Solarwatt to tap into German power battery market: innovation chief

By Vera Eckert FRECHEN, Germany (Reuters) - Solarwatt, a German company making home storage batteries to harness rooftop solar power, expects to double market share amid rapid growth and consolidation in the young industry next year, its innovation chief said. The company, whose main owner is BMW heir Stefan Quandt, has moved into the top league of a market dominated by peers Sonnen, LG Chem and Varta Microbattery. "We reached 10 percent market share in a year-and-a-half and expect a significant increase to 20 percent in 2017," Solarwatt chief innovation officer Andreas Gutsch told Reuters at the company's battery module production site near Cologne. The German market, which stood at 35,000 units sold in 2015, is expected to add 20,000 in 2016 and 30,000 in 2017, he said, stressing the figures were estimates only. Gutsch said the dozen players in the current market are likely to consolidate to possibly four or five over the next two years. Solarwatt, based in Dresden and employing 260 people, struck a cooperation deal for a minor part of its output with utility E.ON this year, and hopes to benefit, like its rivals, from a highly transparent market. This is thanks to public registration of 1.5 million small solar units, built since 1999, which from 2019 onwards will gradually see a generous 20-year subsidy scheme fade out. Operators who in the past relied on above-market payments for power they fed into the grid are expected to turn to storage, which will allow them to consume their own electricity when the sun does not shine. Germany, second to China in solar power capacity worldwide, currently charges retail customers at least 30 euro cents ($0.32) per megawatt hour for power from the grid, one of the highest prices worldwide, boosted by ample subsidies. With the cost of home-produced solar power a mere 10 cents, consumers can arrive at a cost between 22 and 27 cents by adding a storage unit. After a fall of more than a third over the past two years, prices for the storage units are likely to decline further thanks to scale effects, cheaper logistics and product improvements, Gutsch said. Solarwatt is also targeting Australia, which has cut funding for renewables, Italy, France and the Benelux. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)