ABO Energy GmbH & Co. KGaA is a German energy company which develops renewable energy sources (wind and solar energy, battery storage, and hydrogen). ABO Energy has international offices in France, Finland, Poland, Tanzania, UK, Ireland, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, Tunisia and the Netherlands. In Germany, ABO Energy operates at its corporate headquarters in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...

Hesse Hesse or Hessen ( ), officially the State of Hesse (), is a States of Germany, state in Germany. Its capital city is Wiesbaden, and the largest urban area is Frankfurt, which is also the country's principal financial centre. Two other major hist ...

as well as in

Ingelheim Ingelheim (), officially Ingelheim am Rhein (), is a town in the Mainz-Bingen Districts of Germany, district in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany. The town sprawls along the Rhine's left bank. It has been Mainz-Bingen's district seat sin ...

and in regional offices in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; ; ; ) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the sixteen states. Mainz is the capital and largest city. Other cities are ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MV; ; ), also known by its Anglicisation, anglicized name Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, is a Federated state, state in the north-east of Germany. Of the country's States of Germany, sixteen states, Mecklenburg-Vorpom ...

and

Saarland Saarland (, ; ) is a state of Germany in the southwest of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and the smallest in ...

. As of 2024 the company has over 1,200 employees and is working on projects amounting to over 23

gigawatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named in honor ...

s worldwide."Facts & Figures ABO Energy"
Website ABO Energy. Retrieved 31 July 2024.

History

1996-2000

The beginnings of the company lie in 1996, when Jochen Ahn and Matthias Bockholt founded "the planning company for the use of wind power & other renewable energies". The first wind farm was built that year in Niederlistingen near

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

."References ABO Energy"
Website ABO Energy. Retrieved 31 July 2024. In 1998, the first citizens' wind farm projected by the company was connected to the grid in

Framersheim Framersheim is an ''Ortsgemeinde'' – a municipality belonging to a ''Verbandsgemeinde'', a kind of collective municipality – in the Alzey-Worms district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Geography Location The municipality lies in Rhenish ...

, Rhineland-Palatinate. Until 2000, the company planned and built five wind farms in Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate.

2000-2020

In 2000, the founders converted the GmbH into a stock corporation and renamed it ABO Wind. The first part of the company name is an acronym from the last names of the founders Ahn and Bockholt. The oldest subsidiary abroad is ABO Wind España S.A.U. in

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

, founded in 2001."Company ABO Energy"
Website ABO Energy. Retrieved 31 July 2024. Since 2014, ABO Wind has applied to build a wind farm with eleven 150m tall turbines in

Aughrim, County Wicklow Aughrim (; ) is a small town in County Wicklow, Ireland. It lies in a scenic valley in the Wicklow Mountains in the east of Ireland where the Ow and Derry rivers meet to form the Aughrim River. Aughrim is on the R747 road between Arklow and ...

, Ireland. Local residents vehemently opposed the plan and formed the South Wicklow Wind Action Group (SWWAG) to campaign against it.

Wicklow County Council Wicklow County Council () is the local authority of County Wicklow, Ireland. As a county council, it is governed by the Local Government Act 2001. The council is responsible for housing and community, roads and transportation, urban planning an ...

voted to reject the wind farm They reapplied again in 2017 which was also met opposition, but in 2019

An Bord Pleanála (; meaning "The Planning Board"; ABP) is an independent, statutory, quasi-judicial body that decides on appeals from planning decisions made by local authorities in Ireland. As of 2007, An Bord Pleanála directly decided major strategic infra ...

approved the wind farm, against the recommendation of their own inspector, and as of 2022 is awaiting judicial review. The company started to work on solar projects in 2017. In 2018, ABO Wind built a wind farm with five

Senvion Senvion S.A. (called REpower Systems SE until 2014) was a German wind turbine manufacturer founded in 2001 in Germany, majority owned by a private equity firm. Senvion as REpower Systems, as it was initially called, was established in 2001 th ...

3.2M122

wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that wind power, converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. , hundreds of thousands of list of most powerful wind turbines, large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, were generating over ...

s of on former mining areas around the open pit mine in

Jänschwalde Jänschwalde (Sorbian language, Sorbian: Janšojce) is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the district of Spree-Neiße in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated in the region of Lower Lusatia. The nearest town is Peitz; Cottbus is 25 ...

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

, in eastern Germany, very close to the Polish border. At the time it was announced that they had a "150MW portfolio consisting of 66 onshore wind turbines and one

biogas Biogas is a gaseous renewable energy source produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste, Wastewater treatment, wastewater, and food waste. Biogas is produced by anaerobic ...

plant". In early 2019, the company announced that it was discontinuing its work in Iran.

2020-2024

Battery storage projects were integrated into ABO Wind's business in 2020. Two years later, the first combined solar and battery storage project was connected to the grid. In December 2022, the Greek subsidiary of the company completed the installation of the 50 megawatt Margariti solar farm in the Epirus region of north-western Greece, which was commissioned in December 2023. The photovoltaic farm which uses 93,000 bifacial panels and 10 central inverter stations is expected to produce some 76 GWh of green electricity and curb an estimated 32,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions each year. In January 2023 it was announced that ABO Wind are to combine wind power with green hydrogen for a refueling station for buses and lorries, in the Hessisches Kegelspiel business park in

Hünfeld Hünfeld () is a town in the district of Fulda, in Hesse, Germany. It is situated 16 km northeast of Fulda. In 2000, the town hosted the 40th Hessentag state festival. Hünfeld has a population of close to 16,000. Infrastructure Transpor ...

, the result of over ten years of development into hydrogen power. Hydrogen will be produced using an electrolyzer, in which water electrolysis is powered by a wind turbine, and is expected to be able to fuel 50 lorries a day. In February 2023, ABO Energy formed an agreement with Repsol Renovables for five renewable energy projects, including three wind farms amounting to 150 megwatts, and two solar projects with a total capacity of 100 megawatts on sites in

Palencia Palencia () is a city of Spain located in the autonomous community of Castile and León. It is the capital and most populated municipality of the province of Palencia. Located in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northern half of ...

in northern Spain. Once completed in 2024 and 2025, the sites will provide electricity to 172,000 homes in the region. The company is also active in the

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

region of northern Spain, and between 2019 and 2022 developed a wind farm in

Valladolid Valladolid ( ; ) is a Municipalities of Spain, municipality in Spain and the primary seat of government and ''de facto'' capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile and León. It is also the capital of the pr ...

. In 2023, the shareholders voted in favour of changing the legal form of the AG to a partnership limited by shares at an extraordinary general meeting. In the course of considering the new legal form, the company also scrutinised its name. The company's new name, ABO Energy, reflects the significant growth in its technological horizons since it was founded in 1996. In July 2024, the company has completed its change of legal structure. As of 2024, ABO Energy has planned and built energy farms with a total volume of more than 5.5

s of capacity and has over 1,200 employees. It has connected around 900 wind, solar and battery storage facilities with a nominal capacity of over 2.5 gigawatts to the grid in Germany, France, Finland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ireland, Tunisia, Poland, and Iran.

Services

ABO Energy covers all stages of renewable energy project development internationally - planning, financing, construction supervision and organization. As a service, the company offers commercial and technical management for wind farms, solar farms and battery storage as well as maintenance and other services. Customers are buyers of the plants projected by ABO Energy as well as other operators such as Rheinenergie. To improve the security of wind farms and to control access, the company has developed the electronic locking system ABO Lock. Usually with commissioning, ABO Energy sells the plants, for example, to energy suppliers, cooperatives or institutional investors.

Locations

Currently, the company is active in 16 countries on four continents. In Germany, ABO Energy operates at its corporate headquarters in

as well as in Ingelheim and in regional offices in

as well as in

. The company has established a global presence with international offices in Finland, France, the UK, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Argentina, Canada, Colombia, South Africa, Tunisia, Tanzania, and the Netherlands.

Management board

In 2024, six people make up ABO Energy’s Management Board: Dr. Karsten Schlageter, Dr. Jochen Ahn, Matthias Hollmann, Susanne von Mutius, Alexander Reinicke and Dr. Thomas Treiling.

Supervisory board

At the Annual General Meeting in June 2017, the shareholders elected the former Minister of Economics and Energy of Rhineland-Palatinate, Eveline Lemke, to the supervisory board. The other members of the supervisory board are: Dr. Alexander Thomas (chairman), Dr. Daniel Duben, Martin Giehl, Natalie Hahner and Maike Schmidt."Supervisory board"
Website ABO Energy. Retrieved 31 July 2024.

References

External links

* {{official website, https://www.aboenergy.com/
Financial Times
Renewable energy companies of Germany Companies established in 1996 Companies based in Wiesbaden Wind power companies of Germany