Startup Talk: Renewable Energy in Weihenstephan
On 20 May, the second Startup Talk of the 2026 summer semester, on the topic of ‘renewable energy’, took place at the Weihenstephan campus.
The event was hosted by SUN – the HSWT’s Centre for Start-ups, Entrepreneurship and Business Succession. Two start-ups provided fascinating insights into their experiences in the national and international renewable energy market: Josef Moosreiner, co-founder of Moosreiner und Wick Engineering UG, which offers, among other things, AI-supported analyses for municipal heating planning, and Finn Bernhardt from SINN Power GmbH, which develops and implements innovative photovoltaic solutions.
Josef Moosreiner began by presenting his start-up’s business areas and highlighted the time and labour savings the developed solution can offer local authorities, municipal utilities and planning offices when conducting an inventory analysis as part of municipal heating planning. Through a live demonstration of the AI-supported GIS system, visitors were able to see for themselves how the application works in practice and what added value it can provide for the planning of municipal heating strategies. Furthermore, Moosreiner spoke openly about the challenges faced by a young company in an already established market. He emphasised how important it is to communicate technical innovations to the respective target groups in a way that is understandable and practical.
In the second part of the talk, Finn Bernhardt presented current projects and developments at SINN Power GmbH. The company is working on innovative photovoltaic solutions, including floating PV systems and modular platform technologies. It was made clear that, despite several years of market experience, SINN Power remains strongly characterised by a start-up mindset: research, development and continuous adaptation to new technical, regulatory and economic requirements play a central role within the company. Bernhardt made it clear that innovation work consists not only of successful projects, but also of learning processes. Projects that do not go as planned or do not deliver the desired result nevertheless provide important insights for the further development of new technologies and business models. In the field of renewable energy in particular, it is crucial to remain open to new approaches and to translate research findings step by step into marketable applications.
Following the presentations, attendees took the opportunity to engage in conversation over drinks and finger food, ask questions and exchange views with the speakers and amongst themselves.
