Europe is falling behind – and why it hurts

My wake-up call for politics, SMEs and agriculture

For many, many years I have been committed with all my strength to a sustainable economy, society and agriculture. And I am not saying this from a distance, but out of the deepest personal commitment. It concerns us all – especially small and medium-sized businesses, which form the backbone of our country. All the more it pains me to see how far China and Europe have drifted apart. It is frightening. Actually, it is incomprehensible.

For years I have seen Europe stubbornly clinging to fossil structures, even though the disadvantages are visible everywhere. We talk about “technology openness”, build new fossil gas-fired power plants, hold on to the production methods of the day before yesterday and continue to rely on combustion engines – precisely at a time when demand for them is collapsing worldwide. I really ask myself: who is supposed to buy these shelf-warmers in future?

While we cling to old systems, something completely different is happening in China – and it is something that must not be ignored. For more than 18 months, CO₂ emissions there have been falling, despite economic growth. And why? Because China has long been producing consistently without fossil fuels. Because robots, artificial intelligence and digital twins work there around the clock, more precisely and efficiently than any classical production line. Because they use the free energy of the sun, while in Europe we pay ever higher prices for fossil raw materials.

This reality hurts, but it has to be said

I find the situation in agriculture particularly depressing. As long as we do not finally use the almost unlimited free energy of the sun, we will neither remain competitive nor maintain our security of supply. The sun will supply us with energy for four to five billion years – free, reliable and without geopolitical dependencies. And yet we make far too little use of this opportunity.

Many have never heard of the so-called “dark factories” in China – factories that work without people, without light and without breaks. Robots assemble, sensors monitor, AI corrects errors, and digital twins simulate the entire production in real time. This is not a vision of the future. It is already reality there today. And because they produce fossil-free and fully automated, the factor of wage costs plays practically no role any more. China has long since turned from a “low-wage country” into a “low-cost-electricity country”.

Meanwhile, Europe is discussing tariffs, strategy papers and emission targets. Sometimes I have the feeling that we are just warming up with talk while elsewhere people simply get on with the work – efficiently, cheaply and around the clock.

We have to ask ourselves honestly: how are we in Europe supposed to remain competitive if we drag along expensive fossil energy, outdated structures and political brakes? This challenge does not only affect industry and agriculture – it affects all small and medium-sized businesses. Every sector suffers from rising energy costs and from raw materials that are becoming scarcer and more expensive.

I say this from my own experience: my energy-self-sufficient farm, too, grew out of the realisation that we can only remain free and competitive if we break away from fossil dependencies. Renewable energies are not only ecologically sensible – they have long been economically unbeatable.

And I stand by the sentence I have been repeating for many years:

“Wind, PV, solar, biomass and hydropower are economically unbeatable. Those who do not want to change anything will also lose what they want to preserve.”

Wolfgang Löser, energy pioneer

Who am I?

“Austria’s first energy-self-sufficient farm” since 2002, with talks and seminars

Address: Untere Dorfstrasse 23, 2004 Streitdorf Austria

Phone: +43 (0)2269 2317 Mobile: +43 (0)680 1113363 Email: w.loeser@aon.at | www.energiebauernhof.com

Link to the book (German): Wolfgang Löser – Der Energierebell – Stocker Verlag

Link to the film: Enerkey – Who holds the key to the energy transition?

Think about it today: wind, solar and photovoltaics with POWER STORAGE, e-mobility and combined heat and power as balancing energy

Other posts by me

Vegetable oil instead of petroleum

5-point plan for radical EEG reform

Europa verliert den Anschluss – und warum das weh tut

Feldheim: how a small village leads the energy transition