Energate Messenger - Terra One wants to stir up the storage market

Terra One aims to transform the German energy market with innovative storage solutions and AI-based trading software. The aim is to launch the first plants as early as this year and to capture a significant market share in the long term.

Berlin (energate) - The Berlin-based storage start-up Terra One has ambitious goals and wants to cover 10 to 15 percent of the German market in the long term. The first plants should be ready this year. The founding team is setting a decent pace; the company has only existed since 2022. Behind Terra One are Tony Schumacher and Thomas Antonioli, both of whom have plenty of founding experience in other areas, such as IT.

The idea for Terra One came about when Schumacher developed an application for network monitoring for an energy supplier. “This made it clear how busy the network is on days with a high supply of renewable energy,” reports co-founder and CFO Thomas Antonioli in conversation with energate at the start-up's headquarters in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Save instead of fix
Both did not like the fact that solar or wind energy systems are simply limited in such situations. It makes more sense to park the electricity in batteries and release it again when the supply of renewables decreases. “From our point of view, it is clear that the energy revolution can only be successful if we develop storage systems,” says Antonioli. It is precisely these that the company now wants to bring to the market on a large scale.

Terra One uses lithium-ion based container-based storage solutions. The company buys the components for this on the market and has partner companies assemble them. The output is 10 MW upwards. The market situation is favourable: There is an oversupply of storage systems on the world market, also because the
Demand for electric cars is weakening somewhat. Manufacturers are therefore switching to the stationary market. “There are minor bottlenecks when it comes to components and engineering services for the high-voltage sector,” says Antonioli.

Software controls storage marketing
Terra One wants to earn money by selling stored electricity at the right time. “Our business model is to operate and market the plants as a kind of independent power producer for batteries,” explains Antonioli. At the heart of this is the self-developed trading software based on Kl, which decides in which market, i.e. day ahead, spot market or control energy, at what time and at what price a storage device is marketed. “Our application is fed with millions of data from the power exchange, both successful trades and offers.” Using the software saves the company a trading desk and enables the company to manage many storages in parallel in the future.

Terra One is financing the launch with capital from investors. Around 30 engineers, software developers, analysts and energy market experts now work for the company. Terra One has secured areas across Germany where the storage systems are to be built and has filed for network connection requests. According to Antonioli, the promises are now coming in every week. The first projects should be ready this year.

More speed in the market
Growth prospects are good. According to a Fraunhofer study, storage demand in Germany will rise to 135 GWh by 2030 — in parallel with the expansion of renewables. In order to meet demand, the expansion of storage facilities must be significantly faster than before. Approval procedures, for example, are an obstacle. The Federal Government wants to remove these and other hurdles with the storage strategy. Antonioli is therefore optimistic about the future. “We are setting ourselves ambitious goals and want to cover 10 to 15 percent of the storage market in Germany in the long term,” explains.