Real assets as inflation protection: what actually protects and where energy assets fit in

Inflation in Germany stood at 2.3 % in June 2026; in the exceptional year 2022 the annual average was 6.9 %. What sounds harmless adds up: at a constant 2 % inflation, €100,000 in an uninterest-bearing account loses around 18 % of its purchasing power within ten years. And for long stretches of recent years, interest on call money and savings accounts sat below the inflation rate, so savings lost real value even though the number on the statement grew. Real assets are put forward as the answer to exactly this problem. Rightly so, but with important differences between the asset classes, which this article sets out.

What are real assets, and what separates them from monetary assets?

Real assets are assets with intrinsic substance: property, business holdings and equities, precious metals, infrastructure and energy plants. Their value hangs on a real thing or on real economic output, not on a nominal payment promise. Monetary assets are the counterpart: call money, fixed-term deposits, savings accounts, bonds and traditional life insurance policies are claims to a fixed euro amount. When the price level rises, the claim stays nominally the same and is worth less in real terms. How that plays out concretely for an interest account is shown in Solar or fixed-term deposit? Interest account and real asset in an honest comparison.

This difference is the core of the inflation-protection question. A monetary asset by its nature cannot grow with the price level; it is fixed to an amount. A real asset can, because both its replacement value and the income it throws off (rents, corporate profits, electricity revenues) tend to move within the same economy whose prices are rising. Monetary assets still have their place: as a liquidity reserve and emergency fund they are irreplaceable, just not an instrument for long-term preservation of value.

Do real assets really protect against inflation?

Over the long term yes, but no asset class is a perfect hedge. Productive real assets such as equities, property or energy plants protect against currency debasement over long periods because their income and values tend to rise with the price level. In the short term that does not hold reliably: in 2022 prices rose faster than they had in decades, and yet equities and property temporarily lost significant value because the interest-rate turnaround compressed valuations. Anyone seeking inflation protection therefore needs one thing above all: a long investment horizon over which real preservation of value can unfold.

A useful distinction is between productive and non-yielding real assets. Productive real assets generate ongoing income that can grow with the economy; they protect twice over, through substance and through income. Non-yielding real assets such as gold hold their purchasing power astonishingly well over the long run, but pay nothing and swing considerably over years; they are insurance rather than investment. And a third point is often overlooked: even within productive real assets it matters whether the income is contractually fixed or market-based. Income fixed in nominal terms for 20 years is predictable but does not grow with inflation; market-based income can grow with it, but fluctuates more.

Which real assets are there?

For private investors, four families matter most: property, precious metals, equities or equity funds, and real infrastructure, which includes energy assets. They differ considerably in income, inflation linkage, entry threshold and liquidity:

Property is the classic German real asset: tangible, bankable, with rental income. Against that stand a high entry threshold, cluster risk in a single location, management effort and regulatory intervention. How the rented property fares in a direct head-to-head with the energy direct investment is compared in Solar or property as an investment: an honest comparison of two real assets. Gold is the oldest answer to currency debasement, but without ongoing income; it works as an admixture, not as the core of an income-oriented portfolio. Equities and ETFs are the most liquid and lowest-threshold route into productive real assets, but with full market volatility and no link to a specific asset; where the portfolio's strengths lie and where its limits are is compared in Solar or ETF? Real asset and portfolio in an honest comparison. Energy infrastructure, finally, is the youngest of the four families for private investors, and the only one where an entrepreneurial stake in the individual asset with a tax lever is possible. More on that in a moment.

Why do energy plants count as productive real assets?

Grid-scale battery storage, photovoltaic and agri-PV plants are real, long-lived assets serving a basic need: they generate, store and trade electricity and earn ongoing revenues from it over typically 20 to 30 years. They therefore fit the definition of a productive real asset in its purest form, substance plus income. On top of that comes a structural tailwind that hardly any other real-asset family has: the rebuild of the energy system is politically intended and laid out over decades, and demand for generation and storage grows predictably.

On inflation linkage, an honest, precise look at the revenue model pays off. An EEG feed-in remuneration is fixed in nominal terms over the support period; it makes revenues predictable, but it does not grow with inflation. Long-term offtake agreements (PPAs) can contain price-escalation clauses, but need not. Market-based revenues, such as a battery storage plant's trading on the power markets, hang on the electricity price level, which is itself part of the consumer basket and correlates with the general price level over the long run; in return they fluctuate more. An energy real asset is therefore not an automatic inflation offset, but a mix of a predictable base and real, market-based income, in proportions that vary by project. What the routes in look like in detail, from the ETF to the entrepreneurial direct investment, is shown in Investing in battery storage: the options at a glance and Investing in agrivoltaics: dual land use, revenues and tax leverage at a glance.

What role does the tax lever play?

With an entrepreneurial direct investment in an energy asset, an effect comes into play that gold, equities and most other real-asset routes do not offer: because you hold a stake in the depreciable asset itself, the Investitionsabzugsbetrag (IAB) under §7g EStG and the special depreciation apply. A substantial part of the investment is pulled forward into the first years for tax purposes, which lowers the tax burden in the investment year and frees up liquidity. The mechanics with a worked example are in IAB under §7g EStG: example calculation for battery storage; why the effective equity outlay often turns out smaller than expected is set out in How much equity is actually required?. Where this lever ranks among other legal tax strategies is mapped in Legally reducing your tax: the most effective strategies. Important: the IAB has its own prerequisites, and the concrete structuring belongs with your tax advisor. This article does not replace tax advice.

Who are real-asset investments for?

• Liquidity reserve first: an emergency fund belongs in monetary assets despite the real-interest risk; inflation protection is the job of long-term wealth, not of the reserve.
• Small entry, broad diversification: equities and ETFs, from a few euros, tradable at any time, but with full market volatility and no link to a specific asset.
• Preservation as insurance: gold as an admixture, purchasing-power preserving over the long run, but without ongoing income.
• High earners with a tax burden and a long horizon: the entrepreneurial direct investment in an energy asset, higher outlay and entrepreneurial risk, but a real, productive asset with ongoing revenues and the §7g tax lever.

We make no promises of returns; which real-asset family fits you, and in what proportion, is a question of outlay, time horizon and tax situation. In a non-binding first call we map out the options and, where it fits, work the direct investment through on your concrete numbers, with disclosed assumptions instead of a marketing figure.