- 10 years of energy:more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy sold worldwide
- 10 years of lighthouse projects:more than 10 of the worlds largest solar parks and solutions constructed
- 10 years of customer satisfaction:solar components delivered to more than 100,000 customers
Hamburg-based Conergy AG is celebrating its tenth anniversary – and looking back at a decade full of energy.
Founded as a small company in Hamburg ten years ago, Conergy has now become one of the leading solar corporations worldwide and has experienced both highs and lows. 10 years of Conergy – a decade full of energy. A look back and at how things stand…
When Hans-Martin Rüter and Dieter Ammer founded the company a decade ago, solar energy in Germany was still in its infancy. Initiatives for encouraging development in this area, such as the 10,000 roofs program and renewable energy feed in laws (EEG), were still completely unheard of. Hamburg, though, where Conergy had set up its headquarters, was ready to provide community incentives for home owners, an offer the young company readily took up.
And successfully: annual turnover passed the one-million-euro mark for the first time at the end of 1999 and the bread-and-butter business with home owners was supplemented by the first of many solar funds.The first records came in 2001 when Conergy (by now an incorporated company) took the largest solar farm in Germany online, capable of producing 1.6 MW of energy, in Bavaria. The company managed to break its own record one year later with the solar farm in Sonnen, which is capable of producing 1.8 MW of energy. That same year, Conergy became the world leader in solar energy production with the 4 MW solar farm in Hemau, also in Bavaria.
In 2003 Conergy broke through the 100-million-euro sales barrier, and in 2004 the number of employees exceeded 400 for the first time. This was followed by its IPO on the TecDax in 2005. Conergy was one of the first companies in the solar sector to be listed on the stock market. The sector has been spoilt by its success of pursuing growth above all else and this is one of the reasons why the group wanted to establish itself as a market leader in many countries applying many technologies. It also moved deeper into the value chain, and constructed its own wafer, cell and module manufacturing facility that began in 2006 in Frankfurt an der Oder. By 2007, the number of employees had topped 2,800.
Strong growth does come at a price, however. Due to its early entry into the market, Conergy is now the market leader. But still, contrary to numerous forecasts, many markets did not react as quickly as expected. Too many technologies needed mastering and too many new employees and acquisitions needed integrating. As a result, the company went through a liquidity crisis at the end of 2007 leading to the newly appointed Board of Directors who decided to reorganise the company structures from scratch.
The plan worked, enabling the company to focus on profitable countries and technologies, to create new structures and processes and to attract new talent to its ranks.Even during restructuring, there were operative successes: the installation of one of the world’s largest solar farms at El Calaveron in Spain and the largest Asian solar park in SinAn, South Korea as just two examples. Conergy was also the first solar company in the world to achieve a turnover of more than 1 billion Euro, which it achieved at the end of 2008. A slimmer and more efficient Conergy emerged after 15 months of restructuring – strong enough to resist the turbulence of the economic crisis that put a great deal of pressure on Q4 2008 and Q1 2009 results.
A slight recovery was experienced by the entire solar sector in March 2009 after a relatively long dry spell. Conergy has numerous solar installations in the pipeline this year in its key countries. If markets continue to rise during the second quarter and second half of 2009, the company will have sufficient financing until 2011, as laid out in its previous planning. 10 years of Conergy – a decade full of energy, during which Conergy has sold more than 1 gigawatt of renewable energy. A decade in which experience was gained with the manufacture, supply and installation of 1 in every 10 solar systems worldwide being produced by Conergy, in addition to more than 10 outstanding solar parks and photovoltaic solutions. 10 years of Conergy – it is a decade with more than 10,000 B2B customers, without whom the success of the company would not have been possible. 10 Years of Conergy – a decade full of energy. |