Germany - Renewable energy on the horizon

German company Sonnen's goal is to provide their customers with clean and affordable energy. With a solar panel system and Sonnen's smart energy storage, households can cover up to 80 per cent of their energy needs with self-producedpower.

Christoph Ostermann and Torsten Stiefenhofer founded Sonnen in 2010 with the vision of making households more independent in their energy consumption. And with the SonnenBatteri, a household can store its self-produced energy for when it is needed. Members of the SonnenCommunity can share their excess energy with each other. They can also sell their surplus energy to the public grid – making it possible for others to also make use of the renewable energy.

The headquarters are located in Wildpoldsried, Bavaria, where Sonnen contributes to the village's fame as a renewable energy hub. But Sonnen is also present in cities such as Berlin, Bergamo, London, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Sydney.

How an EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement could help:

The negotiations for a trade agreement aim at cutting Australian tariffs on imports. For Sonnen that could mean a reduction in tariffs, which are currently at 5%.

The negotiations aim at making exporting easier with less paper work and at streamlining technical standards. This would cut prices and make companies like Sonnen more competitive on the Australian market.

By cutting the export costs, the trade agreement can make it easier for Australian consumers to choose an environmentally friendly source for their energy consumption.

For Sonnen, Australia is the second most important market after Europe. Australia has remarkably good conditions for its own solar power production with storage. The two years that we’ve been operating in this very dynamic market have also shown us that the people of Australia want to become independent and produce their own clean energy. Finally, by becoming energy independent, they will save a lot of money as the investment will pay for itself very quickly.

Christoph Ostermann,
Managing Director & CEO of Sonnen