German residential solar-plus-storage startup Sonnen GmbH has raised a fresh €60 million in a financing round led by the investment arm of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the company announced May 23. Sonnen's existing strategic and private-equity investors also pitched in.
This latest funding comes on top of nearly $100 million collected from GE Ventures, Envision Energy Ltd, INVEN Capital and others since Sonnen was founded in 2010, according to S&P Capital IQ data.
In addition to accelerating Sonnen's expansion in the United States and Australia, Shell has committed to a strategic agreement with the company to explore "integrated energy propositions," Sonnen said, including "enhanced [electric vehicle] charging ... and grid services" based on its "virtual battery pool." The oil major already has a stake in electric vehicle charging. In October 2017, it agreed to acquire New Motion, one of Europe's largest EV charging providers.
"The great team at Sonnen has succeeded in building a market-leading position in residential storage," Brian Davis, Shell's vice president of energy solutions, said in a news release. "This investment enables us to combine Shell's power business activities with Sonnen's high quality, innovative products and business model to enhance our consumer energy offerings."
The investment comes as Sonnen begins to ship batteries to U.S. homebuilder Mandalay Homes for a planned nearly 3,000-home community under construction in Jasper, Ariz. Each home will come equipped with a 3- to 4-kWh solar system and Sonnen's residential batteries that will enable two hours of storage, according to Olaf Lohr, senior manager of U.S. subsidiary Sonnen Inc. Once completed, the community would have 20 MW/40 MWh of storage.
"We are going to provide a quality of living that incorporates green living and low energy bills," Lohr said in a recent interview. "This is not something that will happen in the future. It's happening now."
