Times are looking good for the energy storage industry, and particularly for German energy storage company Sonnen, who has been significantly growing its market share over the last couple of years. The world is looking towards energy storage as the key for renewable energy, especially solar, integration into the energy mix, which is why Sonnen wants to seize the opportunity to expand its growth trajectory.
The new investment of USD 85 million came from the company’s most recent financing round, which has just been completed. Interestingly, two new investors have decided to take stakes in Sonnen, international technology company Envision Energy, and former CEO and ex-Chairman of Allianz Capital Partners, Thomas Putter.
“The future of energy is clean, decentralised and digital,” said Lei Zhang, CEO of Envision Energy. “With its Sonnen Community platform and smart sonnenBatterie technology, Sonnen already demonstrates how our energy infrastructure will look tomorrow. We were impressed by their proven capabilities, their rapid growth and the high level of continuing innovation in the energy space.”
The reason that Sonnen was looking for fresh investment was to continue to build on its impressive growth trajectory. It wants to deepen its position in the German market, but also expand its business in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Italy.
“We want to become the energy supplier of the future. Fast growth and leadership in innovation are the keys to reaching this goal,” commented Christoph Ostermann, CEO of Sonnen Group. “With Envision Energy, we have gained a strategic investor who shares our vision, supplements our technology and has a strong presence in both the U.S. and Asian markets.”
In a recent interview with pv magazine, Philipp Schröder clarified just what the company plans on doing with the new funds, explaining that the company now has more money to invest than any other company in the sector. Most of the investment will indeed go to expansion in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets, but that a large chunk of the funds will go on research and development.
Schröder also explained that with the two new investment partners, Sonnen has gained some experts in the field of energy. He believes that these new partners will be well placed to open doors to the company, while allowing it to continue to develop its products.
Sonnen appears to be in prime position to take advantage of a huge boom in the energy storage market as of late. And that boom doesn’t look like stopping anytime soon, as just last week the World Energy Council predicted that the cost of energy storage should drop by an astonishing 70% over the next 15 years, at the 23rd World Energy Congress. This comes as governments look towards energy storage as an answer to integrate renewable energy sources into the energy mix.
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