Germany: New Energy Husum Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

New Energy Husum opened with an act of celebration. The exhibition for renewable energy celebrated its tenth anniversary with eminent speakers from the fields of industry and politics.

These included representatives of the small wind turbine, biogas and solar sectors alongside Schleswig-Holstein’s economics minister Jost de Jager. De Jager used the occasion to present Husum’s mayor, Uwe Schmitz, a subsidy commitment for 440,000 Euros for improved logistical resources and access to Husum’s Nordsee Congress Centrum.

In the UN Year of Sustainable Energy for All, and one year after the drastic events in Fukushima, New Energy Husum 2012 has been met with unabated interest by exhibitors and visitors alike. Around 280 businesses are showcasing their products and services in the county town of Husum. Minster de Jager emphasised that New Energy has built a reputation as the national shop window for renewable energy, and that Husum has also built a reputation as an ideal business base for renewable energy, also due to the biennial HUSUM WindEnergy exhibition.

Since it was first held in 2002, the exhibition has been a forum for all renewable sectors, from small wind turbines and biomass to photovoltaics. “But New Energy also still sees itself as a platform for controversial discussions”, says Peter Becker, recalling the current energy debate about the cuts in solar energy subsidies. For this reason the exhibition reacted at short notice by introducing a change to the congress programme, putting a discussion event on the agenda with the title Quo Vadis EEG – EEG 2042 on Friday 15.03.2012, at 10:00.

The broad range covered by New Energy was also obvious from the line-up of speakers at the opening: besides economics minister de Jager and Messe Husum managing director Peter Becker, Prof. Dr. Ing. Choong-Yul Son, vice-president of the World Wind Energy Association (WWEA), represented the small wind turbine industry, with Horst Seide as member of the board of the German Biogas Association representing the biogas sector, and Kai Lippert, managing director of EWS, the solar sector. Uwe Möser, president of the Flensburg Chamber of Commerce invited those in attendance to visit the congress event “Denmark meets New Energy”.

Kai Lippert, EWS, assumed a critical tone towards policymakers: “German electricity consumers have invested a lot of money in the past to make solar electricity competitive. In some cases it is already cheaper as electricity from the grid, but this can only remain affordable if we push the expansion of commercial photovoltaic plants as quickly as possible! The picture is similar in the biogas sector: “Biogas can be stored and can be easily converted into electricity when required. This is why it plays a main role in the load management of the future energy mix of 100% renewables. Biogas can be used to compensate for fluctuations in PV and wind power. When fed into the natural gas grid we can even compensate for summer-winter fluctuations. Horst Seide from the German biogas Association told the guests at the opening ceremony that “biogas plant operators are very willing to fulfil this regulatory task, we just lack the political framework that will guarantee it”.

Photovoltaics is also a topic in Denmark, the guest country at the exhibition, however a lessen cumbered one: “It is primarily the high energy costs and the plummeting manufacturing costs that are responsible for making the generation of solar power for own use in Denmark appear lucrative thanks to net metering”, declared Uwe Möser, president of the Flensburg Chamber of Commerce, and partner in the German-Danish cooperation project FURGY. The Danish market is also focused on in the congress programme with the “Denmark meets New Energy” event.

Prof. Son (WWEA) emphasised the global potential of the international small wind turbine industry of this still relatively young technology: “By 2020 the installed capacity of small wind turbines will be almost ten times what it was in 2010, and this will open up gigantic growth prospects for businesses in the sector. ”During the third World Summit for Small Wind, the WWEA presented its new Small Wind World Report, containing the latest surveys of the international small wind turbine industry.

The creed at the opening was quite clear: despite the latest adjustment in solar funding, the speakers were very confident and were in no doubt that the direction change in Germany’s energy policy would be a success.

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Offshore WIND staff, March 19, 2012; Image: LOTTMANN-PR