Good idea, no money

Wave of bankruptcies: Öko-Generator also runs out of juice

The innovation on the generator market from the small Mebrex workshop in Wolfsberg did not make it - it filed for insolvency!

(Bild: Wassermann Kerstin)

Even apart from the Kika-Leiner insolvency, the economy is currently going from bad to worse. In Carinthia, for example, a company that was recently seen as a beacon of hope for the energy transition has also had to file for bankruptcy. But things seem to be getting more and more difficult in this "green" sector in particular.

Two years ago, university professor Hans-Jürgen Schacht and vehicle expert Christian Schlatte were still going strong: with their Mebrex electric solutions, they wanted to shake up the truck market in particular with a generator that consumes 90 percent less energy than competing products - no more truck drivers polluting the environment with idling gas. The Lavanttal-based start-up was therefore also in the running for the KWF Sustainability Award.

Difficult framework conditions
However, the search for investors and development partners proved to be difficult: the first turned down, the second gave up after nine months, a supplier of battery storage systems went bankrupt - and now Mebrex is also a case for the insolvency court in Klagenfurt with liabilities of 221,000 euros. There are no plans to restructure the company, which means another "green" idea is on the brink of collapse.

Why is it that so many businesses with an ecological approach are currently going bankrupt? In recent weeks, several suppliers and installers of photovoltaic systems have also been hit, most recently the PV module manufacturer Energetica in Liebenfels. "There are fewer subsidies, interest rates on loans are high and the market in Carinthia is very uncertain," reveals an insider.