Energy efficiency gives German industry its edge

HANOVER – An often-ignored aspect of Germany’s green energy transition is the one that has most helped its export industry; energy efficiency, the new hallmark of the country’s high-tech sector.

Less visible and less publicized than wind and solar farms, energy efficiency is the aspect that is the “most misunderstood of the energy transition, and yet the one that works best,” said Stephan Kohler, president of German energy agency Dena. “The success of the German economy owes much to the fact that its products help achieve energy savings,” he said.

In the early 2000s, German researchers and companies submitted between 30 and 40 percent of global patent applications in the areas of energy-efficient building services and industrial processes and technologies.

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