Wobben founded Enercon, the world's sixth-largest wind turbine maker. The Aurich, Germany-based business also makes generators, and offers grid integration services and wind farm management. Enercon has 6% of the global onshore turbine market and reported revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in 2018.
Aloys Wobben's net worth of $6.72B can buy ...
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Wobben's fortune is derived from his control of Aurich, Germany-based UEE Holding, the parent of Enercon. Closely held Enercon is the world's sixth-largest wind turbine company with 6% market share in 2018, according to its website. His shares in the company have been held through the Aloys-Wobben-Stiftung since 2012.
UEE Holding had revenue of 4.5 billion euros ($5.3 billion) in 2018, according to its financial results published on Bundesanzeiger, Germany's federal gazette. It's valued based on the average enterprise value-to-sales multiples of two publicly traded peer companies: Vestas and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.
Felix Rehwald, a spokesperson for Enercon, declined to comment on the net wealth calculation.
Aloys Wobben was born in Rastorf, Germany, in 1952. He studied electrical engineering at Germany's Technical University of Braunschweig. While serving as a student assistant in the renewable energy department in 1975, he developed his first wind turbine with Meinhard Remmers, a fellow classmate. Wobben set up the wind power equipment manufacturer Enercon in Aurich, Germany, in 1984.
Over the next three decades, he built the closely held company into the world's fourth-largest wind power equipment manufacturer, controlling almost 50 percent of the wind turbine market in Germany, and about 10 percent worldwide. Wobben retired as Enercon's CEO for health reasons in 2012, and moved his holdings into a trust to preserve the independence of the business.