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The German home-battery maker, sold by Shell to Tiven this summer, told about 400 staff of its filing on Oct. 22 while sonnen USA says sales doubled. Service for 150,000 customers is meant to continue.
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Sonnen home battery units in a residential garage, a product image from sonnen USA. The photo does not show the German operations.
Image: sonnen USA
Source · Press image from the sonnen USA website, used for news reporting.
Sonnen GmbH, the German home battery and virtual power plant company, has filed for insolvency about two months after Shell sold it to the investment group Tiven, according to Handelsblatt reports relayed by pv magazine and Electrek.
Handelsblatt reported that sonnen confirmed the filing and told roughly 400 employees at its base in Wildpoldsried, Bavaria, on Oct. 22. pv magazine noted that no official notice had yet appeared in the insolvency register.
According to Handelsblatt, sonnen intends to keep serving its more than 150,000 existing customers. Numerous subsidiaries are expected to be wound down or to enter insolvency proceedings under self-administration, and only one production site is expected to remain in operation. The reports do not say which site that is.
Sonnen USA expects to deliver more than 180 MWh in 2026, a company claim, while the German parent's filing is reported by pv magazine and Electrek.
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On the same day, sonnen USA announced that its US sales had doubled and production had tripled year over year, helped by expanded manufacturing in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It said it expects to deliver more than 180 MWh of residential battery storage in the US in 2026.
Much of that growth comes from virtual power plants, which link home batteries so they can support the grid. Sonnen said its SOLRITE offering in Texas serves more than 6,000 homes, combining rooftop solar, batteries, energy management and VPP participation. Its US chief executive, Blake Richetta, said Tiven is committed to the long-term success of sonnen USA.
Tiven bought the entire global business, including the US arm. Neither pv magazine nor Electrek could get sonnen USA to comment on the German insolvency, and the US announcement does not mention it.
The practical risk is continuity: home batteries already installed, and the VPP programmes built on them, depend on software support and service that a restructured parent must keep funded. Voltgrid News reported earlier on Germany's battery storage additions.
The 150,000-customer base and the 180 MWh US delivery target give a sense of scale. VPP fleets are built from exactly these installed units, so the German restructuring is a supply-continuity question for them.
The sale price Shell received was not officially published. Reports disagree on sonnen's recent revenue, so Voltgrid does not cite a figure. It is unclear how the German restructuring will affect manufacturing, software support and service for the US operation, and which production site survives. Sonnen did not answer pv magazine's request for comment.
