Bavaria is one of the main centers in Germany and in the world of the development and manufacturing of electricity generation and distribution facilities. The some 450 companies in this sector in the state employ more than 105,000 people. The companies’ main activities are the manufacturing of electricity distribution and switching facilities; of electrical motors, generators and transformers; and of such power plant components as steam boilers, turbines, motors, pumps and compressors.

Most of the world’s electricity is generated by power plants using non-regenerative sources and atomic power. Such plants are manufactured by such Bavaria-based companies as Siemens Power Generation, MTU Aero Engines, Alstom Power Energy, Areva NP, Linde and Kraftanlagen Munich. These companies are served by a large-sized network of suppliers. All told, the companies employ a total of some 7,000 people.

Electricity generation in Bavaria: regenerative energy
Thanks to hydraulic power, regenerative sources have long been one of the main sources of energy used in the generation of electricity in Bavaria. Other and fast-growing sources include biomass, photovoltaic, wind and geothermal ones.

One reason why Bavaria’s photovoltaic market is relatively large (as compared to the rest of Germany) is its comparatively strong (in terms of duration and intensity) sunshine. Bavaria now accounts for roughly half of all the photovoltaic-generated electricity in Germany. The facilities generating this electricity and their component parts and services are often Bavarian products. These constitute the entire chain of value added, and range from the pulling of crystals pulling to the manufacturing of wafers, cells, modules and entire facilities. The manufacturers of solar-use silicon and photovoltaic cells based in Bavaria are among the world’s leaders.
Headquartered or based in Bavaria are such major producers of photovoltaic cells, wafers or solar-use silicon as Applied Materials GmbH & Co. KG, Alzenau; AVANCIS GmbH & Co. KG, Munich; CENTROSOLAR Group AG, Munich; Konarka Technologies GmbH, Nuremberg; Schott Solar GmbH, Alzenau and Putzbrunn; Solar*Tec AG, Aschheim; and Wacker Chemie GmbH (Burghausen).

Customers for electricity generation technologies include operators of stand-alone, small-sized facilities (mostly powered by regenerative sources) and of large-sized, classic power plants. This diversity of operators provides investors with a wide range of opportunities for forging business relationships.

Participating in the consortium researching fossil fuel-powered energy stations for the 21st century are manufacturers and operators of such stations; suppliers of component parts; and 22 research facilities in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Other research projects involving Bavaria’s companies and scientific institutes are in the areas of ‘conventional power plants’ and ‘atomic energy’.

Photovoltaic companies and scientific institutes form part of the initiative for organic photovoltaic technologies, which avails itself of support from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Education and Research.

Bavaria’s Energy Forum is a platform providing its users with a large and attractive range of information and contacts. The Forum’s areas of specialty are energy efficiency and regenerative and other new energy technologies. The Forum provides up-to-date and comprehensive briefings on ongoing processes of development and innovation, and is thus a valuable supplement to the wide range of information and counseling services already available. The Forum maintains dedicated platforms. These devote themselves to technological subjects. Their participants are experts and end-users. These platforms have been the sources of a large number of innovations. Many of them have become new products.

Bavaria’s renowned universities are at the forefront of such key subjects as:

• energy provision systems and energy efficiency,
• regenerative sources of energy,
• combustion technologies and fuel cells, and
• nuclear energy.

Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Universities of Bayreuth and Würzburg; and TUM (Technical University Munich) are among Bavaria’s institutions of higher education maintaining departments and research facilities devoting themselves to developing energy technologies and turning out personnel for the field.
In doing such, the universities work with a number of non-university institutes and agencies. These include:

• ATZ Center of Development in Sulzbach-Rosenberg
• Bayerisches Zentrum für angewandte Energieforschung e. V. (ZAE Bayern—Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research) in Würzburg, Garching/Munich and Erlangen
• Centrales Agrar-Rohstoff-Marketing- und Entwicklungsnetzwerk e. V. (C.A.R.M.E.N.—Central Agency and Network for the Development and Marketing of Agrarian-Produced Raw Materials) in Straubing
• FIW Institute for the Researching of Heat Insulation (FIW) in Gräfelfing
• Energy Industry’s Research Office (FfE e. V.) in Munich
• IBP Fraunhofer Institute for Construction Physics’ facility in Holzkirchen
• IZM Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration’s facility in Munich
• Institute for Safety and Reliability (Isar) GmbH in Garching
• (IPP) Max-Planck Institute for Plasma Physics in Garching

Manufacturers of facilities for the generation of electricity and powered by conventional, nuclear and regenerative sources are based primarily in Munich, Erlangen, Nuremberg, Würzburg, Alzenau, Putzbrunn and Burghausen.

Key Technologies in Bavaria“ is a databank providing entries on Bavaria’s energy technology companies.