Shell moves to make batteries in Australia

Royal Dutch Shell’s purchase of German home battery maker, sonnen has cleared the way for it to enter the Australian market with a home-grown product.

Sonnen has already begun manufacturing home systems at a plant in the former Holden assembly plant at Elizabeth north of Adelaide.

It had plans to make 50,000 systems over five years, beginning with assembly and moving to full manufacture.

By the end of 2020 it expected to be employing 430 people at the site.

Executive vice president New Energies at Shell Mark Gainsborough said full ownership of sonnen would allow Shell to offer more choice to customers seeking reliable, affordable and cleaner energy.

“sonnen is one of the global leaders in smart, distributed energy storage systems and has a track record of customer-focused innovation,” he said.

“Together, we can accelerate the building of a customer-focused energy system in support of Shell’s strategy to offer more and cleaner energy solutions to customers.”

Shell has not revealed its plans for the local plant, however, with Australia now the world’s biggest market for home battery systems accounting for 30 per cent of global demand, it may factor in their plans.

This is not the first time a major oil company has moved into local renewable manufacturing. Shell operated a large solar PV panel factory at Homebush in Sydney, utilising local technology.

Picture: sonnen

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