Germany’s Siemens and Sonnen leading new wave in home battery storage

Residential battery storage is poised to become a major industry, reports Patrick McGee in the Financial Times. That trend has been highlighted by major recent investments from German industrial conglomerate Siemens, which rolled out its first home-battery storage system earlier this year, and the oil major Shell, which just purchased the German home battery maker Sonnen. The two European companies are now challenging the current market leader, Tesla, which controls 30 percent of home battery sales in the US, according to consultancy Frost & Sullivan, FT reports. Sonnen is currently Tesla’s biggest competitor in the US, with 19 percent of the market.

Residential home batteries remain a niche market, but one that is growing rapidly as battery prices drop, McGee writes. Currently, Germany, the US and Australia make up three-quarters of the global market, which is dominated by home-owners who want to generate their own renewable electricity and sell it back to the grid. There is, however, a major opportunity in middle-income countries like India, where many homes and businesses currently rely on generators to deal with frequent power outages, McGee reports.

Experts say that battery storage is key to expanding the use of renewable energy worldwide.