Renewable energy

Renewable energy for operational processes

Currently, 80 percent of our energy consumption originates from renewable sources. In 2023 we increased this share by 5 percent by installing another photovoltaic system on our production building. In addition to solar energy, we also use electricity from hydropower and an efficient free cooling system in Malters. Our production site in Willisau uses district heating from wood chip heating.

Fossil energy is the form of propane gas is currently used to power five oven. Our goal is to manage these fossil-free in the medium term.

The share of renewable energy has grown steadily in recent years, as the graphic below shows.

The «backhaus» photovoltaic system

At the beginning of April 2023 after only ten days of assembly time, we put the first stage of the new photovoltaic system with an area of ​​around 440 square meters into operation on our production building. This was possible thanks to good cooperation with local partners.

With around 80'000 kilowatt hours per year, it covers around 1 percent of the energy requirements for our production site. As a medium term goal, we want to implement a further expansion step so that the basic electricity requirements of our production building are covered by solar energy when the facility is at a standstill

The «hughaus» photovoltaic system

The photovoltaic system with 394 square meters on the roof of the administration building in Malters built in 2013 generates with 60'000 kilowatt hours per year  around a third of the energy needs in the office building. This system could cover the average energy needs of about ten single-family homes.

What speaks in favour of our system is that the generation of electricity during operation is emission and noise free. Furthermore, this form of electricity generation is very efficient.