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When you see snowboarders glide effortlessly down the mountain it seems as if it takes no energy at all. When it comes to the manufacturing of snowboards, energy or rather energy efficiency also plays a major role. The snowboards made by CAPITA MFG are manufactured in a workshop in the Austrian town of Feistritz. The workshop uses a combined heating and cooling concept for all steps of production and also makes use of the indoor climate. The system provides cooling and heating at the same time – a very efficient combination as no conventional boiler is required. The workshop was inaugurated one year ago – a major leap forward in terms of energy efficiency. For this innovative energy concept, CAPITA MFG GmbH was awarded the first prize in the 2016 Energy Efficiency Award.

This is the tenth time that the German Energy Agency (dena) has honoured energy efficiency and climate change mitigation projects undertaken by industry and manufacturing companies. The award ceremony was held in Berlin on 22 November 2016 as part of the dena conference. In her opening speech, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Iris Gleicke stressed the importance of putting energy efficiency – together with renewables – at the heart of the energy transition. She continued by saying that digitisation, too, played a major role for meeting energy efficiency goals, firstly through the buzzing start-up scene (see newsletter article “start-up night”), and secondly through Industrie 4.0 and the internet of things.

Companies from Saxony-Anhalt and North Rhine-Westphalia win second and third place

The second prize was awarded to Pilkington Automotive Deutschland GmbH from Saxony-Anhalt. The company, which is based in Aken, has implemented an extensive energy efficiency project in their buildings and in production. The company modernised its air conditioning and ventilation system and introduced state-of-the-art process controls that measure energy consumption in real time.

Thelen Holding GmbH from North Rhine-Westphalia came in third place. The company scrapped its forced-air central heating system at its subsidiary in Neuss and replaced it with high-efficiency low-energy infrared radiant heaters for the production workshop. Residual heat is used to heat the offices.

Special prize for digital solutions awarded for the first time

This year, dena for the first time awarded an extra prize for the best digital solution. “The digital transformation creates new potential for boosting energy efficiency,” Andreas Kuhlmann, chairman of dena’s board of management said. The prize was awarded to Rauschert Heinersdorf-Pressing GmbH from Bavaria. The company has introduced an energy management system that is based on an innovative electricity sensor. The sensor uses a special in-house software to collect electricity data and connect it with other data in real time in order to optimise energy consumption within the company.

The Energy Efficiency Award is part of dena’s “Energy Efficiency – Companies and Institutions Initiative” which is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. Since the inception of the award ten years ago, 660 companies from all around the world have taken part and a total of 36 prizes have been awarded. The first price is 15,000 euros, the second is 10,000 euros and the third is 5,000 euros.

Getting more companies to improve their energy efficiency

The Energy Efficiency Award honours projects that are seen as exemplary and that can serve as a reference for other companies. Companies wanting to boost energy efficiency and cut the cost of energy can find more information on energy-related issues on the “‘Germany makes it efficient’“ website (in German only) – from buildings to product manufacturing.