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...and how we can still get projects off the ground safely.

When more and more companies in the energy sector find themselves in financial difficulties, it is much more than a series of unfortunate individual cases – it is a signal to the entire energy transition in Germany. Even innovative, well-positioned players are vulnerable when market conditions fluctuate, funding decisions are delayed or approval processes stall. 
The year 2025 makes it clear: technology is not the problem – the framework conditions are.

Even though some municipal utilities are currently lowering gas prices again and the start of ETS II has been postponed by a year, heating in Germany is set to become steadily more expensive in the future. According to the non-profit consulting firm co2online, all forms of energy are affected – whether oil, gas, district heating or wood pellets. (As of November 2025).
The cost of fossil fuels is rising particularly sharply: according to forecasts, heating costs for gas and oil will be around three times higher in twenty years than they are today.

What to do with green waste, sewage sludge and other biogenic residues? Pyrolysis could be the answer: it transforms waste into valuable carbon stores and creates new avenues for climate protection and the circular economy – even at the municipal level. As a forward-looking technology for sustainable energy and resource strategies, it is particularly interesting for municipalities as a building block for a climate- and environmentally-friendly future strategy.

A food processing facility in southern Germany faces the challenge of replacing its fossil fuel-based steam generation with a sustainable heating concept while complying with the highest standards of hygiene and production safety. It may sound like a specialised solution, but it is a common scenario in the food industry. Hardly any other sector places such high demands on heat, water and cleanliness – and at the same time offers so much potential for successful decarbonisation. In this article, we show how hygienically safe, renewable heating solutions for food companies are planned – from both a technical and strategic perspective.

UPDATE: The new EU ETS II with it a binding CO₂ price for buildings and transport will NOW start in 2028 – one year later then originally planned.   
Although trading will not begin earlier, the reporting phase is already underway: those affected should start recording emissions data, setting up internal processes and reviewing CO₂ cost scenarios now. We explain how ETS II works and what steps companies should take today to avoid high certificate costs.

Rivers flow through Germany for over 400,000 kilometres – and offer a source of climate-friendly heat that has hardly been exploited to date. Aquathermal energy, i.e. heat generation from surface water, enables buildings and neighbourhoods to be supplied with renewable energy via heat pumps.
Studies such as the Hydro2HEAT project at the Technical University of Braunschweig show that many cities could cover a large part – in some cases even all – of their space heating requirements from adjacent rivers.

Municipal district heating planning and grid planning are two central and related components of the energy transition. While municipal heating planning aims to develop sustainable heating supply concepts at municipal level, grid planning deals with the design, optimisation and transformation of heating grids.

Near-surface geothermal energy is a key technology for sustainable heat supply and plays a central role in many of our projects. Precise planning and extensive simulation of the system are essential in order to optimally utilise the potential - both in terms of performance and the economic efficiency of the system. At goodmen energy, we rely on specialised software tools that enable a detailed analysis of the subsurface.

Switching to a renewable and CO₂-free heat supply is a key objective for many of our clients - whether local authorities, housing associations or private investors. However, we repeatedly come up against a dilemma during planning: the desire for optimum energy efficiency is often in conflict with the level of costs that this entails. 
How can a workable compromise be found here?

Our goodmen energy Managing Director Dr Bernd Vogl is also co-founder of Vision Green Solutions, a company specialising in water and hygiene. In this role, he embarked on a special journey at the beginning of November - one that challenged him as a person and as an entrepreneur.