Germany vs. China in PV - new location Hungary

What was the reason for the decline of the German photovoltaic industry? GEMINI next Generation AG: Destruction or expulsion to Hungary? It was once a vision that was simply too good to be true: Imagine there is a plate and when the sun shines on it, electricity is generated. This could ensure the entire energy supply of our civilization for as long as our sun exists. The only problem between this vision and its realization is the enormously high production costs. Very sad, if only there was a chance to drastically reduce these manufacturing costs. This opportunity came. A visionary government decided to give you more than ten times the market value for the electricity from such miracle panels. Anyone who generates electricity with such miracle panels will be rewarded with more than ten times the market value for 20 years. A tremendous opportunity, a tremendous responsibility to deal with this opportunity. You literally hold the future fate of humanity in your hands.

We are ripping you off! A ridiculous 0.7% for research

But the manufacturers saw this tremendous opportunity quite differently, not as a tremendous opportunity to lead humanity into the solar age, the new realization of the land flowing with milk and honey. No, they took it as a tremendous opportunity to rip them off: increase production capacity quickly, who knows how long these idiots will pay so much. The proof of this abysmal greedy attitude can be read in the balance sheets of these manufacturers: only 0.7% budget for research and development.

From 2011 to 2020 4% to 8% R&D

Not in Germany. There you had a chance as big as the striker with the ball 5 meters from the opponent's goal, but this chance was wasted. That was the R The actual figure is higher if government laboratories, universities and indirect subsidies (e.g. via the “Made in China 2025” initiative) are included. China now controls 80-95% of the global PV production chain - much of this has been made possible by massive, continuous technology investment.

Expansion target of 70 GW in Germany

For many years, the expansion target in Germany was 70 GW of photovoltaics. You can manage that much without storing the electricity. A dramatic difference to the 700 GW of sun-tracking photovoltaics, equivalent to 900 GW rigid, which I mentioned in 1992 in my book “Aufstieg zum Solarzeitalter”. Why was such an extremely ridiculously low expansion target set?

People could come up with the idea of multiplying the EEG remuneration by the GW expansion target
People might realize that electricity storage will become indispensable if the expansion target is higher and then start doing the math: how high will the EEG remuneration be if 3 kWh of batteries have to be financed in addition to 1 kW of photovoltaics?
People might notice that with over 300 GW of photovoltaics and 750 GWh of batteries, there is also Power to X and power plants for reconversion to electricity.

But not a degenerate elite?

The EEG subsidy of €0.574 per kWh. It was like the striker with the ball 5 meters from the opposing team's goal. The name of the opposing team: “Team Fossil”. But the opposing goalkeeper has thrown a €500 bill onto the pitch. What does the striker do? No, no, no, I'm going crazy: he stops and bends down on the grass because of the €500 bill. Is this striker one of football's elite? No, he's just a money-grabbing idiot who can't even plan a single second into the future. To earn the name elite, you first have to do something great. Like building the Roman Empire, for example. That was an elite and then it degenerated and the Roman Empire fell apart.

The rip-off artists vs. the researchers

How do you deal with the situation? Photovoltaic production far too expensive and then far too expensive batteries are added later? At the time of the first EEG version in 2004, one kWp of photovoltaics cost €4,000 and one kWh of lithium batteries cost €2,000. You can quickly rip off as much as possible. You can invest an enormous amount in research and development to get from €4,000 per kWp of photovoltaics down to €100 per kW, to get from €2,000 per kWh of battery down to €80, and the cost reduction doesn't end there either. One was the German way, the other was the Chinese way.

I am Chinese

On June 23, 1963, John F. Kennedy expressed his solidarity with the encircled West Berlin during his speech in front of Schöneberg City Hall with “Ich bin ein Berliner”. He was expressing the contrast between the free world and communism. When I say “I am Chinese”, I am expressing careful research to reduce costs against a rip-off mentality. I will be giving a presentation at the CORP.at conference in Vienna on March 24: Cost optimization - the key to the energy transition and climate protection

3 Austria Specialties for StartUp Destruction

Austria is a paradise for notaries and auditors, but a hell for start-ups. This was also known in 2022, but the Austrian connection and the hope of getting out of the start-up phase quickly prevailed in the decision. Now that the reference to Austria has been dropped, it is time to draw the consequences.

3,500 € Minimum corporate income tax
6,000 or more for the auditor to check 150 lines of accounting.
3,000 or more for the notary for a mini Annual General Meeting. The first Annual General Meeting in February 2024 cost € 5002.74. A cost estimate for an online Annual General Meeting was € 6,000.

Turning extermination into expulsion to Hungary

Surprise, even Switzerland is considerably cheaper than Austria. Switzerland has none of the 3 Austrian specialties. The conditions in Hungary are by far the best.

No minimum corporate income tax
An auditor only becomes mandatory from HUF 600 million, currently € 1,591,849.80, and is considerably cheaper than in Austria because there is competition and no cartel with price fixing.
A general meeting is only subject to notarization if the articles of association are amended. “The general meeting is authorized to resolve [type of amendment to the articles of association]” is therefore often included in the articles of association in order to avoid a notarial obligation in many foreseeable cases.

It's not just about the cost, it's extremely demotivating to have to find €6,000 for an auditor to check a mini-account of 150 lines. Of course, I also looked for other auditors. It's as funny as looking for a cheap offer for an elevator before the EU Commission's antitrust fine in 2004. Me: StartUp with mini bookkeeping, almost no work
WP: You can expect to pay between €6,000 and €10,000 How is that supposed to work? Just a few years ago, you would have had to rely on start-up service companies. Today there is Grok, the AI of X. I created the draft articles of association in around 40 hours of work. Several variants are conceivable for the company headquarters. All communication is digital, so the mailbox at the registered office does not need to be constantly monitored. See §1 (3) of the articles of association.

5 million share capital is the minimum

Fortunately, that's HUF and only €12,778.38. Ideally, the company should be founded with over €24,000 in share capital. The foundation should take place in April 2026. Part of the capital is already in the deposit account. There are some pledges, but they do not yet appear in the account. The search for investors for the prototype will only continue after the successful foundation of the Zrt (unlisted public limited company in Hungary). Finding €400,000 requires different methods than finding €24,000. The prototype will most likely be realized on the property of Mr. Kamml, which is located directly south of ADEG in Unken. The proximity to Salzburg is a locational advantage for the planned invitation of industrialists and politicians from all over the world. Every small contribution counts towards the rapid realization of the share capital. At the moment, multiples of € 120, a block of 30 shares for the buyer. 40 × € 600 is also € 24,000. Here to the share price development. This far-reaching solution concept must not fail due to the total ignorance of investors in German-speaking countries. Perhaps I would have found an investor in the German-speaking world for “The self-sufficient survival house for the rich, only one million each”. That would have fitted in perfectly with the local rip-off mentality. But that's not me. Here is our offer to join in

Old friends, new shareholders

I have known Fritz Herzog since around 1980, from the apple ][ computer club in Salzburg. In 2022, he declined to invest in GEMINI next Generation AG in Austria because he had experience with the high fixed costs of a public limited company in Austria. But now he's in, not least because the costs in Hungary are over 90% lower. This page is also an example for the new pages “Who are our shareholders?” I ask all old and hopefully soon numerous new shareholders for contributions of this kind.