Case Studies

Across three rooftops in Rain, a picturesque town in Bavarian Swabia, Kai Kinast and Peter Albrecht manage their solar installations. They have built a total of 4.6 MWp of photovoltaic capacity on the leased roofs of various industrial buildings for private and institutional investors. 

"This is my energy storage facility," explains Jörg Kautt, smiling as he points to the maize silage and the slurry tank. Together with two other farmers, the agricultural and energy farmer operates a biogas plant on the edge of the Swabian Alb that does more than just produce electricity and heat. With its flexibility, the plant is now designed to act as a buffer in the event of a lack of solar and wind power feed-in.

There are places where you feel a few steps closer to the future. And no, it doesn't have to be the latest supertower on the Arabian Peninsula or the trendy loft of the next big thing from Silicon Valley; sometimes, it's a former ammunition depot of the Bundeswehr in the winter-rainy Münsterland.

On the edge of the Bavarian Forest, you can already see the enormous reorganisation of the electricity system from the train window, which is progressing step by step here as everywhere else in the country. Photovoltaic panels greet travellers from the roofs of houses, warehouses, fences, noise barriers, and along the railway line itself, promising a little optimism in uncertain times.

In the typical Belgian winter fog, Esmeralda Peleman, CEO of Peleman Industries, looks with satisfaction at the on-site 2 MWh battery storage system against whose backdrop two windturbines are turning leisurely. “We have been using the storage system to increase our self-consumption for almost five years, but the last 18 months have been crazy”, she comments.

The site of the geothermal plant near Garching an der Alz flashes and shines even through the early morning fog of the Bavarian plain. Everything is brand new, because the plant has only been feeding its electricity into the public grid since March 2021. As one of around a dozen megawatt-class geothermal power plants in Germany, the project is regarded as a pioneering example of energy generation from geothermal resources. The production well with a depth of almost 4,000 meters enables the extraction of 125 l/s of thermal water with a temperature of 123 degrees Celsius. These impressive numbers constitute the basis for the subsequent electricity and heat generation process. 

When you turn onto the Petersen farm in North Friesland, you enter an energy transition wonderland. Behind you, dozens of wind turbines are turning, on the left a fully electric fleet of vehicles from the local project developer GP JOULE is charging, and straight ahead a biogas plant is humming. "And behind the shed is Germany's first brownfield solar park in the megawatt class," laughs Sören Sönksen as he welcomes you. He takes care of the commercial aspects of the biogas plant - and thus also the sale of electricity. 

"Participation is important in the energy transition," explains Peter Ramharter, Managing Director of WICON Engineering GmbH, pointing from the nacelle of the wind turbine in Lichtenegg to the surrounding settlements in the Land of a Thousand Hills, as the area south of Wiener Neustadt likes to be called.

OBO Bettermann's head office is located on the southern edge of the Ruhr area, the symbol of an age characterized by coal and steel. The company has been based in the city of Menden for more than 100 years and is what is commonly known as a hidden champion. OBO is now represented at more than 60 locations worldwide and produces cable trays and ducts for a wide range of applications in commercial and industrial installations.

Louis Vial is a busy entrepreneur who is always on the lookout for new business ideas. Thus, he does not only operate his own building company, but is also owner of the “Pousse Pousse” start-up, with which participants with a monthly subscription get inspiration for Do-It-Yourself projects. Now the businessman from Perpignan is also operator of his own solar park. Or to be more precise: Operator of a roofed parking lot on whose roof the 1.9 MWp PV rooftop system is mounted.