Oil & gas company Shell buys German battery storage firm Sonnen
Clean Energy Wire
Oil and gas giant Shell is buying German home battery storage company Sonnen, turning the pioneer into a wholly owned subsidiary once regulatory authorities have approved the deal, Shell said in a press release. “Together, we can accelerate the building of a customer-focussed energy system in support of Shell’s strategy to offer more and cleaner energy solutions to customers,” Mark Gainsborough, Executive Vice President New Energies at Shell, said in the release. Sonnen founder Christoph Ostermann said Shell would help the company grow in a market that is expanding rapidly.
The start-up Sonnen, founded only in 2010, has been one of the driving forces behind the budding home storage boom in Germany. Shell in turn has started like other fossil fuel companies to broaden its business model in the energy transition e.g. by positioning gas as a back-up to fluctuating renewables but also through investment in other new energy areas. Media have reported that the British-Dutch oil company has also expressed interest in buying the Dutch energy company Eneco, owner of Germany’s largest green power provider Lichtblick.
