Geoff Ferrell, Highly-Acclaimed Energy Efficient Home Builder, Joins sonnen
Cutting-edge environmental building veteran to lead the acceleration of sonnen’s residential community VPP business deployment efforts in the U.S.
TUCKER, GA. – February 26, 2020 – sonnen, Inc. today announced the appointment of Geoff Ferrell as Director of Residential Specification Projects focused on taking sonnen’s already rapidly expanding and progressive residential community virtual power project (VPP) business model to the next level.
As chief technology officer of Mandalay Homes, Ferrell championed significant technological innovations in home building and building science, playing a central role in Mandalay Homes winning the US Department of Energy’s Zero Energy Ready Housing Innovation Award on 12 separate occasions. Ferrell brings a proven background of excellence in energy management, environmental building practices and, most importantly, substantial experience pioneering the first residential solar plus storage sonnen master planned communities in the U.S.
“The ability to implement clean energy residential VPP projects using solar plus storage is an essential part of maturing our infrastructure into the grid of the future,” said Ferrell. “sonnen is the leader in energy management, going beyond just a battery and actually developing and innovating the technology and the business models that ensure success. Together we will build fleets of VPP-connected residential projects that are innovative, accessible and easily replicated in communities around the country.”
In Ferrell’s role at Mandalay, the leading energy efficient production home builder out of Northern Arizona, he and CEO Dave Everson built a deep partnership with sonnen and with sonnen, Inc. CEO Blake Richetta. In 2017, Everson and Ferrell set out to invent a new clean energy building standard that after two years of design, implementation and iteration, was branded as an “iON” home. The iON home is now being implemented in multiple master planned communities throughout Northern Arizona and is currently slated to be installed in over 4,000 homes spanning a 15-year construction timeline.
The “iON” innovation has brought substantial value to the homeowner, the home builder, the community and to society as a whole, proving, for the first time, that a production home builder in the United States can standardize with a high quality clean energy storage system and build a strong value model. During the iON invention process, Ferrell and Everson collaborated directly with Carlos Restrepo, chief technology officer of sonnen, Inc., to build the unique optimized time of use (TOU)-synchronized community operation, creating a harmonious load shape as a standard feature of every home, with solar generation and sonnen energy storage. This translates to true clean energy, carbon-neutral living, energy resiliency, and low electric bills for homeowners.
“In my nearly 20-year career in residential technology, I have never worked with a home builder as dynamic, innovative and down-right effective as Geoff Ferrell and Dave Everson from Mandalay Homes. Geoff’s passionate conviction to perfect a new design and implement said innovation into a repeatable project process, with high resolve to bring superior value to the homeowner, is truly admirable and I am so proud to have him on the sonnen team. Geoff’s mission will be to teach and help others around the nation build the clean energy community of the future with sonnen.” said CEO of sonnen, Inc. Blake Richetta.
About sonnen
The sonnen Group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of smart energy storage systems and a pioneer of clean, decentralized and networked energy system technologies. As one of the fastest growing tech companies in Europe, sonnen has received numerous internationally recognized awards. With its virtual battery, which consists of digitally networked home storage systems, sonnen offers new and highly innovative energy services for network operators and customers. sonnen’s products are available in many countries and has offices located in Germany, Italy, Australia, the UK and the USA. Since March 2019 sonnen is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shell within its New Energies division.
Media Contact
Michelle Mapel
Senior Director of Sales and Marketing
m.mapel@sonnen-batterie.com
626-825-5580