German Environment Minister Dr. Norbert Röttgen described the State of Thuringia, Germany’s leading location for the solar power industry, as a flagship example for the whole country. "The solar power industry has the potential to achieve a high export rate and is creating high-calibre jobs, especially in Eastern Germany,” said Röttgen. At the invitation of Thuringia’s Prime Minister Christine Lieberknecht, Dr. Röttgen had come to a new competence centre in Erfurt, the Kompetenzzentrum für Hochtechnologien und Solarwirtschaft, to gather information about how the solar power industry has developed to date and find out about its outlook and trade strategies. Röttgen continued, "Germany’s locational advantages include its outstanding research environment, excellent engineering companies and highly trained professionals. The strength of German engineering companies is a key factor in the industry’s development: there is still potential for production facilities to be optimised, costs driven down and the efficiency of the modules themselves increased. It is essential that we further develop these strengths."
The central instrument for promoting photovoltaics is the Renewable Energy Sources Act (German abbreviation: EEG). It offers fixed tariffs over a long period of time for every kilowatt hour of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. With this instrument, the German government has created a high degree of planning and investment security, which is crucial for successful market development. In 2009, about 12 billion euros were invested in new photovoltaic systems in Germany.
In 2008, SolarValley Mitteldeutschland was one of five winners in the first nationwide leading-edge cluster competition. The cluster consists of 29 companies with worldwide operations, nine renowned research institutes and four universities - all based in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia, and it directly employs 11,000 people in the photovoltaics industry. At the heart of the initiative is the competence centre in Erfurt that was opened in April 2010 with an investment volume of 8.7 million euros. It offers training at all levels, providing the skill set needed for the hi-tech industries. It is run by the Bildungszentrum für berufsbezogene Aus- und Weiterbildung Thüringen (BWAW) in Erfurt.