Matthias Willenbacher

Matthias Willenbacher (born July 14, 1969 on the Schneebergerhof , Gerbach municipality ) is a German entrepreneur and pioneer in the field of renewable energies . Willenbacher founded in 1996 with Fred Jung , the company juwi . He was a board member of juwi from its founding until March 31, 2015.

Life

Willenbacher studied physics and founded juwi in 1996. Together with his partner, Willenbacher was named Greentech Manager of the Year by the business magazine Capital in 2009. The consulting firm Ernst & Young awarded him the title Entrepreneur of the Year 2009.

Willenbacher is one of the featured protagonists in the film The 4th Revolution - Energy Autonomy ( 2010 ) and with his company one of the main financiers of this film.

In 2008 Willenbacher and Jung founded the 100 percent renewable foundation . With the non-profit foundation, the donors want to make a contribution to environmental protection by promoting the use of renewable energies.

In June 2013 his book My immoral offer to the Chancellor was published , in which he offered Angela Merkel to give away his company shares to the 500 citizens' energy cooperatives in Germany, if the Chancellor implemented a 100 percent, decentralized energy transition by 2020 . In the book, Willenbacher outlines a relatively detailed master plan of how Germany can be supplied with electricity from 100% renewable sources. The key points are an increase in the full-load hours of wind and solar energy systems as well as a mix of energy sources of 60% wind power, 25% solar energy, 5% hydropower and 10% from combined heat and power plants that are to be operated from sustainable sources.

In the same year juwi lost almost a third of its sales and made a loss of 53 million euros. The equity ratio fell to five percent, so that Willenbacher's book and proposed energy project took a back seat. In the following year, 2014, juwi was unable to improve and reports a further 112 million euros in loss. The company was on the brink of collapse and the equity ratio fell to 2.7 percent. Because juwi urgently needed money, under pressure from the banks, the company looked for an investor who could bring fresh equity into the indebted group. Willenbacher and his partner Fred Jung had to be prepared to lose a large part of their shares. In October 2014, the company was taken over by the Mannheim municipal utility company MVV Energie . On April 1, 2015, Willenbacher resigned from the juwi executive board and left the company, while Fred Jung joined juwi's supervisory board in 2016.

In 2016 Willenbacher had to answer to the Meiningen Regional Court in a corruption process. He was accused of having granted the former Thuringian Interior Minister Christian Köckert a prohibited advantage. In essence, it was about a consultancy contract from 2010 on the support of various relevant political decision-makers, which Willenbacher had concluded with the politician as the former board member of juwi. Although Willenbacher was acquitted, a "bizarre situation" arose - as the Handelsblatt wrote - because Köckert was sentenced to one year and three months' probation in 2014 for accepting benefits and taking bribes. The Düsseldorf criminal lawyer Heiko Ahlbrecht described it as rather unusual for beneficiaries to be convicted, but acquitted of the accused beneficiaries. Law professor Elisa Hoven also rated such a result as unusual.

As co-editor together with Claudia Kemfert , Hartmut Graßl , Michael Müller and Gero Lücking, Willenbacher wrote a regular column in the online magazine klimaretter.info until 2014 . Among other things, he pleaded for the true cost of fossil fuels and pointed to their hidden environmental costs , which, in his opinion, are not reflected in the production price for electricity generation . He called for a fuel tax for conventional power plants as an alternative to the ineffective emissions trading in order to accelerate the energy transition:

“ As a result, conventional power plants would finally also be adequately shared in the costs of the elimination of environmental damage, the safe final storage of radioactive waste and the fight against the damage to health caused by emissions. Then we will create a better world with the help of technology: a world in which the energy supply is exclusively clean, with a mix of wind and solar energy, hydropower, bioenergy, geothermal energy. A world in which energy prices are low and remain stable over the long term because wind and solar energy are free and infinitely available everywhere. "

Willenbacher has been looking for further donors for his holding company Wi Venture since July 2020. So far, the company has stakes in around 20 start-ups, including Frischepost, Tomorrow and Sono Motors . Around 15 start-ups are to be added by the end of 2021. Willenbacher wants to collect around five million euros. He had already received a similar amount as a co-investment from the European investment fund EIF , although he did not provide any information on the success and return of capital from his previous investments. In addition, Willenbacher operates a crowdfunding platform for sustainable projects with Wiwin, through which money also flows in part for his portfolio companies.

According to his own account, Willenbacher is the first European to own a Tesla Roadster .

Publications

• Matthias Willenbacher: My immoral offer to the Chancellor: Because the energy transition must not fail! Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2013, ISBN 978-3-451-30926-7 .

Web links

• Matthias Willenbacher's website
• Article in the WirtschaftsWoche about Willenbacher's "immoral offer"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Juwi AG (April 1, 2015): Press release: Willenbacher leaves the board.
2. ↑ http://www.oekonews.at/index.php?mdoc_id=1046740
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from December 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Two-digit million minus: wind farm builder Juwi is deep in the red. Retrieved August 22, 2020 . 
5. ^ Juwi trial: acquittal for Matthias Willenbacher. Retrieved August 22, 2020 . 
6. ↑ Founder Matthias Willenbacher surprisingly leaves Juwi. Retrieved August 22, 2020 . 
7. ^ Gerhard Hegmann: Pioneers in the twilight . In: THE WORLD . March 16, 2014 ( welt.de [accessed on August 22, 2020]).
8. ^ Juwi trial: acquittal for Matthias Willenbacher. Retrieved August 22, 2020 . 
9. ↑ RP ONLINE: Thuringia's ex-interior minister was bribed: Köckert sentenced to 15 months in prison. Retrieved August 22, 2020 . 
10. ↑ klimaretter.info, editor , accessed on February 8, 2019
11. ↑ klimaretter.info, Smart technology, real costs and maritime gigantism , April 6, 2013
12. ↑ Matthias Willenbacher: This green electricity pioneer is looking for further partners for start-ups. Retrieved August 22, 2020 . 
13. ↑ http://www.matthias-willenbacher.de/1000undeineidee/