Battery producer sonnen wants to connect e-cars for power storage

German battery company sonnen wants to equip electric car users with a new charging box that not only allows them to draw electricity from solar panels on their homes, but also connects them to other users, making them part of a larger battery pool. The sonnenCharger “makes e-cars part of sonnen’s virtual power plant consisting of clean energy producers, storage devices and consumers,” the company says in a press release. The charger takes excess energy from other e-cars if a customer’s own solar panels do not produce enough, sonnen says. Users are eligible to receive up to 8,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity free of charge per year as part of the sonnenFlat. Connecting to sonnen’s system also helps reduce pressure on the electricity grid, the company says. As many distribution grids in urban areas aren’t prepared to handle a large number of e-cars, using the vehicles to store power can help reduce the need for new power lines and steer charging cycles in a smart way, sonnen says.

Find the press release in German here.

Read the CLEW dossier The energy transition and Germany’s power grid for more information.