Germany battery storage maker Sonnenbatterie is set to release the full details of its much-hyped “free power” concept for households using rooftop solar and its battery storage systems.
In a grand event scheduled for Sydney on Wednesday evening, Sonnen will unveil its “Sonnen flat” offer that proposes “free power” to households using the system.
Of course, the power will not be free, because you need to buy the storage in the first place. But Sonnen promises to protect households against rising electricity prices, including the fixed costs that make up increasing amounts of consumer bills as networks respond to the growing use of solar and storage.
Earlier this year, Sonnen said the deal would include electricity drawn from the grid when the sun goes down and stored energy is used up.
In return, it said at the time, Sonnen would have access to its customers’ installed battery storage capacity to use as a sort of virtual power plant, to provide grid balancing services to network operators.
“The deal is, you buy a Sonnen battery to go with your solar and don’t pay for electricity any more,” Sonnen Australia head Chris Parratt told One Step Off The Grid in an interview in February.
“It’s like a mobile phone plan, where the customer purchases the phone up front and gets a plan, if you like. Or, if you use finance, you pay nothing up front, and pay monthly installments instead.
“That’s the way we see the market going,” Parratt added. “Eventually your electricity costs will look like a mobile phone plan.”
Sonnen is expected to unveil a retail strategy at the event, which may include the likes of Zen Energy, whose chairman Ross Garnaut will also speak, and which already uses the storage product.
Sonnen rolled out its flat rate model in Germany in September last year and now has 6,000 battery systems in the German balancing market.
Giles Parkinson is founder and editor of One Step Off The Grid, and also edits and founded Renew Economy and The Driven. He has been a journalist for 35 years and is a former business and deputy editor of the Australian Financial Review.
This post was published on July 5, 2017 10:19 am
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I sort of get the idea that you can "buy low - sell high" using a battery system to save electricity costs... but I expected far more explanation from the article on exactly how your electricity is supposed to be "free". I'm afraid this article sounds more like a 'sales pitch' than a piece of informative journalism...
Wait till tomorrow>
Parky, we just had the Sonnen presser to catch the media headlines to announce the scheme. We all need to wait for the full detail before passing judgement on this one. In Germany this idea has actually been running for a little while. It has worked okay in Germany so the same should be the case here in OZ ....provided that the 'Rule Makers' don't purposely put up new barriers....like with Standards Australia and their idea of 'bunkers' or 'cages' to enclose home battery installations.
All-u-can-eat electricity plans are demand-stimulating, utterly inefficient. That's not at all where the industry is heading unless the greedy corporations win.
Nope. The number of solar panels on the roof limits how much power is produced daily.
"Earlier this year, Sonnen said the deal would include electricity drawn from the grid when the sun goes down and stored energy is used up."
NO LIMIT
There must be a catch in there somewhere.
My fridge is on 24/7 anyway.
I will turn off my laptop when I am not using it - even if electricity is free - because I do not want to wear out the fan and HDD.
You are concerned for no reason.
New houses are mandated to have stinking 4.5L toilets. That is absolutely pathetic given that we have solar panels on the roof and a giant desalination plant powered by renewable energy. Stinking up our lives for the sake of virtue signalling.
Studies over decades show that residential energy consumers will increase consumption by approximately 3% in response to a 10% decrease in usage price, on average (called 'price elasticity of demand'). Consumers definitely respond to marginal price changes.
I completely agree about the toilets. It's better to be a little over than a little under, when it comes to toilet water supply.