Christian's home is becoming a personal testing station for the issues that he is dealing with at work. How can the customer make the switch from the old to the new world? What economic role will green energy play in the future? Which technologies seem to be promising, and when would it be a good time to invest? Currently, he is perfecting a strategy for a manufacturer of diesel engines for ships. The company is considering electrification. 'DC/DC transformers, inverters, switch boards and the like – now the key thing is to choose the right components to ensure success by 2040 or 2050,' says Christian.
Conveying knowledge, tackling key topics, coordinating jobs – these are things that Christian is good at. At umlaut he heads a team of several people. Together, they are drawing up the implementation scenario and developing the package of measures. The ship contract is apparently not really typical of their work. Normally, the Energy Team carry out requirements analyses, for example for charging systems, and work with the operators of charging infrastructure to push ahead with fast expansion and roll-out in Germany. 'Our experts working for example in power electronics look at the switching architecture of charging systems so that they can determine the best possible charging station for the intended application,' he says.
'We are all circling around the same experts'
Model calculations are part of Christian's job – and he also spends a lot of time trying to convince people. 'Just a few years ago, my biggest challenge was explaining to companies that the energy transition would take place in the automotive sector too,' he says. In 2013, he provided support for the market launch of the BMW i3. This was followed by the first Tesla Fighter programmes – this is what corporate groups call their studies, as they are aiming to compete with Tesla – and now companies such as VW and Daimler are also promising to turn their back on the combustion engine.
'The new challenge is to satisfy market demand,' says Christian. Energy providers are building the charging infrastructure, oil companies are also entering the market, automotive groups are creating their own infrastructure, as you can see with the example of Tesla or the consortium IONITY. 'They all need help and support when it comes to developing expertise, no one has the right staff. Whilst, only a few years ago, it tended to be engineers without any specific specialization who went into the automotive sector, nowadays it is electrical engineers – we are all circling around the same experts,' he says. The important thing now is to rely on the employees who started working in this area four or five years ago and turn them into trainers.