- 30
- July
2013
Philipp Schroeder pitches Sonnenbatterie from Bavaria
Ecosummit TV: Philipp Schroeder pitches Sonnenbatterie at Ecosummit Berlin 2013. The German cleantech startup is actually called Prosol Invest Deutschland but the brand they are building is Sonnenbatterie. The smart green product they make and sell like hotcakes is the Tesla of residential energy storage. The solar battery is a smart storage solution with a built-in smart meter that you connect to your PV system and the Internet to actively manage your local energy production and consumption. By using a mobile app the homeowner may easily decide whether to feed-in or consume the homemade electricity. Sonnenbatterie is backed by eCapital and their sales curve has the shape that makes VCs very happy. Founded in 2010, Sonnenbatterie launched in 2011 and has already got €15M in their order book in 2013, with 6 more months to go. At ECO13 Berlin, Sonnenbatterie won Ecosummit Award Jury Bronze in recognition of their business potential and milestones reached. We expect a busy phone line with calls from late stage cleantech VCs trying to get in.
Read more- 21
- July
2013
Prof. Eicke Weber is very optimistic about the solar industry
Ecosummit TV: Prof. Eicke Weber, Director of Fraunhofer ISE, is very optimistic about the future of the solar industry. Firstly, the PV cost curve is going down continuously. Even in Germany with Alaska-type sunshine, we can produce electricity with silicon-based PV for 10-12 cents/kWh. At this cost level, grid parity is already outperformed since 1 kWh costs 22 cents (net) in Germany if you buy it from your local utility. Making your own electricity and storing it in a solar battery is a smart economic idea. Secondly, the global solar market will grow 10 times from 30 GW/year in 2012 to 300 GW/year by 2025. At the same time, higher efficiencies and lower production costs make PV competitive with onshore wind and hydro power. The current oversupply of 60 GW/year is a temporary phenomenon that causes trouble for PV manufacturers for another 1-2 years. Afterwards, Europe should reenter the PV industry with a “multi-GW solar Airbus project” to drive the enormous PV industry again as a technology leader.
Read more- 28
- April
2013
Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches solar e-commerce startup Greenergetic
Ecosummit TV: Florian Meyer-Delpho pitches Greenergetic at ECO12 Düsseldorf and believes that the market is ready for their solar e-commerce business model thanks to grid parity. Greenergetic develops an online portal to bring PV and smart home solutions directly to residential end customers. Houseowners can plan, finance and order their preferred PV system online. The Bielefeld-based cleantech startup also offers a whitelabel solution for utilities that are increasingly interested in selling solar systems to their customer base. Backed by eCapital and following the role model of Solarcity, Greenergetic is about to launch their new portal very soon.
Read more- 10
- May
2011
Tilman Eichstaedt of Inventux on Thin-film Solar and German Grid Parity in 2011
Tilman Eichstaedt, management team member of Inventux, gave a very interesting presentation at ECO11 about the Berlin-based thin-film solar manufacturer and the future prospects of solar power. According to Tilman, we will have reached grid parity in Germany in the second half of this year. The feed-in tariff in Germany for larger installations (more than 1.000 KW) will be around €0.20 per KWh in Q3 and Q4 of 2011 while people pay €0.22 per KWh in Germany.
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