Former Tesla Powerwall Sales Manager takes over as SONNEN VP of Sales to ramp U.S. business
December 6, 2016 (Los Angeles, CA) – SONNEN, the market leader in intelligent residential energy storage, announced today that Blake Richetta, former North American Sales Manager for Tesla Energy, will head SONNEN’s growing expansion in the U.S. as Vice President of Sales. In sharp contrast to Tesla Energy, SONNEN is focused on distributing their smart home energy products through local and regional installation partners, while Tesla’s Powerwall 2.0 is expected to be sold in large part via the newly combined Tesla/Solarcity organization. Prior to Tesla, Blake spent 15 years at Lutron Electronics, building Lutron’s smart home lighting and shading business through multiple channels of distribution. Blake’s experience in consumer electronics is a key to advancing SONNEN’s market leadership in the U.S.
The appointment of Richetta to head U.S. Sales comes on the heels of the company’s announcement of an $85M minority equity financing in the global sonnen Group by several investors, including Envision Energy, and an earlier investment by GE Ventures. SONNEN’s recent introduction of the sonnenFlat utility program in combination with their sonnenCommunity in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy has recently been recognized by the MIT’s smartest companies list in 2016. Richetta is the latest in a series of talent acquisitions for SONNEN and he joins six other former European Tesla Managers at the company. “We are extremely happy to see top European and U.S. talent join SONNEN’s ranks to support our vision of clean and affordable energy for all” adds Philipp Schroeder, Managing Director and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer of SONNEN.
“SONNEN is the global leader in smart energy storage innovations. SONNEN recognizes the vital role that regional distribution partners play in the U.S.,” observed Blake. “Also SONNEN understands like no other company in this sector, that winning at energy storage requires the smartest not the cheapest battery box. By installing a proven, intelligent network of batteries, SONNEN is creating an additional value for all by aggregating many systems to create a true virtual power plant that increases the resiliency of the utility grid and provides an alternative to conventional power plants. SONNEN is building the future of energy.”
SONNEN develops and manufactures the sonnenBatterie smart energy management systems in Germany and in San Jose, California. Through its sonnenCommunity, homeowners throughout Europe can produce, store and share their own electricity. SONNEN's latest development, the sonnenFlat, is the next step in virtual power plants enabling thousands of sonnenBatteries to be aggregated into one large storage pool that provides balancing energy for the powergrid in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy.
About SONNEN
At SONNEN, we believe clean, affordable, and reliable energy for all is one of the greatest challenges of our time. With 15,000 sonnenBatterie systems installed worldwide, sonnen Group is a proven global leader in intelligent energy management solutions that provide greater energy control for residential and commercial customers through increased solar self-consumption, reduced peak energy usage and reliable backup power during outages – contributing to a cleaner and more reliable energy future. sonnen has won several awards for its energy innovations and sonnenBatterie products, including MIT’s Technology Review’s 50 Smartest Companies 2016, Cleantech Global 100 for 2015 and 2016, Greentech Media’s 2016 Grid Edge Award for innovation, and Cleantech’s 2015 Company of the Year Award in both Israel and Europe. Learn more at https://sonnenusa.com/en/ or follow us on Twitter.
Press Contact
Michelle Mapel, Director of Marketing, sonnen, Inc.
m.mapel@sonnen-batterie.com
(626) 825-5580
