Juwi defies the worldwide economic crisis

- Project developer creates 250 jobs and breaks into new fields of business

Woerrstadt - The juwi group from Wörrstadt in Germany is defying the worldwide recession and expanding strongly. In 2009 alone, the Rhineland Palatinate-based company, one of the leading project developers of wind, solar and bio energy plants, will create around 250 jobs worldwide, with sales expected to increase to as much as 700 million euros. By 2011, the headcount will break the 1000 barrier and sales will climb to reach one billion euros. This all makes juwi one of the most strongly growing companies in the Rhineland Palatinate. Last year, sales were doubled to 400 million euros; the workforce increased by around 180 to well in excess of 400 employees, more than 300 of whom are at the company headquarters in Wörrstadt.

"Despite all the world economic turbulences, renewable energies remain a growth branch, and juwi is growing more strongly than the market," emphasises co-CEO Fred Jung. Juwi is in fact growing so strongly that the headquarters to which the company only moved in mid-2008 already need to be expanded again. "Construction work is to start shortly; we want to move into the new part of the building by the middle of the year," says co-CEO Matthias Willenbacher, who founded juwi together with Fred Jung in 1996. Last year juwi was awarded the German Climate Protection Prize for the new company headquarters in Wörrstadt, regarded as the world’s most energy-efficient office building.

At the same time the company is breaking through with great enthusiasm into new fields of business. Apart from wind, solar and bio energy, juwi will also carry out geothermal and hydroelectric power projects in the future. In addition, heat supply and electrical mobility will play an important role in the future. Juwi will thus become one of the few full-line providers worldwide in the field of renewable energies. "We are convinced that in a few years the electricity supply can be changed over completely to renewable energies. In order to reach 100 percent, the regenerative energy carriers have to be massively expanded – all of them. We want to set a good example here," says Willenbacher.


Healthy growth in Germany and abroad

Growth is enormous. To date juwi has already erected around 350 wind turbines with a total installed power of over 450 MW; in the field of solar energy, roughly 800 PV plants with a total installed power of around 200 megawatts have been built. "Within roughly the next three years we will have installed around 1500 megawatts in the wind energy sector and as much as 2000 megawatts in the solar energy sector," says Jung. In 2008 juwi connected roughly 60 megawatts to the grid in the wind segment and around 100 megawatts in the solar segment. This was made possible by a number of major projects, such as the solar parks in Waldpolenz near Leipzig (Saxony) and Köthen (Saxony-Anhalt) that with 40 and 15 megawatts respectively are the largest photovoltaic plants in Germany. In the bio energy segment, too, juwi has a number of projects in the pipeline. In the south of Hesse, for example, a biogas plant is to be set up that will feed its production into the natural gas grid. Inexpensive heat generation with wood pellets and wood chips is also enjoying a growing demand, particularly from companies with high energy requirements. "We expect high growth rates for both biogas and solid biomass. Sales will increase at an above-average rate in 2009," predicts Jung.

The signals are all set for growth again in 2009. In the wind and solar sectors, for example, at least a doubling of the annually installed power is planned. But the juwi founders are not looking for growth at any price. "We are an owner-managed company and are not just looking for quick profit. We only enter into projects that promise steady and healthy growth. That is the only way we can further strengthen our business partners’ already great faith in us, and at the same time avoid risks for our employees. They are our most important capital," says Willenbacher. Although the focus of the activities is still on Germany, foreign markets are becoming more and more important. In 2009 juwi is to bring the largest wind park in Central America with 55 wind turbines completely onto the grid in Costa Rica. "We anticipate that in two to three years’ time, more than half our sales will be generated outside Germany," says Jung. In the wind segment juwi is already active in France, the Czech Republic, Poland, Argentina, the USA and Latin America, In the solar sector in Spain, Italy, France, Greece, the Czech Republic, the USA and South Korea.


Expansion into geothermics and hydroelectric power

In the future juwi portfolio, energy generation from geothermal heat will play a major role. "Particularly in the Upper Rhine rift valley, and thus also in the Rhine-Main region, geothermics offers enormous potential. We want to help raise this potential – for electricity production and for the generation of heat," says Willenbacher. Hydroelectric power will take on an important balancing function in the energy supply concepts of the future thanks in particular to the possibility of accumulation. The high energy potential of hydroelectric power can be exploited not only in mountainous areas or on the sea coast, but also in rivers. The German Federal states of Hesse and in particular the Rhineland Palatinate offer good preconditions for this. Projects are to be launched in cooperation with other regional public utilities in both these new fields of business.


Heat supply with the juwi energy cabin

With its own development of "juwi Energiekabine", juwi is now expanding into the heat supply market. The "juwi Energiekabine" generates heat from wood pellets, wood chips as well as with solar thermics and offers business enterprises, hotels and old people’s and nursing homes a flexible and inexpensive alternative to conventional heat supply. It can also be efficiently employed, however, as a central heating plant for residential blocks or new housing estates. The "juwi Energiekabine" generally consists of a pellet boiler with pellet store and a solar thermal plant, and can be adapted in size and capacity for the respective heat requirement. Juwi can also supply the pellets: the company has its own production facility in the ‘Morbacher Energy Landscape’.


Electric mobility only with clean energy

Juwi is also taking on a pioneering role in electric mobility. "Electric mobility must be the driving force behind the traffic systems of the future, but that alone is not enough. If the emissions are simply shifted from car exhaust to the coal-fired power station, then we will have gained nothing in averting the climate disaster. Electric mobility only then makes sense if the electricity comes from renewable and hence clean energy carriers – for example from wind and solar energy. We want to set a good example here," says Willenbacher. In concrete terms, that means: Juwi aims to change its company fleet of around 100 vehicles as quickly as possible over to electric vehicles from various manufacturers that are operated with electricity from renewable energies. At the company headquarters in Wörrstadt, juwi is showing that the changeover to clean electric mobility is possible. On the company building proper and in the area around the company headquarters, juwi has a variety of photovoltaic plants to generate electricity with which the electric vehicles can be recharged at a "solar fuel station". Highly innovative concepts have been implemented here. Car parks at the company headquarters are roofed in with juwi solar car ports fitted with solar modules. This latest development from juwi is available in a wide range of sizes and variants and can be installed on existing and newly built car parks. With the annual electricity generation from a juwi solar car port such as for twelve vehicles (around 20,000 kilowatt-hours), with a consumption of 15 kWh per 100 kilometres these twelve vehicles can each drive around 12,000 kilometres per year.

Juwi is furthermore part of a joint venture building innovative towers for wind turbines. On a wind turbine test facility in North-Rhine Westphalia, the company has, together with other project partners, set up the world’s first wind turbine plant with ATS hybrid tower made of concrete in the lower section and of steel in the upper section. The innovative ATS tower permits large hub heights and hence higher energy yields with comparatively low overall costs and is also easy to transport. Compared with the fairly widespread hub height of 100 metres, the 133 metre high ATS system offers around 20 percent higher energy yields. The higher costs for setting up the tower are recouped within a period of operation of just a few years. In addition, it involves very low maintenance costs. This results in significantly lower electricity generation costs over the project period of many years compared with the systems common on the market today. "This plays a role particularly at inland locations with lower wind velocities, and thus offers new development potential for wind energy generation," emphasises Jung.


100 percent renewable energies

With the implementation of projects in the past and in the future, juwi board members Willenbacher and Jung are pursuing the goal of a purely regenerative energy supply: 100% effort for 100% renewable energies. The "100 percent renewable" campaign is an expression of this goal (www.100-prozent-erneuerbar.de). Juwi has already shown in studies and concrete projects that a purely regenerative electricity supply is possible – by 2030 in the Rhineland Palatinate and the Saarland, by 2020 in the Alzey-Worms district and as early as 2017 in the collective municipality of Wörrstadt.


Woerrstadt, 9 February 2009


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the juwi Holding AG.

Attention editorial offices: For further questions please contact Mr.
Ralf Heidenreich, Press Officer, juwi Holding AG.

Energie-Allee 1
55286 Wörrstadt
Tel: + 49 (0) 6732 - 96 57 1207
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