Maren Neugebauer, 1st year foundry mechanic, and Alexander König, 3rd year electronics technician for industrial engineering, from Eisengiesserei Baumgarte GmbH in Bielefeld were honored last week by the Mittelstandsinitiative in Berlin.
Energy Scouts are trainees who acquire expertise in the field of energy efficiency at the Chambers of Industry and Commerce. In this way, they support their training companies in using energy wisely and take responsibility for their own projects. Since the beginning of 2014, more than 2,000 trainees from around 700 companies across Germany have qualified as Energy Scouts.
The two apprentices at the Bielefeld foundry were recognized for their outstanding efficiency project. In this project, the two switched the running time of the company’s agitators from continuous operation to a demand-based cycle. Using a carefully designed test set-up, they were able to prove that they could reduce the power consumption of the agitators by around two thirds using an interval switch without any loss of quality. Extrapolated to all agitators in the iron foundry, this saves 17 MWh of electricity per year. This is roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of four detached houses with four residents each. Switching equipment and systems from permanent operation to a running time adapted to the specific production process offers considerable savings potential for many industries and companies.
The winning projects were selected by a jury made up of representatives from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federal Ministry of Economics, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and ebm-papst Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KG, which invented the Energy Scouts concept in 2010 and has since saved around EUR 1 million in energy costs with the help of its trainees. This was the second time that the SME initiative has honored the best Energy Scouts of the year.
The SME Energy Transition and Climate Protection Initiative is supported by four partners: the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federal Ministry of Economics, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts. V. and the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts. Financed by the BMUB’s National Climate Protection Initiative and the Energy Efficiency Fund of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, it initiates projects and events throughout Germany to raise awareness of energy efficiency and climate protection among small and medium-sized companies in industry, trade and the skilled trades and to disseminate new impetus and ideas for promoting operational energy efficiency.
1st place: Eisengießerei Baumgarte GmbH, from left to right: Dr. Hartmut Versen (BMWi), Berthold Goeke (BMUB), Maren Neugebauer (Eisengießerei Baumgarte GmbH) and Dr. Martin Wansleben (DIHK). Photo © DIHK / Jens Schicke
Source: BDG – Federal Association of the German Foundry Industry
