Niederanven shows how to do solar energy right

Renewable energies have never been as cheap as they are today. At the same time, fossil fuels are back at record levels: high enough for the government to announce a tripartite meeting, which is expected to primarily address the issue of the Iran oil shock. There should be no real surprise here. As a reminder, there was the oil crisis of 2008, then the one in 2012 triggered by the consequences of the Arab Spring, followed by the coronavirus-related crisis in 2020, and finally the 2021 crisis caused by Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. Fossil fuels have proven to be geopolitically unreliable time and time again – regardless of any sustainability concerns.

Energy independence is therefore becoming a concrete goal for more and more municipalities across the country. 93 of them have taken part in the Klima-Agence's "Solar Challenge": Between October 2024 and May 2026, they competed in four categories to have the most photovoltaic systems installed on their territories. Just under half of them cracked the 10 per cent hurdle. But two of the categories – PV systems under 30kW and the total capacity of all systems under 200kW – are dominated by Niederanven.