Why does Germany have such a hot solar-startup scene?

Even before the war in Ukraine put Europe’s precarious reliance on Russian gas in the spotlight, rising energy prices and the climate crisis were driving interest in alternatives like solar energy. 

Germany is no exception. The country’s Solar Industry Association said that there had been a 60 percent rise in the number of homes installing solar systems in 2021 from the year before. With the country struggling to figure out how to end its dependence on Russian gas, demand for solar looks set to keep surging.

“Germany has one of the highest solar power outputs in the world and still boasts cutting-edge research and many new industry actors,” Benjamin Wehrmann of Berlin-based Clean Energy Wire wrote recently. “They expect a second wave in solar power expansion that could soon pave the way for the technology's full systemic integration,”