BUSINESS BAVARIA Issue 12 | 2010

Bavaria turns on solar power for the USA

A Bavarian company will build the world’s largest solar power plant in the USA.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in the central Bavarian city of Erlangen, Solar Millennium will construct a plant in Blythe, California with an annual output of 1 Gigawatt - sufficient to meet the needs of up to 750,000 households – of green power.

These figures will make the plant the largest in the world. The current record-holder is Andasol. Located in southern Spain, it was the first of its kind in Europe, and is now being expanded for the second time. It was also developed by Solar Millennium, which is currently realizing similarly-large projects in Spain, Egypt and other places.

The parabolic trough system used in Solar Millennium’s power plants is very much a Bavarian product. Sunlight is gathered and relayed by ultra-efficient (93% rate of reflection) parabolic trough mirrors developed and produced by Flabeg’s facilities in Furth im Wald, a town located in the Bavarian Forest.

This eastern Bavarian region has long been the center of advanced glass manufacturing and of industrial engineering. This two-fold expertise explains why the receivers concentrating and turning the sunlight into liquid-borne heat are, in turn, manufactured by Schott Solar CSP GmbH in nearby Mitterteich in Upper Palatinate.

Construction of the first two of what will be four modules in Blythe is expected to be launched by the end of the year, with electricity set to flow by 2013.

These projects will cement Bavaria’s position of being one the world’s leaders in the development and application of solar power. This position stems from the full-range breadth of expertise held by the solar sector in the state, which, in addition to the above companies, is also comprised of leading manufacturers of solar-use silicon and developers of photovoltaic manufacturing facilities and ‘energy farms’.

A large portion of these products and services are employed in Bavaria itself. The state is, after all, number one in the world for installed photovoltaic facilities.

Bavaria Update – New representatives in Zurich and New York for Bavaria

In Zurich: Bavaria opened a new representative office in Switzerland. Ralf J. Bopp, who has worked for (since 1991) and been the director of (since 2005) of the German-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, heads the office in Zurich.

In New York: the successor to Dagmar Cassan, who ably represented Bavaria in the USA for 14 years, will be Dr. Wolfgang Hübschle. The holder of a degree in jurisprudence, Hübschle has a long and distinguished career in Bavaria’s economics ministry, for which he served as head of the department of regional development.

Five minutes with … Thomas Jaenisch of my boshi.net

They’re a hot product from Bavaria: You wear them – and look cool while doing so. We’re talking about the boshis – a Japanese form of beanies – knit by the aptly-named myboshi.net. That these caps, which are produced in the northern Bavarian town of Helmbrechts, are becoming an object of cult adoration with the world’s young is thanks to their globetrotting wearers – and to the Internet.

How big is the boshi community becoming?
Jaenisch: Our boshis are to be seen everywhere in central Europe – and even as far away as Spitzbergen and Australia. We get pictures from their wearers around the world.

Is the Internet the perfect distribution channel for ‘home-made’ products?
Jaenisch: It is definitely a ‘long-tail’ medium enabling small companies to leverage their appeal, and thus to reach otherwise unreachable groups.

Bavaria’s creatives – secret of the state’s sustained economic success

Looking for a reason why Bavaria’s economy is set – yet again – for a year of very strong growth?
Looking for a reason why the economy manages to create and fill jobs at Germany-best rates?

Then look at the state’s best-in-Germany ability to attract and retain “creatives”.

That’s the new term for those high-performers and potentials – HPPs –whose ideas, skills, drive and dedication make them the essential resource for corporate growth.

These traits explain why companies compete so fiercely to recruit and retain creatives – and why the companies go to and grow in Bavaria.

Because Bavaria, as an authoritative study – “The creative class in Germany in 2010” recently reported, is best at attracting creatives and will remain so for the decades to come.

Released in September, 2010 and conducted by the highly-respected agiplan market research organization, the study found that Bavaria is home to the highest-ranked TTT counties and cities in Germany.

The first T stands for the technological innovativeness and output of a business community – its being the cutting edge. This is where HPPs want to be. The top three spots in this category – and in the rankings as a whole - are held by Erlangen, Munich County and Munich itself, with nearby Starnberg finishing fifth.

Criteria used in determining this T are numbers of start-ups, share accounted for by R & D in the local gross domestic product, and share of scientists and engineers in total workforce.

That Bavaria should have so many tech start-ups, that its business community should devote itself so strongly to R & D, and that there are so many scientists and engineers in the state should come as no surprise.

The prime source of all these – the state’s institutions of higher education – is also top ranked.

Numbers 1 & 2 in Germany. These are the rankings accorded to Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians and TUM universities by the 2010 installment of the renowned Shanghai Academic Rankings of World Universities. LMU placed first overall, TUM ranked number one in the sciences as a whole – and in the life sciences in particular.

http://portal.mytum.de/pressestelle/pressemitteilungen/news_article.2010-08-16.3981921651

The second T is for what the HPPs need to perform at the height of their potential – tolerance – the openness to new ideas and lifestyles. This is calculated using the relative numbers of the self-employed and of foreign-born.The third T – ‘talent’ – is compiled from the percentages accounted for by the creatives and college graduates in a business community, and is thus the outcome of T1 and T2. The results of Bavaria’s great TTT pull are to be seen everywhere. Accounted for by all segments of the business community - long-standing companies, start-ups and the local subsidiaries of multinationals - job creation has reached a new peak in the state. As of August 2010, there were nearly 4.6 million gainfully employed in the state – the highest figure ever achieved in this month in Bavaria.At 3.8% in October 2010, unemployment has declined to levels not seen for almost 20 years – and this despite the state’s consistently recording the highest rates of net intra-German migration.

Bavaria in your briefcase

Getting off the New Year to a great start in Bavaria

Want to get 2011 off to a memorable and pleasurable start?
Then what about eating fondue and sipping mulled wine on a panorama platform perched atop the snowy heights of the Zugspitze (Germany’s highest mountain)?
Or about having a gala dinner in a restaurant framed by King Ludwig II’s palaces of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau?
Or about going for a night-time sleigh ride through the Bavarian Forest?

There are many very pleasant and unusual ways to ring in the New Year in Bavaria.
All of Bavaria’s communities celebrate the stroke of midnight with fireworks. Best place to see them in Munich is from the commanding heights of the Olympia TV tower or from the “mountain” (hill) rising nearby. In Nuremberg, it’s the Burg (castle). It occupies the position of prominence in the city’s fabled medieval center.

Located in the state’s southeast corner and framed by the mighty Watzmann massif rising on its west bank, the Königssee (Royal Lake) is one of the most enchanting and idyllic spots in the world.

A favorite way for both residents and an ever-greater number of fans of “Alpine New Year’s Eves” is to spend New Year’s Eve is by hiking up a panoramic point, there to watch local “Christmas marksmen” welcoming the New Year with a many-gun salute – and to subsequently take in the fireworks being set off in the communities ringing the lake.

And the nighttime partying is followed by a New Year’s Day featuring a cornucopia of classical music concerts, outdoor celebrations, sledding races, tractor pullings and the major-league ski jumping event in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FSxDO4nlDs

 Upcoming trade fairs and events
 
… in Munich

BAU 2011
January 17 – 22, 2011
World’s Leading Trade Fair for Architecture, Materials and Systems
www.bau-muenchen.com/en/Home

ispo 2011
February 6 – 9, 2011
The International Sports Business Network
www.ispo.com

… in Nuremberg

ELTEC
January 19 – 21, 2011
Trade Fair for Electrical Building, Information and Lighting Technology
www.eltec.info

International Toy Fair
February 3 – 8, 2011
www.spielwarenmesse.de/home/?L=1

… abroad

Delegation trip to India, headed by Martin Zeil, Bavaria’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology.
February 13 – 19, 2011
Visited will be Bangalore, Pune and Delhi. Sectors covered include automotive, environmental and industrial engineering, aerospace and construction.

For further information:
Sonja Miekley
Bayern International GmbH
Tel.: + 49 89 660566-203
smiekley@bayern-international.de