BERLIN, November 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Energy Efficiency Award 2011 goes to SCA Hygiene Products, Heideblume Molkerei and Südbayerisches Portland-Zementwerk

The Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena) - the German Energy Agency - has today given the Energy Efficiency Award to three companies in recognition of their exemplary efforts to increase energy efficiency. The first prize was shared by SCA Hygiene Products for the savings it has made in various cross-sector technologies and Heideblume Molkerei Elsdorf-Rotenburg AG for its successful implementation of energy contracting. The second prize went to Südbayerisches Portland-Zementwerk for its efficient use of waste heat in its manufacturing operations. The prizes were awarded during the dena Energy Efficiency Congress in Berlin. This competition, with its total prize money of €35,000, was organised by dena as part of its Initiative EnergieEffizienz with support from its Premium Partners DZ BANK AG, Imtech Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG and Siemens AG.

"This year's prizewinners are an impressive demonstration of the potential energy savings that companies can make by increasing energy efficiency. In doing so, not only are they making a major contribution to environmental and climate protection, but the consequent reductions in costs also give them a distinct competitive edge", commented Stephan Kohler, dena's Chief Executive Officer.

Between 2003 and 2011, SCA Hygiene Products carried out over 600 projects to increase energy efficiency at its four German sites in Mannheim, Kostheim, Neuss and Witzenhausen. The focus was on optimising compressed air and pump systems and on heat generation. The company consistently involved its own staff in these efforts, actively encouraging them to submit suggestions. All in all, the implemented energy efficiency measures are saving the company around 220 million kilowatt-hours of energy per year, which corresponds to cost savings of €9 million*.

Heideblume Molkerei Elsdorf-Rotenburg AG has been able to achieve considerable savings in energy usage and costs by using energy contracting. A service provider took over the operation of all installations and implemented an innovative package of measures for cold and heat supply. The company achieved further savings by reducing the power demand of its in-house effluent treatment plant. In total, annual energy usage was cut overall by 12.6 million kilowatt-hours. This corresponds to annual energy cost savings of €500,000*.

Südbayerische Portland-Zementwerk Gebr. Wiesböck & Co. GmbH won its prize for commissioning an innovative dentrification plant. Major reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions can be achieved by applying the SCR (Selective Catalytic Reduction) process. If the heat required for this purpose is conventionally generated by gas burners, the plant's requirements can be virtually completely met by heat recovery. The company has accordingly commissioned the world's first clean gas SCR plant in the cement industry and cut its own energy usage by around 20 million kilowatt-hours per year. As a result, the company can make annual energy cost savings of €430,000.

As part of its Initiative EnergieEffizienz, dena, together with partners from business, has been giving the international dena Energy Efficiency Award to recognise exemplary energy efficiency projects in industry and production since 2007. Initiative EnergieEffizienz is a dena campaign funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.  

* Assumed electricity price: €0.12/kWh, assumed natural gas price: €0.03/kWh, assumed heating oil price: €0.04/kWh.

Media contact:
Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (dena) / German Energy Agency, Gunnar Will, Chausseestrasse 128a, 10115 Berlin, Germany,
Tel.: +49(0)30-72-61-65-723, Fax: +49(0)30-72-61-65-699, E-mail: will@dena.de, Internet: http://www.dena.de

SOURCE the German Energy Agency