Matthias Brandt, who led the wind service company Deutsche Windtechnik for two decades, is taking over as managing director of the Berlin-based renewables developer Saxovent Renewables. The current managing director, Thorsten Freise, leaves the company at the end of September, the group announced on 18 September 2026. Both men are due to present the handover at WindEnergy Hamburg, which runs from 22 to 25 September.
Brandt, 56, an economist by training, was chief executive and board member of Deutsche Windtechnik AG from 2005 until the end of 2025, a period in which the Bremen-based company grew from a small service provider into an international operator of maintenance for onshore and offshore turbines. Saxovent says he brings 27 years of experience in the renewables sector.
The group frames the change as preparation for a shifting regulatory environment in Germany, citing the pending amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and the grid package. Carsten Paatsch, chief executive of the Saxovent group, credited Freise with turning Saxovent Renewables into a full-service project developer over the past two years, quadrupling the project pipeline, opening two new offices and expanding the solar business.
“My vision is a strongly electrified market for all sectors – industry, end customers, heat and mobility – that draws increasingly on renewable energy,” Brandt said, adding that the task now is to link demand and the different sectors more closely with decentralised generation capacity on an economically viable basis. A second change takes effect at the same time: Dominik Winau also leaves the management of Saxovent Renewables on 30 September and hands over to Sascha Rösler, who also heads finance for the Saxovent group.
Saxovent Renewables develops wind and solar projects across Germany, covering site acquisition, permitting, construction and operation. Its group includes the service providers windpunx and solarpunx and the asset manager Aurevo Energy; windpunx reported earlier in September that it had added 287 MW to its operations portfolio this year, bringing it to 2.85 GW. The group is exhibiting jointly for the first time in Hamburg, in Hall A1, stand 430.
