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It was in the early 1990s that Fronius first decided to focus on solar energy as a "technology of the future".
Still not taken seriously back then, the business segment has come to represent the most important pillar of the family company. Since value creation is set to remain in Europe going forwards, this growth is mainly showing itself in the Sattledt production site in Upper Austria.
Fronius, the family-owned company based in Upper Austria, is often associated with the booming photovoltaics industry. But it wasn't always this way: if you look back at the first 30 years of its youngest "Solar Energy" business segment, you'll see that it was only in recent years that this branch developed into the company’s new driving force. For a long time, what was once the "technology of the future", solar energy, led a shadowy existence and managed to survive one of the worst crises in company history. But one thing at a time…
The beginnings of Solar Energy
In 1950, Fronius began developing both its battery charging technology and welding technology branches, experiencing its first major successes from the 1960s onwards. These culminated in the milestone that was the introduction of an unprecedented welding system in 1981. "At some point we were starting to look more and more like power-guzzlers," remembers CEO Elisabeth Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß. "You have to realise that, back then, welding technology required vast amounts of energy. We wanted to 'give back' some of this power and started the initial trials with photovoltaic modules. These were the beginnings of the Business Unit Solar Energy."
Thirty years later it seems as though there’s no getting away from green power generation using solar energy. However, these current successes were nothing but a pipe dream for a very long time, as Engelbrechtsmüller-Strauß explains: "In the early days, we were often portrayed as tree-huggers and had great difficulty finding a place for our systems on the market. To put it into context, we used to manufacture just one to two inverters per week."
