Looking for investors can be a daunting task for start-ups, especially in early stages and when it comes to not having a background in international business or not being used to taking that much initiative and risk – seemingly all at once! But, setting a great idea into practice and contributing to one or several societal goals clearly has their own value. To support migrant entrepreneurs and professionals on their pathway to and in Germany, this article has compiled a list with three funding programmes at the national level in the German energy sector. Renewables become ever more important and mobility in the renewables sector ensures that entrepreneurs carry their expertise and knowledge all around the world! Are you a practitioner from the field – then this article may be for you!
Germany’s Energy Transition Amid Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine:
Prospects For A German-African Cooperation
As data provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA) shows, Germany’s energy mix has become more diverse in the past three decades with biofuels and waste (2020: 1,307,933.0 TJ) and wind, solar power, etc. (2020: 699,807.0 TJ) having gained more importance at least since the early 2000s. In November 2021, Germany’s new coalition agreed to phase out coal by 2030 instead of 2038 and amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine the German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, Robert Habeck, emphasized that Germany aims to be “independent from Russian coal by autumn” of this year. However, at around the same time Habeck has also said that, in the worst case, this would mean to let coal-fired power stations run longer.
As Clean Energy Wire argued in an article from 9th March 2022, in order for Germany to keep up the speed with regard to the renewable energy transition amid new circumstances, it must really step up its efforts now to construct “new renewable power installations, […] grid and hydrogen infrastructure but also of new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals”. In the meantime, both Habeck and Olaf Scholz agreed that coal plays a role in ensuring energy supply security. With Germany remaining committed to phase out nuclear power plants, Scholz also admitted that energy trading with Russia might still be unavoidable to certain extents until autumn of this year.
The latter differed from Biden’s reaction to the Russo-Ukrainian war with a ban on all energy imports from Russia. One possible solution, which was suggested in an article on Foreign Policy, was that Germany could tap into Africa’s pool of natural gas should it be in urgent need and aim to immediately cut ties with Russia. The latter argument was also brought forward by NJ Ayuk, the Chairman of the African Energy Chamber (AEC), who emphasized that despite it would take Africa months “to ramp up their gas production”, it would be possible to provide Germany with “‘Freiheitsgas’”. The suggestion to more strongly cooperate with Africa arguably reemphasized the importance of a mutually supportive German-African collaboration in the energy sector today and in the future. For migrant entrepreneurs from Africa, who have an interest in starting up in the German renewables sector, the current situation might at the least be interesting following.
Should Africa and Germany cooperate amid this crisis, it might also be interesting to discuss how investments into renewable energy projects between Africa and Germany, as well as in mobility and entrepreneurship in the renewables sector, could ‘make up’ for temporarily investing back into African gas, even if Western leaders opposed the latter strongly at COP26. Amid the renewable energy transition, it certainly is important to think about circularity across a wide range of societal areas. Arguably, investing into bringing African entrepreneurs to Germany and vice versa could certainly influence knowledge production and local capacity building – both with regard to infrastructure, education and expertise in different regions. The latter is to say, at the same time as energy supply and security becomes an important topic, investing into renewables must remain an important topic.
Where To Look For Funding In Germany…
3 Funding Programmes At The National Level
The question, where to look for funding as a migrant founder in Germany with an interest in the renewables sector, is certainly a good one. It can easily happen to lose track of opportunities, just because information does not really reach the right audience at the right time, but happily there are quite some initiatives, which support founders in the energy and renewables sector in Germany. As the Noerr Consulting AG revealed in 2020, the following funding programmes might be of particular interest for founders in the energy sector:
In a nutshell, the 7th Energy Research Programme is a project at the national level by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), which started in 2018 and yearly invests €1,3 billion in the “research about, development of, demonstration of and the trial run of future-proof technologies and concepts”. The programme emphasizes that start-ups are an important catalyzer to drive forward the energy transition and that the funding priorities of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWi) relate to making space for diverse start-ups, flexible funding opportunities and networking. More precisely, the BMWi funds projects under different horizons – such as the ‘energy transition and society’ and ‘hydrogen and sector coupling’. Next to the latter, it has a new funding concept called ‘Living Labs of the Energy Transition (Reallabore der Energiewende)’ since July 2021.
Whereas the ‘energy transition and society’ funding horizon was focused on projects, which investigate aspects about the relationship between the employment market, the energy transition and the digitalization in 2020, this project will aim towards new imaginations in 2022. Information about how to obtain funding in 2022 can be obtained from the project partner at the Research Center Jülich. If instead you are interested in contributing to the ‘hydrogen and sector coupling’ funding horizont, which has been referred to as ‘Technologieoffensive Wasserstoff (TOW)’, it might instead be useful to follow-up on Germany’s National Hydrogen Strategy and the Hydrogen Research Network. And finally, if you are interested in the ‘Living Labs of the Energy Transition’ programme, then be told that interdisciplinary projects, which understand the connection between different societal spheres, industry partners and stakeholders could be particularly successful when aiming to obtain funding. In a nutshell, the Living Labs programme also puts a strong emphasis on the capacity of a project to accelerate the energy transition. More information can be obtained here!
Next to the 7th Energy Research Programme, another funding programme at the national level in Germany might be attractive for migrant start-ups with an interest in the renewable energy sector – and this is the KMU-innovativ funding horizont! As was revealed by the BMBF in February 2022, ‘KMU-innovativ’ will fund small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) in a variety of areas such as bioeconomy, supercomputing, research for civil security, photonics and quantum technologies, and resource efficiency and climate protection. Notably, in February funding amounted to no less than €1,777 million – however the latter will account for a wide variety of projects, which so far include 3,990 SMEs.
Whereas start-ups with an interest in the energy sector and a second mission in another area could probably apply to different horizons of the programme, they might especially want to get informed about the resource efficiency and climate protection horizon. As the BMBF lays out, as SMEs are aiming to obtain funding – they should definitely showcase a huge innovation potential and excellence. More precisely, the project is split into four subareas: raw materials efficiency, energy efficiency and climate protection, sustainable water management and sustainable land management. Solutions, which are attractive with regard to promoting energy efficiency and climate protection are, for instance, “system-related technologies, procedures and services, which seek to accelerate energy efficiency in the industrial sector [,] greenhouse gas-reducing technologies and methodologies for industrial processes [and] climate-related cross-sectional technologies”.
Whereas project outlines can be brought forward to KMU-innovativ throughout the year, valuation dates are the 15th of April and October each year. Start-ups with an interest in this funding horizon should certainly consult the German Adaptation Strategy (DAS) and the Climate Action Plan 2050, because project sketches that work towards the goals of the latter strategies have been pointed out to be particularly welcome. In a nutshell, the DAS was adopted in December 2008 and is updated every five years. Its broader aims relate to, among others, naming and making environmental risks transparent, sensitizing different stakeholders, building towards a better ground for decisions so that private persons, institutions and companies can act more environmentally aware, and determining responsibilities.
Different from the other programmes, as Noerr Consulting AG emphasizes, Start up Energy Transition (SET)-Hub is not a programme, which provides financial funding to entrepreneurs with an interest in the energy sector in Germany. However, it offers start-ups support with “the development of their innovative business plans and solutions for the energy transition” as its website reveals. Next to regional workshops about regulatory frameworks, it offers mentoring and an innovation network – which all probably constitute great starting points before sending an application to funding programmes! Understanding the German energy market might not be easy, but SET-Hub certainly will be able to answer questions, assist and support.
For obtaining first insights from SET-Hub, which might provide some hints on the German energy markets and its individual needs, the publication section might be particularly interesting to explore. Beyond the podcast on the web page of the Future Energy Lab, further publications in relation to energy and artificial intelligence by the dena’s Enerki and the Start Up Energy Transition Platform might be worth exploring. In October 2021, the latter platform hosted the annual SET Tech Festival again, which was a large-scale event that brought together energy accelerators, energy start-ups, industry experts and politicians. With SET-Hub being a project by the dena, certainly joining this network can at the least deliver inspiration for migrant entrepreneurs with an interest in the German renewables sector.
Centurion Plus
If you are a migrant founder with an interest in starting or scaling up in the German energy and renewables sector, then we would happily assist you with the legal and administrative hurdles on your way to a new challenge and project! Next to having an office in Frankfurt since 2020 and being specialized on supporting start-ups and SMEs on the German market, we also have various African offices and can additionally provide support across different African jurisdictions, where needed. Contact us for an initial consultation to find out more!
