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SFCE July 28
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Freiburg's Solar City Economy Is In Crisis
Jul 28, 2015 | SudKurier
By Steve Przybilla
...After all, a bright spot exists in the battered industry. Since August 2014, the insolvent Solarstrom AG has a new owner, the Chinese Shunfeng Group. Under the name "SAG Solar GmbH" the company is doing better again; claims to be located to be "in the final phase of restructuring"...
SAG Solarstrom/Shunfeng News
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Freiburg's Solar City Economy Is In Crisis
Jul 28, 2015 | SudKurier
By Steve Przybilla
Lack of self-confidence can not be accused of the Freiburger. "About Baden laughs the sun, about Schwaben the whole world" is not for nothing that one of the sayings that sooner or later fall in every pub evening. It is at the parochial football battle cry really some truth, namely literally: For years, the southern Baden town was the subject of solar energy nationwide at the top - before Ulm, the emerging solar nerds from the Swabian neighboring country.
By 2006, it went like this. Then, the sheet has entirely surprising for the city administration, turned. In the Solarbundesliga Ulm moved past the Baden titleholder and can hold this place until today. The Solarbundesliga is a Germany-wide competition, which is organized by the trade journal "Solar Themes" and the German Environmental Aid. Measures how much electricity and heat is generated per capita in major German cities. Freiburg, the "Solar City", is the current ranking slipped to seventh place.Further InformationInterview with Eicke Weber for photovoltaic sector
But what does such a value at all? Is he already alarming because Freiburg no longer plays along at the front? Or is it whining at a high level, if you complain about that? The trade association 100% renewable energies (WEE) soothes initially: "With the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), we still harboring Europe's biggest research institution in this field," says Managing Director Per-WEE Klabundt.Nevertheless, it caused him worry that more and more jobs disappear in the local Freiburg solar industry. "If we, including installers, insurers, lawyers and suppliers, which relates to a three-digit number of companies. Even the old-timers have suffered losses. "
The clouds in the solar sky are emerging for a long time. For several years, the EU and China deliver a bitter fight in the photovoltaic sector. The fact that the local industry would struggle not win the cheapest price, was obvious - if only because the cost of labor in the Far East are lower by a multiple. There were also corrections to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG): The feed-in tariff has been declining for years, which many private homeowners motivation takes to install new panels on your own roof.
It came, as it had to. In December 2013, the Freiburger Solarstrom AG goes into bankruptcy.The company builds solar power plants worldwide. In January 2015, the French Soitec Group announces completely withdraw from the business with solar technology. Directly affected is the Freiburg subsidiary company Soitec Solar, originally a spin-off from the Fraunhofer ISE.You will now be taken over by the Chinese Concen-Solar Group - with the aim to regain profitability. It is not yet clear whether that will succeed the solar companies and the remaining 90 employees.
Foreseeable, however, is the location for the "Solar-Fabrik", founded in 1996, a company that has filed for bankruptcy in early February. After several uncertain months the management in the summer announced to discontinue production from June 2015 final.
If it goes to Martin Brown, the companies are at least partly responsible for the misery with: "The industry has for years swum in funding. They have made themselves comfortable and invested in gimmicks, instead of staying competitive, "Brown is Chairman of Freiburg Association for Renewable Energies eV Although he belongs to the CDU -. That party which decided the life extension of German nuclear reactors shortly before the Fukushima disaster - Brown is an energetic proponent of the energy turnaround.
What Brown missed in Freiburg, is community involvement. The city, says the club chairman, should write out scholarships for young founders got a chance in the photovoltaic industry."Right now takes more of a grandfathering place," said Brown. "The city could attract much more intense for the industry and its lighthouses."
Such harsh criticism comes in green ruled Freiburg not only of Martin Brown, the CDU-man.Even Green Party members criticize behind their hands that council and city administration sometimes disorganized, disinterested even zoom went to the solar energy. Axel Mayer, manager of the environmental association BUND the southern Upper Rhine, found that the city was basically on the right track. But "sometimes justified pride leads to a certain complacency, to a decline in effort and the erroneous belief that they have reached almost all environmental objectives," he says.
This is also Bertram Späth, an ecological showpiece of Freiburg entrepreneurs. Späth directs the Hotel Victoria, which is part of the Best Western chain. Thanks to a 200-square-meter solar power plant on the roof of all hotel rooms can be supplied with clean energy. In addition, four wind turbines dine around two kilowatts of electricity into the grid. The EUR 120 000, the Späth has invested 15 years ago for the collectors have, meanwhile amortized."The conditions in Freiburg for the solar industry are really good," says Bertram Späth. "There are many committed citizens, a green mayor, and a green-dominated council." Nevertheless, the city could do a lot more.
After all, a bright spot exists in the battered industry. Since August 2014, the insolvent Solarstrom AG has a new owner, the Chinese Shunfeng Group. Under the name "SAG Solar GmbH" the company is doing better again; claims to be located to be "in the final phase of restructuring".
SAG Solarstrom/Shunfeng News
Full Text of Stories Below
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