General Development

In August 2025, the fund price recorded an increase of 0.31 percent, marking the fourth consecutive month of positive performance. Since the low point in April, the fund has recovered noticeably and moved significantly away from the previous year’s lows. Please refer to our fact sheet for complete performance details.

Developments in the field of renewable energies

Overall, August was a month with few news events. While some solar companies, such as Canadian Solar and SMA-Solar, reported weaker outlooks for the remainder of 2025, the solar portfolio simultaneously benefited from positive impulses due to stabilized prices for solar modules and polysilicon. Initially, new US guidelines to promote solar energy in the USA brought relief to the industry. Contrary to initial fears, the tax incentives for private solar systems remain unchanged, and retroactive regulatory changes are also excluded. Only large-scale projects will be subject to stricter verification requirements for construction progress in the future – requirements that industry experts, however, classify as “minimal.”

On the other hand, the increasing attempts by the Trump administration to influence the US Federal Reserve, as well as the president’s repeated attacks against wind and solar energy in social media, had a negative impact.

A particularly negative signal was the US government’s decision to halt an offshore wind project that was already 80 percent complete under the pretext of “national security” – even though all official permits were in place. This arbitrary intervention once again illustrates the geopolitical influences that weigh on the clean tech sector.

Fund Performance

The development in August shows a mixed picture
In August, twelve of our portfolio values recorded gains, while sixteen values recorded declines. The largest positive contributions came from Voltabox, Nano One, SMA Solar, Novonix, Daqo New Energy, Enphase, and ITM Power.

The largest individual losses in August were attributable to Canadian Solar, QuantumScape, SFC Energy, PowerCell Sweden, Nel ASA, Ceres Power, Enapter, and thyssenkrupp nucera. This showed a broad decline in values that had mostly recorded strong price developments in the previous months.

At the end of August, the equity ratio of our portfolio was 96.4 percent.

Company Examples

Slight sales and targeted purchases
In August, we made minor adjustments to SMA Solar, Voltabox, Ceres Power, and PowerCell Sweden through targeted sales. At the same time, we used the significant setbacks at ITM Power, QuantumScape, and Plug Power for contrarian follow-up purchases and also strengthened our position in the solar value First Solar.

Voltabox (henceforth: Voltatron)

Voltabox with strong performance
We already reported in detail in the last monthly commentary about the development at the electronics specialist Voltabox AG (future: Voltatron AG). The acquisition of GMS Electronic Vertriebs GmbH and the associated expansion of the business model to include an established electronics distributor also gave the share noticeably positive impulses in August. The company expects a significantly higher turnover as early as 2025, not least through the pro rata integration of GMS from August 2025.

Voltabox has so far focused primarily on a production-oriented value chain and is receiving a new, internationally oriented, and broadly networked front end through GMS. As already noted, the Voltabox example impressively illustrates our investment approach and confirms that it is worth sticking to promising investments even in difficult times. Voltabox is now valued with a market capitalization of EUR 141 million and, with a weighting of 6.0 percent, is one of the top ten values in the portfolio.

ITM Power

ITM Power and Linde: Green hydrogen for Austria
The semiconductor production of Infineon in Villach, Austria, will now be permanently supplied with green hydrogen. The basis is a large-scale electrolyzer built and operated by Linde based on the technology of ITM Power. With this conversion, Infineon is completely replacing fossil hydrogen with renewably produced hydrogen, thereby sustainably reducing its CO₂ emissions.

“Securing our hydrogen supply is of strategic as well as sustainable importance to us. With the electrolysis plant, we are securing the supply in the long term, reducing dependencies and at the same time contributing to the climate goals of the Infineon Group,” emphasized Thomas Reisinger, Board Member for Operations at Infineon Technologies Austria.

The plant produces around 290 tons of green hydrogen annually, which covers the entire demand of the Villach plant. The technology from ITM Power also offers a wide range of applications – from the steel and fertilizer industry to mobility.

The integration at Infineon is an impressive example of the potential of ITM Power. The company is currently positioning itself much better than other pure players and is one of the strongest hydrogen companies in the portfolio. Costs are under control and the products are increasingly accepted in the market.

Daqo New Energy

Daqo New Energy: Solid balance sheet and share buyback despite challenging environment
Daqo published weak quarterly figures, which clearly demonstrate the extent of the crisis in the global polysilicon market. Sales volumes and average selling prices fell sharply, making it impossible to generate profits. The company reacted with a drastic reduction in capacity utilization to only 34% and a targeted decline in production. Despite this development, Daqo remains financially extremely robust: With over USD 1.9 billion in liquid assets and no debt, the company is one of the few industry players with a substantial buffer.

This solid balance sheet structure should enable Daqo to survive the weak phase in the cycle compared to many competitors and emerge stronger from it. While many smaller competitors are struggling with liquidity problems or have to give up, Daqo is focusing on strategic patience. A recovery in production volume is expected for the third quarter of 2025, and a share buyback program of USD 100 million has also been announced – a signal of confidence in its own future.

Parallel to the operational consolidation, the market consolidation in China is also progressing: A third of the capacities could be shut down in the future. The six largest polysilicon manufacturers in China are reportedly developing a 7-billion-US-dollar plan for the purchase and shutdown of production capacities in order to reduce the oversupply and stabilize prices.

According to Xin You, Senior Market Analyst at S&P Global, this measure could cause prices along the entire photovoltaic supply chain to rise in a short time. This would lead to a stronger pricing power of the remaining suppliers – with Daqo in a promising position. Management remains optimistic and expects a cyclical recovery from 2026 – we remain invested and Daqo is currently weighted at 4.1% in the portfolio.

Stabilization of module prices in the solar sector
Prices for solar modules are showing upward trends again. According to OPIS, prices for common Topcon modules (from 600 watts) rose by 1.18 percent to USD 0.086 per watt in the last week of August 2025. This results in an increase of almost five percent since the beginning of the second half of the year, with offer prices between USD 0.084 and USD 0.093 per watt.

In China itself, the price is currently around 0.690 renminbi per watt (about USD 0.096), which corresponds to a weekly increase of 0.73 percent. The background is another industry meeting of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), which focused on stricter regulations, measures against ruinous price competition, higher quality control, and an appeal to greater self-discipline.

The China Photovoltaic Industry Association (CPIA) is also calling on the provincial governments to apply the Price Act more consistently, to introduce minimum bids, and to give less weight to the pure price in tenders. The aim is a more stable production structure that takes into account not only supply and demand but also quality and intellectual property.

First positive signals confirm this course: For example, the average bids in a tender by the Huadian Group for 20 gigawatts of modules in the years 2025 to 2026 were 0.710 renminbi per watt. Also in a 3-gigawatt award from China Resources Power, the bids were above 0.70 renminbi per watt – an indication that the trough may have been passed.

Nano One

Nano One: Hope for North America’s battery independence
An LFP battery is a lithium-ion battery in which the cathode consists of lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄), which makes it particularly safe, durable, and robust. In contrast to other lithium-ion batteries, such as NMC batteries, LFP batteries do not use expensive and problematic heavy metals such as cobalt and nickel. China currently dominates global LFP battery production with a market share of almost 100% for LFP cathode materials – a geopolitical weakness for Western states.

With its patented “One-Pot” process technology, Nano One Materials is pursuing an alternative production approach for LFP cathodes that is more cost- and energy-efficient and does not cause toxic wastewater. The company operates a first LFP pilot plant in Canada (200 tons capacity), which is to be expanded to 1,000 tons – however, significantly larger volumes are conceivable in the medium term.

The US government is actively promoting Nano One: The US Department of Defense recently provided USD 12.9 million in funding for the expansion of North American LFP production at the Candiac site. Nano One has also joined the Arkansas Lithium Technology Accelerator (ALTA) – a promising environment with strong regional roots in defense, aviation, and lithium production. The company’s proprietary technology is to be used not only in electric vehicles but also in stationary energy storage systems (e.g., for data centers or wind and solar farms).

At the end of August, Nano One successfully installed and commissioned its specially developed technology in its commercial 20,000-liter one-pot reactor at its production facility in Candiac, Québec. The installation of this new plant will increase capacity by approximately 50% and this will lead to a further reduction in production costs in the future. The successful commissioning of the new plant is an important milestone for the further optimization of operations in Candiac. Nano One could thus become an important building block of a North American LFP value chain.