Senec ramps up Australia home battery offensive with Sydney office, new GM

German battery maker Senec has expanded its presence in the Australian market with the addition of an office in Sydney, and the appointment of a new general manager of sales and service, Patrick Duignan.

The company, which opened its first Australian office in Perth two years ago, last year launched its V3 Hybrid “integrated energy storage” solution – a 4.5kWh/9kWh battery system that offers back-up supply in black-outs, VPP readiness and a newly extended 20-year warranty.

At the battery’s launch at the All-Energy Australia conference and exhibition in Melbourne in October, the company expressed hope at being in the right place at the right time, considering just 4-5 per cent of new solar installations in Australia currently include storage.

“In Germany we are now up to 80 per cent of new installations are with storage,” said Senec managing director Jaron Schächter at All-Energy.

“We really hope that we can change that part of the [Australian] dynamic.”

As One Step noted at the time, Senec is one to watch, given that it is 100 per cent owned by German-based EnBW, which claims to be one of biggest “gen-tailers” in the world, thus ensuring that the hybrid battery systems are grid compatible.

“This, combined with the backing of EnBW and the ability to offer a 20-year warranty, makes Senec a very strong and attractive choice for the Australian residential market,” said Duignan in comments this week.

“We look forward to growing the team on the eastern seaboard with a new business development manager joining us in March.”

Duignan, who has done time with Hanwha Q Cells Australia and SMA Technology, said his focus at Senec Australia would be to encourage more solar suppliers to take advantage of the support, training, education and technical assistance available to them from the SENEC team.

“It is rare to be able to join a company that has embraced the needs of the market and developed a premium product and service solution that is tailored based on those needs,” he said.

As noted in October, the V3 Hybrid is also a floor mounted rather than wall mounted battery system, which could help it get around some of the more confounding rules that currently govern residential installations in Australia.

On cost, Schächter last year said the battery system was “basically on a level with a Tesla, but this has got a PV inverter in it.” The company also claims that the V3 can provide solar households with up to 90 per cent power self-sufficiency.