Dusseldorf Germany is divided regionally – also in the energy transition. This is shown by the “Technology Atlas” of the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology, which the Foundation for Family Businesses commissioned and which is available exclusively to the Handelsblatt. According to this, most companies in the wind power industry are located in the north and north-west, while a particularly large number of solar companies are in Bavaria. The recycling industry, which makes an important contribution to the sustainability goal of the circular economy, is particularly strong in NRW as well as in Thuringia and Saxony (see graphics).
The starting point for the study are more than 47,000 family businesses that are active in the 15 most important environmental technologies. Since nine out of ten companies in Germany are family-owned, the technology atlas can be viewed as an indicator of the status of the energy transition in the economy.
Both the Federal Government and the EU Commission are currently dealing with the question of which strategically important future technologies should be funded. Because time is short, the dependencies, especially on China, for important components of the energy transition, such as photovoltaics and batteries, are to be reduced.
In fact, achieving climate neutrality in Germany by 2045 is a Herculean task, which the head of the Chancellery, Wolfgang Schmidt, outlined a few days ago to more than 300 family entrepreneurs at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin. He said that 43 soccer fields of photovoltaics, four to five wind turbines, 1,600 heat pumps and four kilometers of transmission lines would have to be built – per day. But how far is Germany in these fields and what is holding back the companies that operate in these future technologies?
The co-author of the technology atlas, Markus Hiebel, sees the environmental technology market on the move. This can also be seen in the discussions on secure energy supply and the Building Energy Act. The family businesses surveyed in the study therefore demand “planning security and reliable political decisions,” says Hiebel.
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In a first step, the Fraunhofer Institute identified 15 environmental technologies that make it possible to achieve the climate goals. These include photovoltaics, wind power and bioenergy (biogas) as well as deep geothermal energy, batteries and hydrogen technologies, thermal insulation, heat pumps and recycling. Germany is a leader in some fields.
For example, there are more wind turbines in Germany than in any other European country. What the Fraunhofer researchers are already finding in the current technology atlas: In many sectors that deal with the most important environmental technologies, the number of companies has increased compared to the previous study from 2021. This was particularly strong in the solar industry.
The number of companies there grew by more than 2,000 to around 15,650. The number of companies in wind power and thermal insulation, which is required to accompany the installation of heat pumps, fell slightly. The reason is a wave of consolidation – as a result of cut state subsidies. However, the companies currently surveyed by the Fraunhofer Institute also confirm that Germany could be even further ahead. These are the three most important requirements:
1. The political framework must remain stable in the long term
The influence of politics on specific business can be well documented using the example of the solar industry. First the industry was promoted, then dropped politically, now they want to promote it again. The latest amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) is a step in the right direction, according to the company Solmotion Project from Ravensburg, for example. But the industry has become cautious, confirms Solmotion’s managing director Anna Volz-Staudacher. “You can tell that we are always a bit more cautious in the field of photovoltaics than the industry, for example,” she says. In the long term it is important that the industry can get by without funding.
2. Germany needs more skilled workers
The social acceptance of environmental technologies, especially renewable energies, is currently high among the population, especially for solar energy. As a result, young people are also interested in these technologies. First of all, this is good news. But there are still too few for rapid expansion, the shortage of skilled workers has worsened since 2021, the study shows and the companies confirm.
Example wind power: The peak in employment was in 2018, then the market collapsed. He has only recovered since 2020. In 2021 there were 130,000 jobs, far from the peak of 168,000 employees. Another problem that mainly affects medium-sized companies: Ten companies currently share around 85 percent of the global market for wind turbines, the five largest include Vestas, Siemens Gamesa, GE Wind and the Chinese companies Goldwind and Minyang.
According to the International Economic Forum for Renewable Energies (IWR), the German subsidiary of the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas is ahead of Enercon and Nordex in Germany this year. The researchers assume that the market share of the three largest manufacturers Vestas, Siemens Gamesa and GE Wind will increase from today’s 43 to 60 percent by 2029. In the battle for talent, family businesses must therefore get even more involved in order to be able to find enough skilled workers against the market leaders.
The researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute also found that technological developments are not being incorporated into the curricula quickly enough at universities. There is also a lack of skilled personnel in the commercial and technical areas. “Thus,” the scientists state, “climate change is also an educational challenge for the environmental technology sector.”
3. Approval procedures must be accelerated
So far, approval procedures for wind turbines, for example, have taken around four to six years due to strict environmental regulations. An important reason: Almost every permit was contested again. In 2018, the market collapsed by more than 50 percent, according to the German Wind Energy Association. As a result, the wind industry has also lost important time. Even if the Wind-on-Land Act, which came into force in February 2023, is intended to significantly shorten the approval times and double the area to be released for wind turbines, the obstacles are still having an impact.
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Because: Even if the new law accelerates the approvals, it is not yet clear whether there will be problems with construction, says Jürgen Joos, CFO Renewable Energies at the construction company Max Bögl: “Some companies active in this sector have already disappeared from the market due to insolvencies , others had to downsize their workforce due to the poor order situation.”
Max Bögl founded a wind subsidiary in 2010 and was able to use almost all employees in other business areas during the slump in orders from 2017, thereby preventing layoffs. A pattern that researchers have found more often in family businesses. Fraunhofer researcher Hiebel judges: “Thanks to their long-term perspective, family businesses can react flexibly to these dynamic developments.”
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