A new cogeneration plant located at Heidelberg’s Wiesloch-Walldorf manufacturing facility will allow the German press maker to reduce its total energy costs at the site by around 10 percent. The plant represents an investment of around EUR 2.4 million. Heidelberg expects the new plant to pay for itself in two years.
Around 300 guests attended the opening ceremony of Heideblerg’s cogeneration plant, including company CEO Gerold Linzbach and Baden-Württemberg’s Environment Minister Franz Untersteller. “We need companies that invest in advanced resource-conserving
technology and plants and always take the issue of sustainability
seriously,” stated Untersteller. “It’s the only way to ensure the energy
revolution is a success.”
Described as the world’s largest printing press factory, the Wiesloch-Walldorf site features 36 production halls and office buildings occupying some 860,000 square metres of land. It requires around 60 gigawatt hours of power each year, which equates to annual energy costs in the low tens of millions of euros. One out of every five euros spent to operate the site goes to heat and power.
The new cogeneration plant will have an electric power output of two megawatts that will generate 12 gigawatt hours of electricity each year. The plant can cover around 20 percent of the current electricity requirements by burning natural gas as its primary energy source. Measured against the average power generation mix in Germany, Heidelberg states this will reduce the amount of CO2 released into the atmosphere by 3,700 metric tonnes a year.
In addition to electric power, the cogeneration plant’s two generators will produce 15 gigawatt hours of heat each year. Waste heat from the engines and generators will be accommodated in a storage buffer and will meet over 40 percent of the site’s total local heating requirements.
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