Varta begins delivery of its DC high-voltage storage system

As of lately, Varta has been making headlines primarily because of its business difficulties. In June, the German battery manufacturer had to revise its sales forecast for the 2024 financial year due to a “significant deterioration” in the energy storage market environment. At the end of July, the company notified the competent local court in Stuttgart of a restructuring project in accordance with the German Corporate Stabilization and Restructuring Act (StaRUG) in a bid to avert possible insolvency. On Wednesday, however, there was positive news: Varta’s latest generation of DC high-voltage storage systems called Varta.wall is now being delivered to specialist retailers and sales partners.

The company presented the new product – a battery for use with commercially available battery or hybrid inverters – for the first time at Intersolar 2022. With this, Varta wants to enter the field of DC storage systems and thus the largest market segment of the energy storage market in terms of volume.

Varta has not provided any precise details as to why the market launch took so long. But the company has been working on its comprehensive restructuring since the beginning of 2023 and, according to its own statements, has recently suffered from a deteriorating market situation, especially in the AC storage system segment, which Varta serves with its existing product line.

With regard to the new DC high-voltage storage system Varta.wall, the company announced that numerous pre-orders had already been received before production and delivery began, and that these were now leaving the warehouse for customers. The Varta.wall is described as a milestone on Varta’s growth path in the field of energy storage systems. “Our goal is to become the leading system provider with competitive DC storage systems ‘Made in Germany’,” said CEO Michael Ostermann.

According to the announcement, the Varta.wall is a modular, plug-in system. It is available in three versions as 10, 15 and 20 kWh systems, which can be expanded at a later point. No external cabling of the modules is required, which ensures uncomplicated installation in the shortest possible time. A specially developed app and the integrated wifi hotspot should speed up installation even more.

The product is manufactured at the Neunheim site near Ellwangen with a capacity of 50,000 units per year. The factory has space for a second module line. The Varta.wall is “compatible with leading European inverter manufacturers and their product range, such as charging stations,” the manufacturer said. In the market launch stage, the system already supports inverter models from Kostal and SMA. The Varta.wall comes with a 10-year guarantee.