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Blake F. Richetta (he/him/his)

CEO
Sonnen inc
Santa Monica , California, United States

Blake F. Richetta joined the sonnen leadership team in 2016 and has been Chairman and CEO of the US subsidiary since shortly after Shell’s acquired sonnen in 2019.

Blake has become a recognized pioneer of the energy storage based Virtual Power Plant business model in the United States. Under Blake’s leadership, sonnen co-developed the “2019 Utility Project of the Year” Soleil Lofts apartment community VPP in Herriman Utah (12.6MWh) with the Wasatch Group and Rocky Mountain Power. Following Soleil, Blake and sonnen worked with RMP to develop the national “Peak Load Management Association” award winning Wattsmart residential and commercial Distributed Battery Grid Management System, currently deployed throughout Utah and Idaho with flagship solar contractor ES Solar, amongst others. Soleil Lofts + Wattsmart provide the electric grid with >31MWh of residential and C&I stored energy reservoir, firmly dispatchable under the direct control of RMP, yielding a full stack of authentic daily grid services.

Blake led sonnen to co-develop other notable solar + battery communities alongside innovative home builders, including DOE award-winning Mandalay Homes (Arizona), Residential LEED Platinum+ Pearl Homes (Florida), and recently, Living Community pioneer Thrive Collaborative (Michigan).

Richetta and sonnen Inc’s most recent accomplishment is unfolding in NEM3 California with leading solar contractor Baker Home Energy, where sonnenConnect California and Baker’s Charge On, a consumer VPP which features the deployment of sonnen’s patented Optimized TOU Algorithm for proactive bill management services, as well as activating four CAISO and non-CAISO based grid service levers, is making headlines as an emergent business model for the solar industry to thrive and go Beyond Net Metering.

In the wake of Hurricane Maria, Blake led the sonnen organization alongside Pura Energia, while founding the 501(C)(3) del Sol Foundation for Energy Security, to build ten microgrids that provide lifesaving services for disadvantaged communities across the island.

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