Business Model Innovations for Renewable Energy Prosumer Development in Germany (original) (raw)

Business models for prosumers in Europe

2020

This report explores the different business models being adopted to enable renewable energy generation and self-consumption in the European Union. Individuals, businesses and energy communities that install renewable energy generation and self-consume some of that generation are called ‘prosumers’. Prosumers may be householders, businesses or communities whose primary business is not energy generation. The price of installing on-site renewables is falling, which means homes and businesses can increasingly afford the up-front cost of installing a system. At the same time, governments are removing the subsidies formerly paid to prosumers for feeding renewable energy into the grid. In parallel, energy systems are getting smarter, so it is becoming easier to account for smaller and smaller amounts of energy and to trade them between smaller players in the energy market; even down to household to household trades. The recent Clean Energy Package (CEP) for All Europeans enshrines the righ...

Business model challenge: Learnings from a local solar company in Germany

2014

Solar photovoltaic systems are considered as vital renewable energy sources to mitigate climate change and reduce dependency on fossil fuels. However in some countries, declining political support has resulted in decreasing diffusion of the photovoltaic systems. A case in point is Germany, the country with the highest installed capacity of photovoltaic systems. Given the new conditions in the German market, the diffusion rate declined continuously both in 2012 and 2013. Whether the diffusion rate will again take off is not known. While the recent literature has pointed out that the local solar companies have a vital driving role on diffusion, not many studies have yet discussed the business models and challenges such local companies may have. Through an extensive case study, this paper explores the business model of a local solar company in a town of 43000 habitants in southern Germany. The case of this company tells about an important business model challenge. Overcoming such chall...

Innovative Business Models to Foster Transition

2018

This deliverable forwards concepts of novel business models which will contribute to the fostering of the energy transition through addressing specific social, market and other barriers. The objective being to facilitate stakeholders (whether suppliers or consumers of energy) to shape and progressively interact with the energy system to effectively deliver a low-carbon system. The examples of (more) sustainable business models forwarded in this report will in particular, but not entirely focus on community- based approaches (complementing the work presented in Lennon, Dunphy et al., 2018) and public-private partnerships as a means of addressing issues such as public acceptance, split incentives, risk sharing, etc.

Antecedents of Creating Business Models in the Field of Renewable Energy Based on the Concept of the New Age of Innovation

Energies

The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedence of business models for the renewable energy sector, characterise their concepts and structure, and assess the importance of innovation in the creation of value for the customer and for the business in the examined business models. According to the concept of K. Prahalad and M. S. Krishnan, an operational business model consists of three basic components. The first two are social architecture and technical architecture that represent specific resources. The third component comprises business processes. The operating business model according to the principles of the New Era of Innovation was used. The business models were presented as case studies of the following: a photovoltaic farm, a passive building and a local (communal) biogas plant. A desk research method was employed as well as triangulation of the research methods of non-participant observation, unstructured interview and business documentation review, in order to deve...