The factory buildings stand one next to the other, lines of plain, block-shaped structures, unspectacular architecture – and yet they are a result of an extraordinary success story: Thalheim, a district of Bitterfeld-Wolfen in Saxony-Anhalt, has become a centre of the German solar industry. Almost everything here revolves around Q-Cells AG, the world’s largest manufacturer of solar cells. The company has expanded at a breathtaking rate: only founded in 1999, its workforce increased to more than 1,700 employees by the end of 2007. And the firm continues to grow rapidly. More solar businesses, most of them subsidiaries of Q-Cells, are situated along a road with the rather apt name of “Sonnenallee” (Sun Avenue). EverQ GmbH, for example, manufactures silicon cells with a new technology in which the wafers used to produce solar cells are not sawn from a massive block of silicon, but pulled out of the molten material in ribbon form. EverQ was only founded at the beginning of 2005 and already employs a workforce of over 1,000, a figure that is set to rise to 1,500.
Calyxo GmbH is another Q-Cells firm based in Thalheim. The parent company owns 95% of the subsidiary that manufactures thin-film solar modules. Solibro GmbH is not far away, another subsidiary in which Q-Cells owns a 67.5% stake. The company makes solar cells out of copper, indium, gallium and selenide, so-called CIGS cells. Also located in Sonnenallee is CSG Solar AG, of which Q-Cells holds 21.7%. Founded just over four years ago, it is another very young business.
The number of people employed by the solar industry in Thalheim already totals 4,000 and is anticipated to continue to grow rapidly. “More than 10,000 people are expected to be working in the region’s solar industry by 2012,” forecasts the state of Saxony-Anhalt. According to Reiner Haseloff, Economics Minister in Magdeburg, the state capital, the solar industry is already becoming “one of the main industrial sectors from which the economy is deriving long-term benefit”. After all, half of all the solar cells made in Germany come from Saxony-Anhalt.
There are two main reasons for this. On one hand, as an old centre of the chemicals industry, Bitterfeld-Wolfen has large areas of industrial land readily available. And on the other, businesses that locate here also receive subsidies from the European Union. Between the years 2007 and 2013, Brussels will be providing Saxony-Anhalt with 3.39 billion euros within the framework of the European Structural Fund. Subsidies of up to 50% of the initial investment are therefore available for businesses.
Other solar industry centres in eastern Germany include Freiberg in Saxony, where Deutsche Solar, part of the SolarWorld Group, employs 750 people. Erfurt, the home of the Ersol company, is the hub of the solar industry in Thuringia. A total of 27 solar enterprises and 12 research establishments from Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are now working together as a “high-performance cluster” in the field of solar energy. In 2007 alone, 18% of all the solar cells produced worldwide were manufactured in the region of Central Germany. The Federal Research Ministry has decided to allocate 200 million euros of additional funding to “Solar Valley Central Germany”.
Nevertheless, the solar industry is not the only sector that is leaving its mark on the Länder of eastern Germany. Wind power is also strongly represented – not only in terms of its use, but also in terms of manufacturing. When it comes to the exploitation of wind power, Brandenburg ranks second among the Länder, after Lower Saxony, with a capacity of over 3,500 megawatts. Of all the Länder, Saxony-Anhalt meets the highest proportion of its electricity needs with wind power: an incredible 42%. Countless wind power businesses have meanwhile also located in eastern Germany. Wind turbine manufacturer Nordex, for example, has its production plant in Rostock on the Baltic coast. Further growth is anticipated there too: it is planned to increase annual production capacity from the current total of 850 megawatts to 2,000 megawatts in 2010.
Additionally, the Baltic Sea offers enormous economic potential as the location for offshore wind turbines. The Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) is currently in the process of approving six offshore wind farms. The first is to be built in shallower waters of the southern Baltic Sea in depths of between 20 and 40 metres. The plans envisage 80 wind turbines at the site, 30 kilometres north of the island of Rügen. The second wind farm outside the 12-nautical mile boundary will be located some 35 kilometres northeast of Rügen. It bears the name Arkona Becken Südost and will include 80 turbines. A third site, Ventotec Ost 2, has been given the go-ahead nearby and will also consist of 80 turbines. A floatable offshore foundation has been approved for the first time for this project.
