Arne Weinig, Managing Partner at Tauber Solar & Tauber Energy: on Career Reinvention, Leadership & Building the Teams Behind the Energy Transition | Season Eleven, Episode One

Speaker A: Hello and welcome to season 11 of Conversations in Cleantech. Powered by Bright Smith, this is the podcast where we spotlight the people and the ideas accelerating the energy transition. This season we are exploring the talent equation, the people, skills and leadership required to grow a sector under pressure. From hiring pipelines and workforce strategy to culture, development and the human side of scaling. We'll unpack what it really takes to build the team driving the energy transition forward and the implications of missing the mark. You'll hear from the leaders, builders and pioneers shaping the future of the energy transition, sharing what unlocks growth, what causes gridlock, and what the sector needs next. I'm your host, Jenny Gladman. And um, this season I'll be joined by a number of co hosts from across the global team at brightsma to help bring fresh perspectives to this critical conversation. After all, talent is what we know best. So let's get started. Welcome back to Conversations in Clean Tech, the podcast where Brightsmith explore people, ideas and challenges shaping the energy transition. This season we are asking an important question. As the cleantech sector scales, do we have the people, leadership and capability to keep up? Are talent constraints creating growth bottlenecks? Today I'm joined by Arne Vainig, Managing partner of Tauba Solar and Tauber Energy. Ani's career journey is anything but conventional. After more than two decades in financial markets, including senior leadership roles across capital markets and risk solutions at UH institutions such as NatWest, MUFG, Nomura and Commerzbank, he made the move into renewables to help build something tangible and impactful. Today he helps lead a business navigating rapid change in the renewable energy sector, scaling teams, adapting to evolving market realities, and thinking deeply about what leadership and talent look like in high growth environments. Ani, welcome to Conversations in Cleantech.

Speaker B: Thank you for having me.

Speaker A: And in addition to Ani, today, I am delighted to welcome a brand new co host to Conversations in Cleantech, Paul Maslov, who is our European renewables lead. Paul, welcome to the hosting team. Welcome to the party.

Speaker C: Thank you very much. Jen listened, um, to many, many of these. So um, really great to be part of the co hosting team.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Well, before we get into business and renewables, Ani, I would love it if you could tell us a little bit more about you as a person. Who are you outside of work? What motivates you?

Speaker B: Hi Marne. I'm uh, 51 years old now, so half a century behind me and still half a century to go, I hope. I'm a father of two lovely children. What I'm passionate about Is about um, going out with my family and uh, doing. Doing stuff with them, traveling or as well sports or hanging around. And that's, that's greatest part m of my life. Early on when I was younger I was uh, doing lots of sport competitions. Fencing, you may have heard of that, Olympic sport. And uh, that's a common denominator here in uh, the company I'm working with my partners, we come from a small town in Germany but they, they were specialized in that fencing. And um. It's quite fun uh, that we met again on work a couple of years later after my banking career. And um.

Speaker C: So here I am segue in from what you said, from the financial aspect where you came from. You've obviously spent more than 20 years in the financial markets yourself before moving into renewables. I guess what prompted that shift for you and what are you looking for that perhaps finance no longer gave you in terms of, in terms of what you're doing right now?

Speaker B: During finance I always had touch points as well with renewables being on the other side of the seat, being in the financing position. And then you come to a project when it's already all thought through and then you're talking just a mundane thing of getting the money together either in equity or on the debt side. But my finance career was from trading structuring to uh, as well project finance topics, debt, capital markets, a mix of that. And um, was a great, a great time. But it always felt hey there's, there's. Where do I actually see what's happening? Made sure when it's financed and it's built and it's done but how, how these things really work and um. Getting something tangible in, into uh, into my life was one one of the key reasons. And as well working with a great team, building something uh, by myself and not being uh, working with other people, money and uh, doing just um, uh what others say but uh. Being on the ground, if you say so, not being at the side of the playing field but actually uh, actually on the field and scoring the goals by myself and doing the mistakes by myself as well. So that's uh, that's the fun about it. And that was key motivation to go into that sector in, in um, in broad terms and in very specific terms. Why renewables? Because that's uh, where you have the biggest challenges and uh, energy is driver of most of the things not only today, but when I joined here and left banking probably we didn't think about data centers at that time, but it was more about that uh, if you look uh, into development of human mankind. Energy is a key driver. And if you look at nuclear, um, coal, et cetera, you'll have question marks about is that sustainable, is that going to be the show that we are doing here or what's left for our children. So that was the profound uh, area why switching. But uh, it's a mix of it, of the high level as well as that uh, deep motivation uh on the green side makes sense.

Speaker C: Well you have to have passion for what you do. So looking back Arnie, what lessons or capabilities from that earlier career have shaped the leader you are today?

Speaker B: Would be great to have some outside in on that but obviously I'm the only one having done both sides. What I found when I started was going, starting in trading there was pure greed if you want so and um, less so on if that's really doing good or are we doing the right thing, purpose etc. Uh, but that obviously shifted a lot, thank God. And what shaped me was all these experiences from uh, different people, especially different motivations, different areas of stress, different areas of regulation. By the way there are a lot of similarities. Banking regulation as well as energy uh regulation both are regulated markets. And um, once you're in a regulated market people are acting uh, sort of sometimes searching um, for the way around things. And lessons I learned were like there's not good to search for the way around of stuff but to go and have something sustainable you need to uh, do the heavy lifting, uh, roll up the sleeves and do the work and not just search for the quick win and uh, uh leave the table.

Speaker C: Now in this section, you know what would be great to actually talk about now is about to and the industry really of the whole. So for some of our listeners Arnie, that are unfamiliar uh with TBA Solar and Taoba Energy, give us the overview. Right. What does the business do and what role does it play in, in the energy transition whether globally or specifically in Germany, the market you're heavily focused on.

Speaker B: So first of all um, great to be on the show and uh, have our name out there, Tauba Solar Group encompassing Tawazola and Tower Energy. What are we doing? We are mid sized company, we are existing since 25 years in the market. We started with solar and the uh founders started actually in the 90s, uh pulling panels on the roofs uh by themselves. The routes are back in Germany on the anti uh nuclear part as well, uh, finding a way to cheaply generate or subsidize energy. And now where we are today Tauba, we are focused On Germany we have an office as well in Madrid. We have four offices in Germany in Frankfurt, in Tauerbach of Saint Wurzburg and Munich. Recently we opened an office. Our focus is on three technical areas. We cater commercial industrial clients all across Germany. We cater on M M for all sorts of clients from couple of hundred uh kilowatt peak to 50 uh megawatt peak on M for solar parks, freestanding as well as battery parks. We have already ONMO in that team. We do uh with tower by energy develop, own and operate and build sorry build and operate uh utility scale projects at the moment only in Germany and at the moment only Bess because that's the hottest market for that segment and here we are either investing ourselves or with co investors and our um background where the money is coming from is uh, from a multi family office is or we cooperate with investors and we are about a hundred people at the moment. We have strong cooperations with engineering uh partners or EPC partners which helps a lot. We don't want to overscale, uh we're engineering heavy. We don't have, we usually don't have the people that do the mounting of the um solar panels. We are more focused on the electrical and engineering bits and pieces and that's core what we're doing. And for all the rest we try to find cooperative uh ways and that's our way of thinking as well in the market. Be flexible and be an um, agile player because we think and we come probably later to that market in which we are operating is changing a lot and that needs flexible structures. Is a 25 year old company flexible enough? Probably not as flexible as a startup that's for sure. But uh, we're having that spirit to train and uh, get new people on board as well with that spirit and um, that helps a lot. And uh, being flexible enough to get uh corporation partners in that do things better than we do or have additional um experience that helps a lot either.

Speaker A: And thinking about the growth and the evolution and I know you weren't there from the start but you've certainly been there playing a huge role in the last few years. One thing that I've noticed since joining the sector six years ago is that the growth for most businesses in kind of clean tech energy transition renewables is rarely linear. What would you say have been some of the biggest lessons from helping scale and evolve the business over the last few years?

Speaker B: When I joined my partners already ran the business 20 years and you look at them looking at the past as well and then you say hey, why did you do that? Why didn't you uh, grow faster? So and you learn from that. We have great uh, experience with my long standing partners. I learned a lot on that area in terms of cyclicality of the market, especially in Germany and especially in the solar industry. If you think about growth and saying that's not linear, I kind of fully subscribe to that. And that's part of uh, why we try to have an idea on what do we want in terms of human resource, what do you want to have as capabilities in house and where do we rather pay up and be flexible enough and uh, have that outsourced. And rather than having every market and doing everything for everyone, we try to focus on certain things we think we should do best which are core strengths. And that's where we are focusing on and hence we've grown for sure. Um, here when I started in around 35, 40 people now bit more than 100 people, sort of fast in that sense. But it is all on the purpose on uh, stream, uh, on being best in class or good in the three business lines. And will we grow much further from here? Selectively. But we found our base where we have um, done a lot of the key elements we are now um, every hire in addition will be more difficult. That's what we think. It will have to fit to the current team and it will have to add value to what we're doing.

Speaker A: And I think I have. You kind of led me on to somewhere that we want to take it to next to talk around talent. But I do have one um, kind of more personal question there. You talked about looking back and looking back as a business. But uh, I always love to ask people about the looking back on a personal basis. And what has been one of the most rewarding moments of the journey for you like personally since that you, since you joined the Tauber team.

Speaker B: Yeah. When you started in a business, not being from the background in terms of electrical engineering but rather from economics, I was deep diving into the processes and into electrics, how they really work and how that works. And um, obviously on paper when you sit there and structure uh processes it's always looking that easy. But um, I had the benefit and I'm thanking the team to having been so patient with me that because I'm always asking a lot of stupid questions obviously and uh, to learn and uh, to really feel and get uh, the feeling on how a project really works. And when you asked for the most rewarding that was as well probably one of the most difficult projects we Ever had in that time. Not huge, it was just a CNI client, so commercial industrial client, wanting to have really uh, in the corner of uh, blind mine area, um uh, where the grid is really bad, really weak. Wanted to realize his uh, solar PV plant to reduce his carbon footprint and get his uh energy consumption optimized and do something good about um, the way the energy is uh produced. And um, this was by all means if I would have known in the beginning what, what sort of challenges we had with that, I probably wouldn't have touched that project. After having actually done the project that was one of the most rewarding things because once you've done gone through all the challenges and hear about the integration into the company, grid integration with, with the wider um, ESO grid and all the restrictions and then seeing that work that was so, so pleasing, that was financially probably not the most rewarding project. But um, you didn't ask for the financial rewards but rather and having seen that our team um, really didn't give up. Although there were loads um, of um areas where we contractually could have stepped away. But we decided to stay in and uh, fulfill as well what we promised to the client. And later on and after uh having tough conversations all along, everyone was uh, so happy that we've done it. And the uh client as well was much appreciative. Uh, as well as the grid operator wouldn't say that but I think I uh, saw a smile on their face as well that we did get it done.

Speaker C: You know, moving on to then the next section. If we talk about the talent equation mentioned, grid operations, this is going to be a different type of grid if we're looking at growth of talent or the gridlock where the talent actually may be somewhat limited. You know, as Jen mentioned earlier, this season is all about talent. So from your perspective, how important are uh people and leadership to whether the energy transition actually accelerates or stalls?

Speaker B: It's the key cornerstone. It is actually what uh drives most of what we do here. You can have so much optimization areas like you have AI support, you have new uh products, et cetera. It's always on the, in the end, at least for the moment, people having the vision, having an idea how to say solve things and the challenges we face in the grids at the moment being constrained with a lot of renewable energy. And um, I'm not speaking about Germany being exotic here is everywhere in the uh, in Europe and probably everywhere in the world the same. The success of the renewable energy is basically as well the starting point of the Problems of the grids as well as the next challenges and as well the next areas we need to solve for. And there is no 100% concept for that at the moment. Yeah, we can look for examples how others did it in the U.S. oh duck curve, the Californians um did a lot of battery but there's no one size fits all uh solution. And this means that uh, anything that happened the last 20 years doesn't necessarily have to be useful for the next 20 years. Which means as well this mindset and uh, the spirit of um being able to accept that you have to learn and adopt is something very human, uh very challenging and very people dependent. And that's working only with people that are willing to accept that and willing to accept that they don't know everything and that there is new tech out there. And then as well um, this change and this rapid change in the industry as well as rapid move on this demand side coming from data centers for example needs as well further embracement of uh technical avenues. Be it optimization software, be it planning software. Being open and we search for talents that probably don't have all knowledge but who are open to develop, who are having that curiosity in them to probably not know now how battery uh works but uh, to know uh how to ask and have um a base knowledge obviously that's key. But that key uh knowledge wanting to do something there and to embrace new uh tech that is um, the way forward. Otherwise we can't face and cope with the challenge of uh this ever changing environment here. It's no more linear as you asked before on um or broader word of linearity. This market is not anymore one that will be subsidized forever with feed in tariffs. This industry has to be grown, has to grow up. And for to grow up means has to uh, walk on their own foot. And we totally support that. And that means you have to find solutions to, to the current existing issues.

Speaker A: And some of what you were saying there was absolutely music to my ears. I think one of the biggest challenges we have from a uh, search perspective, a recruitment perspective and actually particularly people that have come from more established industries often just want to hire the person that's done the exact job before. But when you work in a sector that's growing exponentially that's just not possible. It's also not very productive to keep people on a merry go round every 6, 912 months because you want people to bed into your organization and become successful. And you talked there about mindset and you talked about adaptability and actually from Our kind of um, view when a sector is growing like this, it's a huge opportunity to look for the best people from other sectors that perhaps aren't quite as exciting. But with that there has to be an element of compromise because you can't have someone that's been there and done it. But you can have someone with the right mindset, the right adaptability and a lot of the transferable skills. So actually I think, you know, that in itself sets you apart in the war for talent if you like. Because having flexibility and seeing things from a perspective of, you know, what can this individual bring as opposed to does their resume and the job description match? I think is uh, a very smart way of growing a business. That wasn't a question, it was just an observation.

Speaker B: No, I think I can agree with that. Our challenge in the industry is obviously how can I be attractive as a mid cap and large part of you were just uh, referring to or uh, what I said earlier sounds a bit like, hey, that's startup culture. On the other side, we are not a startup. I said that early on. And for me being responsible on the HR side um, is as well about finding the right mixed of people. I will not always get the guys or ladies that do um, have that startup spirit. Someone has to do the work as well in a more profound way doing reliable, quality, high quality experience work. But how can I get these people mixing with someone who's really um, suddenly coming around the corner with so much drive that you sometimes have to stop them and say, wait a minute, you're already 10 kilometers ahead of us. And that is a bit that uh, area where we sometimes struggle but as well where we love the teams, uh, going, uh, giving that impulse from time to time, uh, from my side or from my partner's side into the teams and see that they try to work that way and um, run that way. Yeah, so I don't want to um, talk about our uh, into ours, uh, on that point, but it's really key, uh, getting the right mix here.

Speaker A: No, I think that makes total sense. And from your perspective, if the industry gets the talent wrong, what are the wider consequences? Do you think that growth will slow, innovation will stall, projects will delay? Like what do you see as the biggest challenge of getting things wrong?

Speaker B: There's a very fundamental point. If we get that wrong here because of personal ambiguities or company ambiguities and we don't get uh, our biggest problem of the time or one of our biggest problems of the time right in uh, solved which Is about reducing our carbon footprint, um being able to cope with all the challenges that uh high uh carbon intense energy consumption brings. And then as well um, there are other side effects like security issues uh for us in Europe, uh being dependent on uh commodities coming from elsewhere in the world, supporting with our dollars or euros the exploitation of resources elsewhere in the world which we wouldn't do in our home country. But hey we need the energy. So um, society as developed as we are and moving ahead and plowing ahead really fast with uh, exponential growth potential on further energy consumption. We need to get that fixed. How that is done sustainable. I don't say that solar and wind probably are the only solution. Wouldn't uh do that. But to a wide extent we should maximize what we can do there. That's a um, general concept. And on a lower level in um our day to day um if we get that wrong and our partners are getting that wrong then um, we slow down everything at uh, in the best case and in the worst case we don't just get projects done. And the challenges are multitude. It's mainly or a lot about communication. Communication not only in the company but as well with grid operators understanding each other, understanding competition, understanding that we are in the same boat sometimes. Uh, and not only fighting against each other but embracing as well or asking so called competitors. Uh let's join forces to get a project done because we think then we are faster rather than waiting for sequentially building stuff. On the other side is a grid operator that's overwhelmed with all the requests. And that's not only in Germany. That way that's everywhere which has to be um, convinced or has to be open and they have communicative way open. And as well um, the regulator uh as a next step as well open and um. We need to get these unburcretized if that word actually exists. I don't know.

Speaker A: I don't know.

Speaker B: Yeah, okay. I'll look it up later on. But it's hard always to say who does it better. But uh, if you look at successful uh um transition phases or someone is um a country where it works quite fast. By no means I say that's perfect with all uh questions. But if uh, you look at China is always a nice example how fast they really execute things once they're convinced and how they get the stuff lined up. So there are different difficulties. I don't go into detail on that. But um, we can learn something from that. And uh, in the automotive industry they call that China speed by way of being too arrogant. And I can probably say that as a German because a lot of car companies are here overlooking what actually drove and what the drivers may be and looking for ahead. They overlook that there is something growing rapidly and really fast. And then um, that's as well here. Um, we have to skip and leave behind experience uh like hey we're a company since whatever 25 years or we are the big shots or so and we don't look at the small scales or at what other people do. We have to really be open minded to solve that riddle of getting um, energy transition going fast. Key uh, is fast not about perfect, it's about fast.

Speaker C: You know kind of taking that into account. You know you and I have been working together for probably about a year now and working with you. You know one of the things that made, made you stand out to me a lot is that you've always been a driven professional. You're passionate uh obviously about what you do and you know, if we look to the future, look ahead, what personally gives you optimism about the actual future of renewables as a whole and the people driving it, people behind it.

Speaker B: It's a pure logic, it's all logic. You have to do it. And um, so why, why is it so logic? It's one of the cheapest sources, it's us one of energy. It's the fastest to uh be built. We all hope for nuclear fission to work, we all hope for other uh projects to work and if I hope really they do that fast. But what's in between is like a period of 10 years probably at least and probably longer. And uh clean tech existing is proven. Techno technology is already two or three decades in the market. Why would anyone really question that ah these days? That's my logic. So it's rather deploy that fast, do it in a manner that uh, is sustainable, just uh, be honest, be uh going. And my vision for that looking to the future is that uh we, we um overcome these hurdles. We are ah having a open dialogue. We have a, when looking at Germany uh a national wide concept, not 890DSOs as we have at the moment running, doing everyone its own thing, um, having particularities going left or right but concerted a thought and um, bring the society forward. I see a bright future. Um, there is uh a lot of opportunity here at the moment. There is a lot of movement in changing stuff. Everything people start questioning is that right what we did in the past. To my view that's the right point to start with. And uh, I, people realize that something's wrong Here and we need to change behavior and um, once you change behavior you're starting to be in logic properly hopefully. And here we are then you're logically at the um, renewable energy end of things.

Speaker A: So that leads me perfectly into the very last question. And something that I love to ask people on the show is what advice they would give their younger selves. And particularly for you having had two careers and started out in a very different sector, if you could go back and chat to 21 year old Arnie about to start his um, his career in finance, what would you be telling him?

Speaker B: First of all, thank you not pointing out my age. 51, you said it yourself at the start of the show. Yeah, no, it's fine. And uh, I probably have a more boring answer to that um, because I guess many people my age probably look at, look back to that and I will say one sentence. Be more brave. When I started my way of background, my parents are uh, not coming from a rich and famous um, background and I uh, had to finance my studies myself. And one point I just wanted to earn money and going into finance was a, at that time probably ultimate option to do that fast. But in myself I always have, have very had various times the feeling I should do something different and do by something by myself. And um, sometimes even during the finance parts there were areas where there were opportunities probably going into renewables as well. And I was not brave enough and I would tell my inner self 30 years ago, be more brave, just take the risk and do it.

Speaker A: And also maybe you have the opportunity to share that wisdom with your kids.

Speaker B: Oh sure they get a lot of comfort uh for me to experience stuff but that's probably not particular to me. I hope all parents give their kids uh, support trying things and uh, being a little bit stupid when you're young is totally okay.

Speaker A: I'm with you on that. And what a perfect note to end the show. But thank you very much for being a wonderful guest for sharing your story and your insights, um, and your wisdom on the sector. Uh, it was an absolute pleasure to speak with you.

Speaker B: A pleasure from my side as well. And thank you for having had me. Thank you Arne.

Speaker A: And thank you all. Paul for your ah, debut co hosting. It was, was ah a fantastic show today. Um, thank you both, um, and for our listeners. Uh, if you enjoyed the episode please do share it with uh, fellow cleantech enthusiasts. Thanks everybody. Thank you for listening to Conversations in Clean Tech brought to you by Brightsmith. If you enjoyed the episode, please follow like or leave a review it helps more people to discover the series. Here at Brightsmith, we connect purpose driven talent with companies driving the energy transition. Find out more@brightsmithgroup.com and stay tuned. There are plenty more conversations in cleantech to come.