Already today the global market volume of environmental protection engineering amounts to more than 1 trillion Euros and by 2020 this figure may increase to 2.2 trillion Euros. This is the forecast by a study which was carried out by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants on behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Environment and the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA). In this study analysts looked at six major market areas: energy generation and energy storage, energy efficiency, mobility, recycling economy, water management and the efficient use of raw materials.
Particularly promising is the trend with regard to energy efficient technologies such as efficient electric motors for industry. Experts expect that by the year 2020 the global market volume for energy efficient technology might grow to 450 billion Euros. Already today Europe is the frontrunner on the markets for biodiesel with a market share of 85%, bio gas equipment (75%), pellet heatings (72%) and wind energy (67%). According to Roland Berger, German companies are the global leaders in the field of wind energy and are also European leaders in terms of innovative technologies for waste management such as automated waste separation. The study forecast particularly high growth potential for solar cooling, microfiltration of water through membranes as well as for local water treatment.
On average German companies nowadays have a global market share of 30 percent with regard to environmental protection technology. According to the UBA there is, however, still a lot of unused potential, for instance with regard to improving raw material efficiency in industry or the development of low-emission motor vehicle engines.
In the course of the study Roland Berger interviewed about 90 leading companies from 13 European countries. This publication called “Umweltpolitische Innovations- und Wachstumsmärkte aus Sicht der Unternehmen” is available for free from the internet. 