Top 25 influencers in the renewable energy industry in Germany

With a share of 45% of power production in Germany in 2020, renewable energies have played a key role in the past few years. Wind is the most prominent of Germany's renewable energy sources, with a share of 23.7%. Solar photovoltaic (PV) is the second most predominant renewable energy source, with a share of 9%.

By 2025, 40 to 45% of the electricity consumed in Germany should come from renewable energies, according to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG).

Renewable energy influencers in Germany

Many institutions such as the Fraunhofer Institute state that Germany is leaving the fossil-nuclear energy age behind and photovoltaics will play a central role in the country’s sustainable energy future.

The so-called Energiewende (“energy transformation” or “energy turnaround”) is closely related to the EEG, and it intends to achieve a nuclear phase-out by 2022. Many factors come into place in the transition. In the following lines, you will find a list of influencers in Germany that will help make this happen.

Mirko Schieszl

Mirko is Team Lead Engineering at BayWa r.e Solar Projects GmbH, one of the main German solar actors, with worldwide presence. With more than 20 years of experience in the energy sector, Mirko has mainly been leading and training big teams in various companies.

Volker Quaschning

Volker has been a Professor for Renewable Energy Systems at HTW Berlin for 17 years. With a background in electrical engineering, engineering science and renewable energy systems, his expertise lies on renewable energies and climate protection.

Doreen Rietentiet

Doreen currently works as Managing Director at Energy Watch Group. She is the founder of climate tech advisory DWR eco GmbH, the co-initiator of Leaders for Climate Action and a mentor at BMW Respond Accelerator and Founders Institute. Doreen’s trajectory is a journalism one, and she now advocates for products and services that enable sustainable economies.

Michael Fuhs

Michael is the head of the leading magazine for solar industry, in markets, downstream- and upstream technology, installation knowledge and applications of photovoltaics: pv magazine. Before dedicating his professional life to journalism and PV, Michael studied physics.

Kerstin Grosse

Fully committed to sustainability and future-oriented is Kerstin, a member of the Senate at the German Fraunhofer Institute. On top of this, she is chairwoman of The Forestris AG, a German-based forestry services company, KOMSA AG, leading service providers in the ICT industry, as well as a Managing Director of is Derossi Investment GmbH, a holding focused on sustainability and digitalization.

Hendrik Schramm

Hendrik is the Head of Project Development of Enerparc AG, one of the main solar developers born in Germany. With a background in industrial engineering and a MSc in production engineering and solar, Hendrik counts with more than a decade of experience in energy and a latter focus on PV.

Claudia Kemfert

Claudia has almost two decades of experience in the Energy, Transportation and Environment scene, as she was head of this department at the German Institute for Economic Research in berlin. She is currently a professor of Energy Economics and Energy Policy at Leuphana Universität Lüneburg.

Ulrich Cebula

Ulrich is specialized in Blockchain for Renewables, PV system integration and PV development at a global scale, among others. With more than 15 years of experience in communication and sales, he is a Senior Manager at RWE, one of the main German suppliers of electricity.

Robert Brandt

Robert is the current Managing Director at the German Renewable Energy Agency (Agentur für Erneuerbare Energien). Having worked for the German Renewable Energy Federation as Head of Association Development, headed the System Transformation Platform and worked as a consultant for various municipal utilities and energy providers, he counts with a long history with energy and renewable generation. Robert also has a PhD in political science.

Nadine Haase

Nadine is the founder of the European Energy Consult. Joining her politics and economics background as well as her experience y in the energy sector, she recently joined the Board of Directors of the German Wind Energy Association (BWE), one of the protagonists of the energy transition in Germany.

Diego Lobo-Guerrero

Diego is a Development Manager for the utility scale section at Steag Solar Energy Solutions GmbH. With more than a decade of experience in the renewable energy sector in various regions, he now counts with his own PV company.

Stephan Wilforth

With a focus on the energy sector, Stephan is the CEO of the tetraeder group, a consulting and service company for information and communication processes within planning processes. With a basis on digitalization and big data, tetraeder solar was founded, which has the focus on survey and prognosis of renewable energy potentials, as well as the use of these results for different sectors.

Thorsten Blanke

Thorsten is Managing Director at Belectric GmbH, and he counts with more than two decades of experience in the renewable energies sector. He has worked on and headed solar power business projects mainly in Germany, but also in Spain.

Fernando Kameoka

Fernando studied business as well as metallurgical engineering and a MSc in Sustainability and WEEE, to then dedicate himself to the renewable energy sector. Currently, he is a Project Developer at WPD, another protagonist in the renewable energy scene.

Anke Herold

Anke has worked for almost two decades at the Oko-Institut in Germany, as a Research Coordinator International Climate Change, Division Energy & Climate Protection. She is now Executive Director.

Jörg Ebel

Jörg is the president of the German Solar Industry Association (BSW). He counts with a decade of experience at IBC Solar AG, a leading provider of PV and energy storage services.

Michael Reinhold

Michael is the Director of Operations at ib vogt GmbH. After studying civil engineering, he has been working in solar power projects for more than a decade.

Melanie Hoffmann

Melanie is a young professional in the field of the power industry, and has high knowledge in the offshore wind energy sector. She worked in various companies in Europe and the United States and is currently an electrical engineer at Vattenfall, one of the biggest electricity suppliers in Germany.

Bodo Giesler

Bodo is a senior PV expert with patents that have been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), such as a PV sub-generator junction box for a PV system. Among others, he has helped to build the biggest MW PV Systems at Shell Solar.

Hans-Josef Fell

Hans-Josef is the president of Energy Watch Group and the co-author of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG). He is an internationally renowned energy and climate change advisor, author and speaker.

Kristina Haverkamp

Kristina is currently Managing Director of the German Energy Agency (DENA), where she leads international cooperation and sustainability in the transport sector. She is also a member of the scientific advisory board of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency ((ADEME) and is on the Board of the European Renewable Gas Registry (ERGaR).

Stefan Krauter

Stefan is a university professor for Electrical Energy Technology - Sustainable Energy Concepts at the Paderborn University. He has more than two decades of experience in renewable energies and PV systems in Latin America and Germany.

Matthias Buck

Matthias is the director of European Policy at Agora Energiewende. After a decade of experience in the European Commission, advising the German government on EU aspects of the energy transition, he settled in Berlin to lead the European work programme for Agora Energiewende, an independent organization with the commitment to climate action.

Ulrike Roehr

With more than 3 decades of experience in the gender and environmental fields, Ulrike is a researcher at GenderCC – Women for Climate Justice, a network of organisations, experts and activists working for gender equality, women’s rights and climate justice.

Björn Broda

Björn is the vice president of renewable energies at Juwi AG, one of the main solar companies in Germany. He has a business background and focuses on the different strategies of renewable energies and developments such as digitalisation in the field.