(Wiesbaden, 13 October 2025) These are exciting times for Wiesbaden-based project developer ABO Energy: at the end of September, the company announced its intention to operate its own energy parks in future. The search for financing to expand the business model has begun. Around a week after the announcement, more than 1,000 employees gathered at the RheinMain CongressCentrum in Wiesbaden for the “Global Meeting,” a regularly scheduled internal conference. The ABO Energy Managing Board took the opportunity to inform the workforce in detail about current developments in numerous discussion rounds, answer questions and take suggestions from employees.
“The Global Meeting has a long tradition at ABO Energy and holds a special place in our corporate culture,” says Managing Director Matthias Hollmann, who has been with the company since its founding year 1996. Every three to four years, all colleagues come together in one place – in 2025 for the second time in Wiesbaden. “This major event allows us to forge and deepen connections across all locations and departments, which strengthens us as a company and prepares us for future challenges. It is worth the effort and expense,” explains Hollmann.
Over two days, the employees attended 140 individual events to exchange knowledge and refine strategies. Almost 200 colleagues had prepared presentations, exhibitions and workshops for this purpose. High-profile guest speakers from the energy industry, politics, and science gave further presentations, including transformation expert Prof. Dr. Maja Göpel, Wolfram Axthelm (Managing Director of the German Wind Energy Association) and SolarPower Europe’s Managing Director Walburga Hemetsberger. The cultural diversity of the company was reflected in a country fair, where the stands focused on information about the business activities of the ABO Energy countries as well as their respective cultures and cuisines.
“The Global Meeting serves not only to promote further training and team building, but also to strengthen employee loyalty,” says Hollmann. “A positive working atmosphere is essential for retaining good employees. Fortunately, ABO Energy has many of them. We will need them to remain economically successful and continue to make a valuable contribution to the success of the energy transition.”
Prof. Martin Braun, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Economics and Energy System Technology in Kassel, Dr Nicolai Herrmann, Managing Director of enervis energy advisors GmbH, and Sabrina Schmitt, ABO Energy’s Team Manager for Energy Origination, discussed the future development of the electricity market in Germany. In the panel discussion moderated by ABO Energy’s Managing Director Dr Thomas Treiling, the experts agreed that Germany still has a long way to go to achieve climate neutrality. The new federal government is sticking to its goal of achieving this by 2045. However, the panellists lamented that Berlin currently lacks the necessary ambition to achieve this goal. This was shown by some of the conclusions drawn by Economics Minister Katherina Reiche from the monitoring report on the energy transition presented in mid-September.
“A renewable share of currently 60 per cent in the electricity supply is nice,” said Prof. Braun. “But renewables only cover 25 per cent of total energy demand.” It is therefore important to continue the expansion of renewable energies consistently. A massive strengthening of the electricity grids and comprehensive digitalisation are also indispensable. From Prof. Braun's point of view, digitalisation is a prerequisite for improving the flexibility of electricity consumption. Neither Dr Herrmann nor Prof. Braun expect any radical improvements from the division of Germany into several electricity price zones, as demanded at European level. Such a step would have many disadvantages. It would be more effective to expand the grid connections to neighbouring countries, thereby contributing to lower electricity prices across Europe and making the best possible use of the advantages of renewable energies.
