FEBRUARY 15, 2019
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to buy German residential solar battery maker sonnen, as the oil and gas major expands its electricity business in its bid for a bigger role in the global transition to low-carbon energy.
Sonnen, which has 40,000 battery systems worldwide and in 2017 had sales of 65 million euros ($73 million), is the German market leader in home storage batteries and has expanded into electric vehicle charging systems.
Regulatory approval and completion of the transaction, involving Shell New Energies, was expected in the first quarter of 2019, a sonnen spokesman said, without giving a value.
Sonnen would continue to operate from the Bavarian town of Wildpoldsried and its top management would stay on, he said.
Germany has 1.5 million solar systems whose subsidized sales tariffs are due to be phased out in coming years. By acquiring batteries, householders can store home-produced power and use it for themselves or sell it to the grid.
Shell, the world’s second largest listed oil and gas producer, has accelerated investment in renewable energy and power markets, betting on a rapid rise in electricity demand due to electric vehicle use and a switch to cleaner energy sources.
It has acquired vehicle charging technologies, solar power producers and retail energy supplier First Utility. Shell injected cash into sonnen last year to help it grow.
Sonnen’s existing investors, including GE Ventures and European private equity investors, will be bought out.
($1 = 0.8870 euros)
Reporting by Vera Eckert; Additional reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Edmund Blair
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
