German battery manufacturer to set up manufacturing in Australia

The company aims to produce 10’000 batteries a year to meet demand from Australian households seeking to substantially reduce their power bills, and for export to Asia Pacific markets. The manufacturing facility will generate hundreds of direct and indirect jobs in the short term, and will provide employment opportunities for many former Holden workers. Beyond its new factory, sonnen will also launch a sales and technical training facility in Adelaide dedicated to increasing skills in this new technology, the company states in a press release. The South Australian Government have announced a AUD 100 million Home Battery Scheme to assist households in purchasing sonnen storage systems through a combination of direct subsidy and low-interest loans. “We are excited at the prospect of manufacturing in South Australia for the Australian and export markets and to participating in making Australia the number one market globally for energy storage systems,” says sonnen founder and CEO Christoph Ostermann in the press release. sonnen will create a “virtual power plant” in South Australia to support the state and national grid infrastructure. The company already runs a ‘virtual power plant’ in Germany, connecting thousands of households with PV (photovoltaic) storage systems. sonnen’s intention is to have a network of batteries of sufficient scale to enable it to sell the equivalent of a gas-fired peaking power station into the national grid.