FICHTNER Talks 2024
Trust Is the New Currency – The Rest We Can Manage
The traditional FICHTNER Talks took place on 24 September 2024. The FICHTNER Talks roundtable discussed the main hurdles on the path to climate neutrality. This panel of experts found that most of those hurdles are surprisingly not of a technical nature, but rather need to be understood in systemic terms.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Andreas Weidler, CEO of the Fichtner Group, explained the guiding theme of this year’s FICHTNER Talks, namely “Transformation Projects in a Dynamic Energy Market”, and referenced the “historical turning point” proclaimed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the inauguration of the first liquefied natural gas terminal in Wilhelmshaven in December 2022, along the accompanying strategy of the government to speed up the transformation of infrastructure in Germany. “This is the essence of the challenge facing our industry. It’s about speed and action.“
Five messages summarize the findings of the FICHTNER Talks 2024:
Message No. 1: Basing political decisions on broader energy scenarios
Long-term scenarios serving as a basis for political decision-making should cover a broad range of analysis and take into account current developments, technological, political and social uncertainties as well as possible external disruptive factors, while also revealing politically sensitive premises. The repercussions of failing to meet targets should be made transparent, for example if only 80% of greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 2045. Looking forward, the resulting measures, such as targeted funding of disruptive innovations, strengthening of climate impact protection measures, etc., must be described and evaluated in the scenario context.
Message No. 2: Significantly strengthening flexibilities
Balancing supply and demand, as well as balancing the grid and the market, requires flexibilities. This affects not only the generation side, but also the demand side – as well as grids at all levels and all media. A systematic flexibility concept and, above all, a strong will to implement it are needed to provide flexibilities. For example, the controllability of solar power installations could make an important contribution, since only electricity that is actually needed has any value.
Message No. 3: Simplifying the legal framework
According to the FICHTNER Talks roundtable, the goal of climate neutrality in Germany by 2045 is technically feasible, but the complex and extensive legal framework (comprising over 18,000 elements) alone will cause delays. The participants in the roundtable were alarmed to discover that the current energy legislation and regulation comprises many times more legal norms than the German Civil Code. That complexity must be reduced. It would therefore be better to incentivize the achievement of targets according to predefined criteria and allow leeway in the implementation, rather than bureaucratizing the enthusiasm of committed individuals through standards and requirements.
Message No. 4: Incentivizing private investment – the money is there
Private-sector incentives are needed to raise the billions required for the initial investments. Reliable, long-term business models are necessary for this. There is also insufficient communication of the science-based fact that renewable energy systems can also be economically more advantageous than fossil fuel or nuclear power plants. For the solutions that are already economically viable today, such as PV, wind, e-mobility, heat pumps in new buildings, etc., it is essential to develop standardized financing models that can be launched “at the click of a mouse”. The market entry of future technologies that are important for decarbonization (from H2 to CCU) would be facilitated by a robust CO2 certificate system based on the ETS model.
Message No. 5: Restoring trust
The roundtable of experts at the FICHTNER Talks unanimously ranked the criteria for a successful energy transition in the following order: trust, technology, money, (systemic) unison, and digitization.

Roundtable of the FICHTNER Talks 2024 with (from left to right) Dr. Albrecht Reuter, Dr. Detlef Drake, Dr. Michael Weise, Marilen Schläfer, Thomas Raab, Prof. Dr. Michael Obersteiner, Johannes Rager
The FICHTNER Talks roundtable expressed concern about the increasing loss of trust that the energy transition process is currently experiencing. The expert community has committed to doing its part to ensure that the importance of infrastructure transformation is communicated and understood, and that the positive aspects of a collaborative effort are conveyed. After all, independent engineering consultants in particular have the opportunity to talk to all the important players and, if all goes well, to be heard by most of them.
Preview of the FICHTNER TALKS 2025
The “Topping-Out Ceremony of the Energy Transition” will be the focus of the “10 Years of FICHTNER Talks” anniversary event on 23 September 2025. We will be discussing the various alternative paths to the net-zero solution and the impact of our messages from the last event with the following prominent figures, among others (in order of appearance in the program):
- Sabine Nallinger, Chairwoman of the ‘Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft’ foundation
- Jörg Höhler, President, German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW), and Member of the Executive Board, ESWE Versorgungs AG
- Dr. Constantin H. Alsheimer, Chairman of the Executive Board, Thüga Aktiengesellschaft
- Andreas Schierenbeck, CEO, Hitachi Energy
- Peter Rüth, Chief Financial Officer, Amprion GmbH
- Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Lars P. Feld, Professor of Economic Policy, University of Freiburg, and Director, Walter Eucken Institute
- Thomas Speidel, Founder and CEO, ADS-TEC Energy, and Winner of the 2024 German Environmental Award from the German Federal Environmental Foundation
- Dr. Peter Blauwhoff, Member of the Executive Board, HH2E AG
- Dr.-Ing. Egon Leo Westphal, Chairman of the Executive Board, Bayernwerk AG
- Hans-Martin Hellebrand, CEO, badenova AG & Co. KG
- Ralf Klöpfer, Member of the Executive Board, MVV Energie AG
- Peter Drausnigg, Technical Managing Director, Stadtwerke Stuttgart GmbH
- Prof. Dr. Florian Klumpp, Institute for Energy Technology and Energy Economics (IEE), Ulm University of Applied Sciences
- Michel Nicolai, CEO, epilot GmbH
- Dr. Friederich Kupzog, Head of Competence Unit Power and Renewable Gas Systems, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
- Gerard Reid, Co-Founder and Partner of Alexa Capital, and Co-Host of the “Redefining Energy” Podcast
- Jens Heil, Managing Director/Head of Project Finance Continental Europe, LBBW Landesbank Baden-Württemberg
- Prof. Christian Held, Lawyer and Partner, Becker Büttner Held
- Anna H. Jasper-Martens, CEO, E.ON Energy Infrastructure Solutions GmbH
Join in! www.fichtnertalks.de
December 2024

Dr. Albrecht Reuter
Scientific Director of the FICHTNER Talks
Managing Director of Fichtner IT Consulting GmbH