Sonnen calls for storage tax breaks not subsidies

Tax breaks and greater efforts by industry to engage consumers should be used to grow the storage market in place of government subsidy, according to sonnen’s UK director.

Martin Allman said alternative methods should be employed. "The bottom line is that if the subsidy was there then it would help the industry to grow, without a doubt. I don't think there will be a subsidy though so I think what would be great for the government would be to get behind it and enable the industry to grow."

Speaking at Clean Energy Live UK, Allman said: "Things like tax breaks are more realistic to be achieved or looking at industry bodies to get engaged and drive forward energy storage and make it easy and accessible for consumers to use and to understand. Reduced VAT would be useful for those people who have already got PV installed and the next step is to increase their self-consumption,” he suggested.

The UK has emerged as one of the German company’s core markets in Europe, with sonnen planning to ramp up the sales of its domestic eco 8 energy storage devices to 100 per month. This solution, on show at sonnen’s stand, has been the key UK focus for the company since it began installing the devices here at the end of July.