Shell to acquire battery firm sonnen

Shell is to acquire German battery storage manufacturer sonnen in a bid to accelerate its home energy services position.

Sonnen is to sit as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell should the acquisition clear regulatory approvals, and the deal comes less than a year after Shell made an investment in the battery firm.

The companies said the deal stood to accelerate their respective abilities to provide integrated energy services and electric vehicle charging solutions to homes, while also benefitting the provision of grid services via sonnen’s virtual power plant platform.

Mark Gainsborough, executive vice president for new energies at Shell, said full ownership of sonnen would allow it to offer customers more choice over their energy consumption.

“Together, we can accelerate the building of a customer-focused energy system in support of Shell’s strategy to offer more and cleaner energy solutions to customers.”

Shell’s interest in catering for consumers’ home energy needs is well documented and has escalated since it acquired independent supplier First Utility in December 2017.

Its New Energies unit has also become home to a host of other decarbonised and decentralised energy investments over the last few months including solar developers Silicon Ranch and Cleantech Solar and Dutch EV group NewMotion.

Christoph Ostermann, chief executive and co-founder at sonnen, said: “Shell New Energies is the perfect partner for helping us grow in a market that is expanding rapidly. With this investment we’re excited to help more households to become energy independent and benefit from new opportunities in the energy market. Shell will help drive the growth of sonnen to a new level and help speed up the transformation of the energy system.”

No financial terms of the deal have been disclosed.