As early as 2020, MANN Naturenergie GmbH was able to report the successful implementation of the "peak shaving" project, which avoids peak loads on the company's premises, and thus shows an example of ways to decentralized, renewable energy supply.
The goal for 2021 is also to set a good example and demonstrate the potential of the decentralized energy transition. A few days before Christmas, a large battery reached the MANN Group, or rather the industrial plant of Westerwälder Holzpellets GmbH. In the coming weeks, the required cables will now be laid and a switchgear will be erected on the plant premises. This will enable the integration of the large battery into the plant network, which will then compensate for fluctuations in renewable power generation and power consumption.
Together for a decentralized energy transition
The purchase of the large-scale battery was supported by MANN electricity customers, who support innovative energy transition projects with at least 0.1 cents per kilowatt hour when purchasing Grüner Strom-Label certified green electricity. Since its foundation in 1998, the Grüner Strom Label e.V. has been committed to a decentralized energy transition supported by regional actors. Markus Mann, Managing Director of MANN Naturenergie GmbH and owner of the new plant, explains why these aspects of the energy turnaround are so important: "In principle, every consumer, every region, every federal state must approach the energy turnaround from the bottom up and do their homework at the maximum regional level. This will put less strain on the European interconnected grid and require less investment in large transport routes."
With innovative solutions for the decentralized energy transition
However, MANN Naturenergie GmbH's project also highlights other aspects of a successful, decentralized energy transition. For example, the question often arises as to how storage capacities can be created as sustainably as possible in order to be able to use surpluses from electricity production at a later point in time. The large battery that is now being installed in Langenbach is a combination of 112 batteries that were previously installed in hybrid cars. Since the hybrid batteries only provided 75% to 80% of their original power, cars could no longer be operated efficiently with them. Instead of relying on new batteries, MANN Naturenergie GmbH found a way to continue using batteries for which resources had already been used in production.
MANN Naturenergie GmbH is also addressing the issue of "post-EEG plants". For example, it is planned to feed the green electricity generated by five wind turbines from Langenbach, which will fall out of the 20-year EEG subsidy this year, into the plant grid from the summer of 2021.
With this project, MANN Naturenergie GmbH demonstrates versatile possibilities of how challenges can be tackled within the framework of the decentralized energy transition and makes it clear that this can also be achieved in industry. In addition, MANN Naturenergie GmbH succeeds in providing practical answers to current discourses in the energy industry. However, it also shows that innovative approaches and the willingness to go new ways are necessary to successfully implement the decentralized energy transition.
