When companies from the energy sector are asked about their assessment of their own innovation activities, the area of hydropower technology in particular comes to the fore: with a value of 2.5 (between decreasing and constant), the VDI shows that the potential originally available has already been exploited in many cases and that existing plants can now be used. According to the survey, geothermal energy technology (over 3.5) and solar energy technology (3) have a relatively high level of innovation.