Sonnen lands biggest battery order in Australia with housing developer

One Step Off The Grid

A new housing development in Victoria will include 270 sonnen residential batteries, as part of a project that aims to cut household power bills by 60 per cent, and to help power a water treatment plant that is expected to cut water consumption by 70 per cent.

The 460-home project, which is being developed by Villawood Properties and state-owned utility South East Water, will offer buyers of the “Aquarevo” homes the option of 5kW of rooftop solar, plus battery storage provided by sonnen.

According to the project’s developers, new solar and storage component of the development join the proposed water recycling plant, which would treat the community’s wastewater, and pipe the treated water back to homes for use in gardens, toilets or washing machines.

And the batteries could help to power it. Villawood said it was exploring the opportunity to use the stored solar electricity from the network of batteries in the Aquarevo community to supply the water recycling plant.

Beyond the water saving initiatives, which will reduce water consumption by up to 70 per cent, the batteries are also expected to enable those homes using them to reduce their energy consumption costs by up to 60 per cent.

“Aquarevo will serve as a standout example of effective collaboration between the government and private sector,” said Villawood Properties’ Executive Director, Rory Costelloe.

“We are thrilled to welcome sonnen on board and are very proud to collaborate with such an innovative organisation, clearly committed to applying new technologies to achieve positive environmental outcomes.

“These collaborations will see the delivery of a high quality residential community where families can positively impact the environment just by moving in,” he said.

The deal, announced on Thursday, is the first major Australian property development collaboration for German battery giant, sonnen, and marks its single biggest private sector project to date, the company says.

As we have reported on One Step, the addition of solar and battery storage to new-build houses is rapidly becoming the norm in the Australian market.

Tesla’s Powerwalls 1 and 2 have been used in various housing projects and deals by major property developers around the country, including a recent offer from Victorian property developer, Porter Davis, of rooftop solar and battery storage as a standard feature for “knockdown rebuild” homes.

The federal and state governments have also been pushing the inclusion of battery storage in new-build homes, with both the CEFC and the Victorian government recently partnering with land developers to encourage the practice.

This article was originally published on RenewEconomy’s sister site, One Step Off The Grid, which focuses on customer experience with distributed generation. To sign up to One Step’s free weekly newsletter, please click here.