Image: Fronius
She advocates that the funding regime should be geared towards ensuring that the added value of the Green Deal remains in Europe. Fronius has doubled its production capacity within two years and can now meet the rapidly growing demand again.
Due to the PV boom, Fronius has not been able to deliver as much as was demanded in recent years, which is why it has invested heavily – 187 million euros last year and 233 million euros this year, mostly in additional production lines at the Sattledt location, partly also in the Location Český Krumlov. “The driver for the investments is largely PV,” says Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß. The supply chain problem has also eased. That’s why numerous wholesalers were invited to an event in Sattledt on Thursday to signal: “We are available, you can order from us.”
“Nothing’s happening”
Fronius has lost market share in recent years, “but only because we were not available. The demand was much greater and many of our customers unfortunately had to switch to Chinese competitors.” In China, the entire energy system is seen as a key industry. “These are state-affiliated companies that receive completely different funding than a European family business.” She criticizes the fact that politicians in this country do not care enough about establishing or developing the PV industry in Austria. “Nothing’s happening.”
Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauss defends herself against saying “the PV industry is now only Chinese and it doesn’t make sense to get much back from it now.” Even if a single PV system may not be a critical infrastructure, the combination of many systems “makes a significant contribution to the power supply. And it is a problem if I build a network or an energy system only with Chinese components,” she warns. The inverter – the product that Fronius produces – “is the intelligence of the photovoltaic system. All the energy management is done there and all the data is also stored there. I would question whether it is wise if we only do a Green Deal with Chinese products because then all the data is in a Chinese cloud,” she warns against becoming dependent on energy supplies. We need to keep more added value in Europe.
“Being overrun”
“The Americans have a very strong industrial policy when it comes to renewables, as do the Chinese. But we are open to everyone and then we will be overrun,” she warns. “We are competitive – otherwise we couldn’t afford to invest.” But there is a need for framework conditions that strengthen European industry, for example by linking subsidies to domestic value creation. She also insists on speeding up the approval process, especially for the networks. We have to see “that we can bring more PV into the grids”.
In principle, Fronius’ largest market is Europe, which is why “actually everything” is produced in Europe. But the USA is particularly interesting for the solar sector. “We have now started to build a team there that develops products for the local market.” Fronius also wants to start “small production” near Chicago. “But this is not an outsourcing, but an add-on,” she emphasizes, adding that they want to manufacture in the USA for the American market. In China, on the other hand, she sees no chance in the PV market, but Fronius is active here with a welding technology subsidiary.
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