The Essen Bay Steyr Group has merged its two business units for solar and wind energy projects. Why?
André Kremer: Putting together the two technologies is just the next logical step to transform the company from project development and EPC to one of Europe's leading IPPs. We want to combine the technologies wind, solar and storage under one roof.
Joel Wagner: If you look at Steag‘s history, being an IPP is basically baked into it’s DNA. Transforming the renewable energy business towards the leading IPP makes sense. But how do we get there? First of all it's important to understand that both business lines, the wind business as well as the solar business, have operated very successfully across Europe.
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How many projects have you already built?
Joel Wagner: We managed to implement an IPP portfolio of 250 megawatts in France, Germany and Italy. Now we are achieving the next logical step, which is expanding our IPP business. We are doing so by establishing two business lines under the roof of Iqony Sens. The one line focuses on the development, realization and commercialization of our own assets. And the second business line remains a very strong partner as EPC and O&M service provider for our customers in Europe.
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What synergy effects do you expect from the merger?
André Kremer: It's not only about synergies, it's rather completing each other. We've been very strong with the wind unit in France and Germany and also in Poland. We are very strong in the asset management, while the solar part was rather an agile developer in Germany, UK, Italy, and Spain. Putting it together means getting the most out of a project and a site. This is now of utmost importance. So not just increasing capacity, but using the most efficient technology to increase the output, base load capable, if possible, per construction site.
How does the practical side look on the working together?
Joel Wagner: Look, where these projects are to be. They are actually developed and erected and managed, and it goes hand-to-hand with local acceptance. When we look at the stakeholders, municipalities, the local off-takers, we basically have the same stakeholders we want to team up with. So combining wind and PV in the early stage of projects makes a lot of sense. Because we want to become a very strong partner not just for the project development, but also for 20, 25 years to operate these assets.
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Is there also an aspect of grid security with this merger?
Joel Wagner: The technology complement each other because we have strong wind conditions during winter times. We obviously can generate green electricity during night times from wind turbines. Solar is super strong in the summer, during day time. We manage to address the volatility. Reliable base load generation from renewables is more and more needed. It is needed if you look at the data center business, if you look at the hydrogen business to store electricity.
What is special about hydro electric?
André Kremer: In the Iqony Group such solutions as standalone utility scale storage systems and hydrogen are well represented.
What effect will the merger have on the European market?
André Kremer: The vision is 100% clean and renewable energy. Putting these strong units together and delivering baseload energy, that puts us in the first row as one of the leading renewable energy provider.
Joel Wagner: Really important is to connect the generation side with the demand side. Within Icony we are developing also our own hydrogen projects. We're developing large-scale battery storage solutions. Within Icony, we have the ability to really connect the generation but also the demand. This is a very important blueprint for the European market. The demand for renewables is increasing. We are focusing on a very diverse footprint within Europe. We are not just focusing on Germany, but we are focusing also on markets like Italy, like UK, like France. Because we really want to connect.
Interview by Manfred Gorgus
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