Shell intends to sell German solar storage firm sonnen

Shell is reportedly considering the sale of sonnen, a German solar storage manufacturer that it acquired around four years ago for roughly €500 million. This potential divestment comes as Shell, like many other energy companies, faces challenges due to shrinking retail profit margins amid rising wholesale energy prices following supply disruptions.

Sources familiar with the matter suggest that sonnen could be valued at €1.35 billion to €1.8 billion, which is three to four times its expected 2023 sales of €450 million. However, neither Shell nor sonnen has officially confirmed these reports.

Sonnen specializes in providing storage batteries for rooftop solar systems. Last month, the company celebrated connecting 25,000 homes to the grid, accumulating a capacity of 250 megawatt-hours (MWh). While 250 MWh represents a relatively small portion of total power demand in Western countries, it positions sonnen as a notable player in the European electricity storage sector.

While sonnen has refrained from commenting on these reports, the company emphasizes its ongoing global expansion strategy in the growing energy storage market.

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Italy’s Edison secures U.S. LNG supply in 15-year Shell deal

Italy’s Edison, a subsidiary of France’s EDF, has secured a new long-term supply deal with Shell to import liquefied natural gas from the United States, a move that underlines Europe’s accelerating pivot away from Russian energy and toward U.S. hydrocarbons. Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Edison will receive around 0.7 million tonnes of LNG per year beginning in 2028, with the contract running for up to 15 years.

Though relatively modest in volume compared to Italy’s total gas demand, the deal represents a strategic addition to Edison’s LNG portfolio at a time when Rome is striving to diversify its energy sources. Italy has been among the EU’s most active players in reshaping gas imports since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rapidly building new regasification capacity and positioning itself as a southern European gateway for non-Russian LNG.

Iran conflict gas shock reaches India’s auto supply chain

India’s auto industry is discovering how an external energy shock can reach factory floors faster than many expected. The Iran conflict has begun choking gas availability for parts suppliers and manufacturers tied to carmakers such as Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Mahindra, creating the risk of production slowdowns just as India’s passenger-vehicle market is on track for a record year with sales expected to exceed 4.5 million units by the end of March.

Because inventories are lean and demand is strong, the system has little slack. That means even localized fuel shortages can quickly turn into assembly-line stress. The background is that India is one of the major economies most exposed to a West Asia energy disruption.

Europe’s biggest new battery plant to be built in Spain, by China’s CATL

China’s CATL is about to pour concrete under one of the most telling contradictions in Europe’s industrial strategy: Brussels wants “strategic autonomy” from China in clean tech, yet the continent’s biggest new battery plant will run on Chinese know-how.

CATL and Stellantis are now starting construction of a €4.1 billion lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) battery gigafactory in Figueruelas, a village next to Stellantis’s existing plant near Zaragoza in Aragón. Backed by more than €300 million in EU and Spanish public funding, the factory is slated to begin production in late 2026 and ramp up to roughly 1 million EV battery packs a year by 2028, making it Spain’s largest battery facility and one of the flagship projects of Europe’s electrification push.

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