Chief executives of Germany’s major energy suppliers usually don’t have much time for their junior counterpart, Lichtblick. The Hamburg-based green-electricity provider’s half a million customers may be ‘impressive,’ they say, but Lichtblick works in a niche market and is no competition for the larger companies in the industry. But things may be about to change. In the next couple of days, the relatively small company is due to reveal a new business model that could shake up the energy market quite a bit-and not only in Germany. So, despite the fact that they currently have large power plants and considerable power over the market, things may soon turn a little less comfortable for energy giants like E.on (EONGn.DE) and RWE (RWEG.DE). Lichtblick-the name translates as ‘glimmer of hope’-is no longer content with distributing eco-friendly gas and electricity. Ten years after entering the market, the group wants to take a shot at the electricity-generation business as well-and to do so while collaborating with a unusual partner on a completely new idea. Unlike Germany’s well-established energy giants, the Hamburg-based company isn’t planning to build a few colossal wind farms or solar-panel systems. Instead, it wants hundreds of thousands of […]