iL-CURRENT
October 1, 2025
Michael Kröger about InnovationLab:
"Creating knowledge - creating value"
On October 15 (9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.), everything at the Heidelberg Congress Center will revolve around the future of clean tech and solar: the Clean Tech Innovation Day & Solar TAP Industry Day 2025 will bring together research, industry and start-ups. Dr. Michael Kröger, Managing Director of InnovationLab and one of the founders of FLEXOO, will play a central role at this event.
In our iL expert interview, he reveals why the industry meeting at the HCC is so important and why organizer InnovationLab is more than "just" a medium-sized company, what opportunities he sees for new technologies - and where the journey in terms of renewable energies and their storage can lead in the coming years.
InnovationLab CEO Michael Kröger, here at CTID 2024. Image: Lukas Adler
Five questions for ... Michael Kröger
Dr. Kröger, on 15 October, the clean tech community will be meeting at the Heidelberg Congress Center for the second time since 2024. What makes the Clean Tech Innovation Day & Solar TAP Industry Day so exciting for you as an organizer?
Michael Kröger: The feedback after the first Clean Tech Innovation Day was extremely positive. Of course, that motivates us to go one better. I find it exciting to bring together technology for generating renewable energy and green hydrogen. On the one hand, there are many technological interfaces between the fields. On the other hand, green hydrogen needs renewable electricity and vice versa. This allows us to store surplus renewable energy in green hydrogen and thus replace gray hydrogen in industry.
InnovationLab stands for technology transfer. What can your company and team contribute to advancing the energy transition and sustainable solutions?
Kröger: I see InnovationLab not just as a company, but as a platform on which science cooperates with business - and "creating knowledge" becomes "creating value". The energy transition is the biggest social, economic and ecological issue facing mankind. Anyone who can combine innovation and technological progress with economic implementation therefore creates great value. InnovationLab helps to scale up technology faster, with less risk and more cost-effectively. Concepts for new absorber materials can be turned into more cost-effective solar cells more quickly. An understanding of drying and film-forming processes then becomes a more efficient electrolyser. And in economically challenging times, innovation hubs and platforms are needed to ensure that the research funding is used more efficiently and effectively.
Michael Kröger: "In economically challenging times, innovation hubs and platforms are needed". Picture: Lukas Adler
With FLEXOO, you yourself have launched a start-up that offers printed electronics and smart energy technology in its portfolio. What opportunities arise for young companies at a diverse industry event like this?
Kröger: For start-ups, the CLEAN TECH INNOVATON DAY & SOLAR TAP INDUSTRY DAY offers the opportunity to network with large companies as partners and win them as customers. "Corporate innovation" has a reputation for being cumbersome and inefficient. In my opinion, this is only true to a limited extent. In particular, companies that promote cooperation with start-ups in order to gain more agile access to innovation are successful. I generally advise start-ups to use the CLEAN TECH INNOVATION DAY & SOLAR TAP INDUSTRY DAY to put themselves in the spotlight. FLEXOO already took advantage of the CTID last year and won significant customer orders purely as a participant.
The congress brings together science, industry and start-ups. Where do you currently see the greatest starting points for new collaborations?
Kröger: The interface to industrial production is still too often ignored. Where the shine of the prototypes in the boardroom demo no longer shines so brightly, where the impatience of investors becomes more pressing for start-ups, where research institutes and universities such as the Center for Solar Energy Research and Hydrogen (ZSW) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) no longer have a mandate, innovation turns into production hell as it ramps up. I see cooperation above all where all players pull together to industrialize innovation. In particular, a lot depends on the question of how to introduce innovative materials and efficient manufacturing processes in order to achieve better system performance in series production. For both photovoltaics and electrolysis, this is the field in which winners and losers are made.
The Heidelberg Congress Center - the ideal location for networking: in the middle of the trend-setting Bahnstadt district. Picture: Lukas Adler
Finally, a look ahead: Which trends and technologies will have the greatest impact on the clean tech sector by 2030 - and where do iL and FLEXOO want to play a part in shaping this?
Kröger: The expansion of renewable energy and its storage and implementation will accelerate again globally. Especially because the forecasts for the energy requirements of AI data centers are now going through the roof. Photovoltaics, battery storage, electrolysers and smart grids are all fields that will drive innovation beyond 2030 - and will be driven by innovation. It's important to help shape them and be at the forefront.
About the person
Dr. Michael Kröger has extensive experience in science and industry, particularly in the areas of technology, marketing, sales and production management. Following his doctorate in organic electronics at the Technical University of Braunschweig and research work at Princeton University, he took on leadership roles in industry in technology development, market launch and operational management.
Since 2022, he has been Managing Director of InnovationLab GmbH, where he is realigning and expanding the company to focus on clean tech and life science technologies. In December 2023, he founded FLEXOO GmbH, a spin-off of InnovationLab, where he is driving forward the development of printed electronics.
About InnovationLab and FLEXOO
Founded in 2008, InnovationLab GmbH in Heidelberg's Bahnstadt district is a joint venture between leading global corporations (HEIDELBERG, BASF and SAP) and two top German universities, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Heidelberg University. iL has proven expertise in printed electronics and repositioned itself in 2024 with the spin-off FLEXOO. In addition to the five shareholders, iL's platform offering is aimed in particular at innovative start-ups and excellent research. This enables close cooperation, future-oriented technology transfer and industrial implementation power for all partners at the location.
FLEXOO GmbH, headquartered in Heidelberg, Germany, is a leading provider of printed electronics and sensors that is committed to innovation and offers its customers high added value. The unique manufacturing structure - characterized by flexibility, quality and exceptional productivity - sets the company apart from others and underlines its strength as an ideal partner for the mass production of smart sensors and electronics.
Venue and registration
Heidelberg Congress Center (HCC)
October 15 , 2025 - all day
Register now register:
The number of participants is limited - secure your ticket now via our registration tool:
Further Further information:
On our website you will find regular updates on the program, the speakers and the planned session content.
So feel free to drop by regularly!
We look forward to your participation - and to an inspiring day full of ideas, impulses and innovations in the exciting clean tech sector!
Joachim Klaehn
Head of Communications
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