GE Ventures has announced an investment in sonnen, a Germany-based manufacturer of residential energy storage systems.
Sonnen is Europe's largest producer of lithium-based battery systems for solar energy and has so far supplied over 10 000 households around the world with its sonnenBatterie system, GE said.
The technology enables households to "make a clean break" from the grid and is a key element for the creation of a global decentralised grid based on clean energy, GE added in a blog post. It said that the sonnenBatterie can provide households with a return on investment in just six and a half years, and also enables users to share their self-produced energy.
GE Ventures has paid a "mid double-digit million-euro" sum for a minority stake in the company, Bloomberg reported.
The uptake of residential energy storage systems is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years as households with rooftop solar panels begin to realise the benefits of storage and take advantage of new battery products on the market.
These include Tesla's Powerwall home battery and Bosch Power Tec's battery products.
The German Energy Storage Association forecasts that home storage systems hooked to rooftop solar modules will number at least 170 000 in Germany by 2020, Bloomberg said.
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