“Power from the cupboard”

Today, all a household needs to secure an autonomous power supply is a roof-top solar panel, internet access and a cupboard-sized battery in the basement, writes Inge Kloepfer in weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung. By offering just that, battery manufacturer Sonnen GmbH has become an energy provider in itself – with the help of its customers, Kloepfer says. The company builds batteries that not only store power but also communicate with a platform to create a virtual power plant that adapts to the power demand of the connected households. Once guaranteed feed-in tariffs for the first wave of solar panels expire in 2020, many owners will rethink what to do with the power they produce and many could decide to join a virtual power plant and become even more independent of conventional power production, Kloepfer writes.