---
title: Clean Energy Platform Cloover Turns Its Financed Homes Into a Virtual Power Plant as Europe Ends Feed-in Tariffs
description: Profitable at a $350M run rate, Cloover adds $100M in financing and pools its solar, batteries and heat pumps into a virtual power plant as feed-in tariffs end.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-09-01T14:57:45.214Z
updated: 2026-09-01T14:57:45.226Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/cloover-virtual-power-plant-feed-in-tariffs
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/cloover-team.webp
categories: Business, Startups
content_type: Spotlight
region: Berlin
publication: Sovereign Magazine
about:
  - type: Organization
    name: Cloover
    description: Cloover is an AI-native energy platform for residential solar, heat pumps and home electrification, founded in Berlin in 2023 by Jodok Betschart, Peder Broms and Valentin Gönczy. It supplies independent installers with financing, software and energy products, and pools the systems it finances into a virtual power plant. The company is profitable at a revenue run rate of more than $350 million, with over $1.3 billion in financing capacity underpinned by a European Investment Fund guarantee.
    url: https://cloover.co/
    foundingDate: 2023-01-01T00:00:00.000Z
    industry: Clean energy
    sameAs:
      - https://www.linkedin.com/company/cloover/
      - https://www.instagram.com/cloover.energy/
---

Cloover, the Berlin company that finances rooftop solar, heat pumps and home batteries through independent installers, says it has turned profitable three years after launch and will now pool the systems it finances into a virtual power plant, just as the subsidies that carried Europe's rooftop solar market for two decades are being switched off.

The company says its revenue run rate has passed $350 million, four times the level it reported at the start of the year, and that it has added a $100 million facility, taking its total financing capacity past $1.3 billion. The debt is underpinned by a $350 million guarantee from the European Investment Fund, the EU's AAA-rated financing arm for smaller businesses. Cloover [secured a $1.2 billion financing commitment in January](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/cloover-s-ai-platform-aims-to-redefine-energy-independence-for-european-households) and is now opening offices in the UK, France and Poland, adding to the five European markets it already serves.

## The End of Feed-in Tariffs in Germany and the Netherlands

Germany's cabinet approved a draft reform of its renewable energy law in July that would end guaranteed feed-in tariffs for new small rooftop solar systems from 1 January 2027, pushing owners towards selling their power on the market instead. The Netherlands abolishes its net-metering scheme on the same date, leaving suppliers to set their own export rates. Sweden has cut its solar tax deduction and scrapped a tax credit for micro-producers.

For twenty years those schemes paid households a fixed rate for every kilowatt-hour they exported, which made the maths of a rooftop system simple. Without them, a solar panel earns whatever the market pays at the moment it exports, and midday solar power is increasingly close to worthless because everyone exports at once. The value moves to households that can store power and release it when it is scarce.

Cloover's argument is that a virtual power plant replaces the lost subsidy. Instead of a fixed payment for exported power, a household earns from its flexibility, traded in real time.

## A Virtual Power Plant Made of Financed Homes

> "We reach households through the installers they already trust, and then we turn each of those homes into a power plant, and each homeowner into a participant in the energy market. That is a relationship that lasts for decades, not a single transaction."
> — Jodok Betschart, Cloover co-founder

Through Cloover Energy, the company's new energy arm, a home energy management system runs the house, dynamic and fixed tariffs cover the supply, and a virtual power plant aggregates the solar panels, [batteries, heat pumps and EV chargers](https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/the-10bn-energy-platform-that-powers-its-own-competitors) it has financed into a single tradeable pool. The company says its models forecast generation and consumption house by house and schedule storage and flexible loads within limits each household sets, so a battery charges when power is cheap and a heat pump runs when it costs least.

Pooled across thousands of homes, that flexibility earns money in several ways: the batteries feed power back when it is scarce, shifted consumption lowers grid fees, and the fleet trades on the intraday market, where prices move by the quarter hour. Installers offer the service to their customers under their own name, with Cloover running the trading in the background.

Cloover calls the result a neo-utility. A conventional supplier owns power stations and resells power; a neo-utility owns no generation at all, and its capacity is the installed base itself.

"Everything we do runs on AI, from the underwriting to the way we optimise energy in each home," said Valentin Gönczy, Cloover co-founder. "The incumbents are adding AI to systems built decades ago. We can do in seconds what takes them days, and the gap widens as we scale."

## Solar Panel Financing With No Upfront Cost

Cloover was founded in 2023 by Jodok Betschart, previously an ESG investment analyst at Aberdeen Asset Management, structured finance specialist Peder Broms, and Valentin Gönczy, who started his career in compliance at Pictet. Rather than hiring a sales force, the company supplies financing, software and procurement to the independent regional installers who carry out around 85% of Europe's home energy installations. Customers get a credit decision in under two minutes, pay nothing upfront and can spread the cost over up to 25 years; around 20,000 installations a year now run through the platform.

The model has held up through a sector downturn: German households installed 29% fewer rooftop solar systems in 2025 than the year before, and direct-sales rivals have been forced to retrench. Berlin's Zolar entered a court-supervised restructuring and its installation arm later filed for bankruptcy, while Norway's Otovo has cut its workforce twice since 2024. Cloover, which carries no sales force or installation crews of its own, says it is now one of the top three residential energy companies in Germany, Europe's largest energy market, alongside far larger direct-sales rivals Enpal and 1Komma5°.

Profitability at this stage is rare among fast-growing energy companies, most of which have put growth ahead of margins. The company says every one of its projects was sold by an independent installer, and that it grows only as they do.

## Electricity Demand and the Value of Home Flexibility

The International Energy Agency expects global electricity consumption to grow 3.6% this year and faster still in 2027, driven by electric vehicles, heat pumps, cooling and data centres, while grids struggle to keep pace and prices remain volatile. Cloover's bet is that a home able to generate, store and trade its own power becomes a hedge against rising prices, and that managing this at scale is one of the strongest positions in the energy system.

"The hardware for the energy transition already works," said Peder Broms, Cloover co-founder. "What has been missing is a company that makes it affordable, reaches people through the installer they know, and turns their homes into a real energy business. That is the neo-utility we are building."

## FAQ

**Q: What is a virtual power plant?**
A virtual power plant links thousands of small energy assets, such as home batteries, solar panels, heat pumps and EV chargers, into a single pool that can be controlled and traded like one power station. Cloover's version aggregates the systems it has financed through installers and trades their combined flexibility on the electricity market.

**Q: How much does a virtual power plant pay households?**
It depends on the market and the household's equipment. Instead of a fixed feed-in tariff, earnings come from the value of flexibility: storing power when it is cheap, feeding it back when it is scarce, and lowering grid fees by shifting consumption. Cloover trades this on the intraday market on households' behalf, within limits each household sets.

**Q: Can you get solar panels with no upfront cost?**
Yes. Under Cloover's model, financing is arranged by the installer at the point of sale, with a credit decision in under two minutes and repayment terms of up to 25 years, so the household pays nothing upfront and covers the system from its energy savings over time.

**Q: What happens when feed-in tariffs end?**
New rooftop solar owners in Germany are set to lose guaranteed feed-in tariffs from 1 January 2027 under the government's draft reform, and the Netherlands ends net metering the same day. Exported power will then earn market rates, which are lowest when solar output peaks, making storage and traded flexibility the main way for households to earn from their systems.

**About Cloover**

Cloover is an AI-native energy platform for residential solar, heat pumps and home electrification, founded in Berlin in 2023 by Jodok Betschart, Peder Broms and Valentin Gönczy. It supplies independent installers with financing, software and energy products, and pools the systems it finances into a virtual power plant. The company is profitable at a revenue run rate of more than $350 million, with over $1.3 billion in financing capacity underpinned by a European Investment Fund guarantee.

[Website](https://cloover.co/)