a discrete round of investment, by which a business or other enterprise raises money to fund operations, expansion, a capital (economics), capital project, an acquisition, or some oth ...

, resulting in EUR 76 million. All previous investors were involved. The Chinese corporate group

Envision Energy Envision Energy () is a Chinese multinational corporation headquartered in Shanghai that provides wind turbines and energy management software. Envision has long-term strategic cooperations in the area of battery manufacturing with Renault, Nissa ...

and Thomas Pütter, formerly CEO and ex-chairman of Allianz Capital Partners, were added as new investors. *In February 2019, it was announced that

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New ...

would acquire 100% of the company for an undisclosed amount.

Management and human resources

Up until the end of 2014, the founders managed the company. At the beginning of 2015, there were changes in the management team. Hermann Schweizer replaced Torsten Stiefenhofer. The latter has since assumed the duties of Chief Innovation Officer. At the same time, the management team was supplemented by Oliver Koch, who had previously converted individual production of the battery systems over to

series production Mass production, also known as mass production, series production, series manufacture, or continuous production, is the production of substantial amounts of standardized products in a constant flow, including and especially on assembly lines. ...

. Starting in October 2015, Philipp Schröder switched from

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...

back to the then ''sonnenBatterie GmbH'' and is responsible as a member of management for Sales and Marketing. Within a few months, six additional ''Tesla'' managers followed him. Since the company's founding up to the summer of 2016, the number of employees has increased 20-fold. In June 2016 it was roughly 200, of whom 140 were employed in Wildpoldsried. In September 2016, the number of employees was 250 in total. At the beginning of 2017, some 300 employees worked for the company.

Locations

Up to the end of 2015, the company manufactured its battery storage systems exclusively in Wildpoldsried. Here production occurred for marketing under the company's own name and also as a white-label manufacturer for companies such as

SolarWorld SolarWorld is a German company dedicated to the manufacture and marketing of photovoltaic products worldwide by integrating all components of the solar value chain, from feedstock (polysilicon) to module production, from trade with solar panels ...

and

RWE RWE AG is a German multinational energy company headquartered in Essen. It generates and trades electricity in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the United States. In July 2020, RWE completed a far-reaching asset swap deal with E.ON first ...

. In 2015, the company established a production facility in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

. Here the company has been producing for the US market since the end of 2015. In June 2015, the company set up a location in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

(

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

) for

research and development Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...

, in order to adapt its own products to the conditions in the United States market.

Awards

The company has received several prizes and awards: * In 2017, it received the ''Zayed Future Energy Prize'' in the category ''Small and medium-sized enterprises''. * The

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT) honored the company in 2016 as one of the ''50 Smartest Companies 2016'' worldwide. * Out of 6,900 candidates, the company was inducted into the ''Global Cleantech 100'' list for the year 2015 at the ''Cleantech Forum'' in San Francisco. The panel of judges consider it one of the most innovative companies in the category of ''Europe & Israel''. * ''sonnen GmbH'' was among the winners in the comparison of home batteries carried out by the

market Market is a term used to describe concepts such as: *Market (economics), system in which parties engage in transactions according to supply and demand *Market economy *Marketplace, a physical marketplace or public market *Marketing, the act of sat ...

and

social research Social research is research conducted by social scientists following a systematic plan. Social research methodologies can be classified as quantitative and qualitative. * Quantitative designs approach social phenomena through quantifiable ...

firm ''EuPD Research'' and the results of which were published by

Wirtschaftswoche ''Wirtschaftswoche'' is a German weekly business news magazine published in Germany. ''Wirtschaft'' means “economy” (including business), and ''Woche'' is “week”. History and profile For many years, ''Wirtschaftswoche'' was published ...

in June 2016. * The company is among the winners of the ''StartGreen Award'' 2015. * In October 2015, the company was dubbed ''Wachstumschampion'' by Focus magazine. According to a statement by ''Focus'' and

Statista Statista (styled in all lower case) is a German online platform that specializes in data gathering and visualization. In addition to publicly available third-party data, Statista also provides exclusive data via the platform, which is collect ...

, the company was among the ten fastest-growing enterprises in Germany. * In 2014, the company received the EUR 100,000 Step-Award from FAZ-Institut and the industrial park operator ''Intraserv GmbH & Co. Höchst KG''.

Memberships

The company is a member of the ''Arbeitsgruppe Energiespeicher'' of the ''Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft'' and member of the ''Bundesverband Energiespeicher (BVES)''.

External links

Website of sonnen GmbH

References

{{reflist, 2 Oberallgäu Renewable energy companies of Germany Energy companies established in 2010