This archive brings together dated announcements. Names, responsibilities, features and plans refer to the time of publication. They do not establish current product specifications, commercial terms or performance.
2014-12-08: enercast successfully concludes capital increase to finance company growth
In December 2014, enercast announced a second financing round led by Innogy Venture Capital, with additional commitments from High-Tech Gründerfonds. The announcement described the investment as being in the low single-digit million euro range.
The financing was intended to support growth in Europe and entry into the US market. The company described its business at the time as providing software-as-a-service power forecasts for wind farms and solar plants.
2016-08-10: Dr. Andreas Radmacher Appointed as the New Chairman of the Advisory Board of enercast GmbH
In August 2016, enercast appointed Dr. Andreas Radmacher as chairman of its advisory board. He succeeded Dr. Wilfried Lyhs, who withdrew from the board as planned. The announcement also named Markus Kressmann and Dr. Frank Starrmann as advisory board members.
Radmacher brought experience from the energy and raw-materials industries, including executive roles at RWE and K+S. The appointment announcement identified international expansion and further development of the business model as priorities for his involvement.
2016-10-19: enercast: acceleration of US market entry by German Accelerator
In October 2016, enercast announced its selection for the German Accelerator programme from more than 80 applicants. The programme, supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, offered support from experienced market specialists.
The announced plan was to spend the second quarter of 2017 in Silicon Valley preparing for US market entry. The company connected this expansion plan to growing wind and solar markets and the role of renewable-generation forecasts in grid management.
2017-10-05: enercast nominated for the Innovation Radar Prize 2017
In October 2017, enercast announced a nomination for the European Commission’s Innovation Radar Prize for work in the BESOS research project, Building Energy Decision Support Systems for Smart cities.
BESOS brought together organisations from Germany, Spain, Portugal and Greece and implemented smart-city work in Barcelona and Lisbon. The announcement described enercast’s renewable-energy forecasts and work on cooling and photovoltaic forecasts for Lisbon City Hall. The nomination was a historical research milestone, rather than a current award or performance guarantee.
2018-06-01: Handover at the helm of enercast: Thomas Landgraf stepping down
In June 2018, co-founder Thomas Landgraf stepped down from enercast’s executive team. The announcement stated that he would remain involved as a shareholder and advisor.
The company was then to be headed by the two remaining managing directors, Dr. Henning Schulze-Lauen and Bernd Kratz. Schulze-Lauen oversaw growth of the SaaS product business, while Kratz was responsible for professional services in mining and other industries. These responsibilities describe the organisation in 2018.
2019-08-10: enercast Spins Off Mining Digitization Business into a New Venture
In August 2019, enercast announced that its mining-digitisation business had been separated into Castalytics GmbH under an agreement with K+S Aktiengesellschaft. Bernd Kratz transferred to the new company as managing director and relinquished his managing-director role at enercast.
The announcement stated that Dr. Henning Schulze-Lauen would lead enercast as sole managing director and chief executive officer. The separation was intended to focus enercast’s investment and product development on the digital transformation of renewable energy and its scalable SaaS business.
2019-11-11: enercast featured in SolarPower Europe report on Digitalisation & Solar in Emerging Markets
In November 2019, enercast reported that SolarPower Europe’s Digitalisation & Solar in Emerging Markets publication included a case study about its work with QOS Energy.
The case study concerned feedback-loop technology for renewable-energy forecasting. The wider report used 15 case studies to discuss digital solutions for grid-connected solar plants, unreliable grids and off-grid applications.
2021-10-07: enercast 10: Celebrating 10 years of weather-based artificial intelligence!
enercast marked its tenth anniversary with a live online event on 29 September 2021. The October retrospective collected highlights from the event, including an introduction by Dr. Henning Schulze-Lauen and opening remarks from Hessen’s Minister of Digital Strategy and Development, Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus.
The programme included a discussion of renewable energy powered by AI with Thomas Landgraf, Tim Ulbricht and Stefan Staedler, followed by a keynote from Dr. Filip Thon of E.ON Energie Deutschland. The retrospective documented a company milestone rather than a current product announcement.