German SMEs’ energy investments start paying off – study

The investments made by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany in recent years have started to pay off and reduced the companies’ exposure to high power prices, German state-owned business development bank KfW said in a press release. Between 2014 and 2016, about 1.4 million SMEs in Germany invested in energy efficiency and lower energy use, which equals around 37 percent of all comparable companies in the country. Additionally boosted by lower prices for key energy carriers such as oil, the share of SMEs paying less than 5,000 euros for energy per year grew to 56 percent, compared to 40 percent in the period between 2011 and 2013. “Efficient energy use is becoming more and more important for SMEs,” said KfW head economist Jörg Zeuner. “We see this as proof of a changing attitude in the entire sector,” he added.

Read the press release in German here.

See the CLEW interview on the effect of batteries on German power costs the CLEW factsheet What business thinks of the energy transition for background.