LINSEIS invests in climate protection
Going green
The LINSEIS company has set itself the goal of sustainably reducing its CO₂ emissions and significantly lowering the energy requirements at its Selb production site, which was previously mainly generated from fossil fuels. To achieve this, it is now converting a significant part of its electricity consumption from coal-fired power to the use of green photovoltaic power. To this end, a powerful PV system consisting of almost 300 solar panels has been installed on the company roof of the main administration building. The already existing flat roof provides an ideal surface to use almost the maximum power of the solar modules and thus to generate enough electricity to supply the production of LINSEIS measuring instruments with a not insignificant amount of green solar energy in the future.
After two weeks of installation by the company Elektro Kästner GmbH from Selb, LINSEIS can now already benefit from its own photovoltaic system and during the sunny days of June, a weekly yield of about 2500 kWh of electricity could already be generated.
Sustainability has enjoyed a high priority for many years in the family business, which is already in its third generation. This is also reflected in the current product portfolio, which includes measuring devices that can be used, among other things, to research and improve sustainable energy sources. Measurements and applications under a hydrogen atmosphere, for example, are one of the most recent focal points that have been set. Many industrial customers have to adapt their processes to new types of energy carriers, for example when a kiln that was previously fired with natural gas is now to be operated with hydrogen. As a rule, laboratory tests are needed first to understand the process anew and to design the plant accordingly. And this is exactly where the specialist for thermal analysis from Selb comes into play.
LINSEIS is always fundamentally interested in research and cooperation projects that help to develop products and measurement methods that help to counteract climate change and sustainably reduce the CO₂ footprint.
With the construction of the efficient plant on the main building, the company can now take a further step toward climate protection and make its contribution to the ambitious goal of the energy turnaround.
In the future, the company will be able to cover 30% of its total electricity requirements (measured in terms of consumption in 2021) with the 85kWp system, which covers the entire roof of the main building and has a size of approximately 425 m2. As a result, it can greatly reduce its CO₂ emissions and will save 627 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt hour of electricity generated in the future, which corresponds to a total saving of approximately 53 tons of CO₂ emissions per year.
Managing Director Florian Linseis emphasizes that this is only a first step towards climate neutrality and is already thinking about further modernizations. The roof of the production hall, for example, is also still unused and could be considered for an expansion of the PV system. A conversion of the company’s own car pool from the diesel vehicles currently in use to electric vehicles, which could then be operated with the self-produced electricity, would also be quite conceivable in the future. After all, a not insignificant part of the laboratory equipment produced by the company is delivered to the customer by the company van and that in the entire DACH region. According to Florian Linseis, it is also quite conceivable to convert the heating system from the current oil to alternative energy sources. Here, the LINSEIS company intends to work closely with the new hydrogen center in Wunsiedel to find out about future possibilities for electricity and energy storage and the use of hydrogen technology in industry.
Measures such as these show that the energy turnaround and climate change have definitely arrived in industry and are being heard, although a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels can nevertheless only be implemented in the medium term and not without difficulty. In any case, the LINSEIS company is trying to do its part.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
