As a manufacturer of high-tech adhesives, we want to shape the future through innovation and, thus, make a contribution to sustainable development. That is why we produce our own green electricity. To this end, we have a photovoltaic system installed throughout our roof area and will be able to cover up to 30% of our electricity requirements with solar energy in the future.
DELO next step towards climate neutrality
With the completion and commissioning of the photovoltaic system, DELO has completed a fundamental sustainability project towards its goal of climate neutrality.
Almost 4,000 panels were installed across all roofs on its campus in Windach. This system, which is connected to the public power grid, has a peak output of 1.7 megawatts. We will use this electricity ourselves and can thus cover round 30% of our annual electricity requirements. This is roughly equivalent to the annual requirements of 400 households.
"Compared to typical chemical companies with higher syntheses, we have very low energy requirements at DELO," says Christian Walther, Managing Director of the SME. "Two major contributors [to our energy consumption] are production itself and the cooling units for refrigerated adhesive storage. Especially on warm, sunny days when more electricity is needed for cooling, the PV system subsequently produces more electricity. This suits our needs very well," says Walther.
Cooperation with local companies
Three aspects were particularly important to DELO during implementation:
• High efficiency of the photovoltaic panels of around 21.5% with the lowest possible weight
• Installing an intelligent control system to optimally connect each roof surface with one another
• Working with a local partner to carry out the project
The next photovoltaics project is already being planned. Another system is to be installed on the new warehouse building—which is currently under construction—with a planned peak output of approximately 600 kilowatts.
We take our ecological, as well as socioeconomic responsibility very seriously and do our utmost to generate healthy growth. In doing so, it is important to us to be in harmony with both the environment and the needs of our customers and employees. In addition to the construction of the photovoltaics system, we are taking next steps to make our contribution to a more sustainable company. In addition to low-energy bonding processes, we are developing our own cartridges, which will be manufactured by a partner near Windach.
> Learn more about our efforts in the area of sustainability
