Home battery maker Sonnen files for insolvency two months after Shell sold it

Sonnen, the German maker of home battery storage systems, has filed for insolvency, German business daily Handelsblatt reported on Oct. 22. The filing comes months after oil major Shell sold the company to family office Tiven this summer.

About 400 employees were told on Thursday

Sonnen GmbH, based in Wildpoldsried in Germany's Allgäu region, informed its roughly 400 remaining employees of the filing on Thursday morning, according to Handelsblatt. The company confirmed the proceedings to the paper, though no official notice had yet appeared in the insolvency register, pv magazine reported.

Customers will still be served

Sonnen will keep serving its more than 150,000 existing customers, Handelsblatt reported. Many of its subsidiaries are expected to be liquidated or placed into self-administered insolvency proceedings, and only one production facility will remain in operation, according to the report.

The U.S. business says it is growing

On the same day, Sonnen USA said Tiven had acquired the entire global business and that its U.S. sales had doubled year over year while production tripled. The unit expects to sell more than 180 MWh of residential battery storage in the U.S. this year, driven by virtual power plant programs, including more than 6,000 participating households in Texas through its partnership with Solrite.

"Tiven is fully committed to the long-term success of Sonnen USA," CEO Blake Richetta said. Sonnen USA declined to comment on the German insolvency, pv magazine reported.