Green Electricity for BUTTING

For more than 240 years, BUTTING has been “thinking in generations” – in many different ways. So BUTTING is now taking a new approach to its energy management: green electricity, generated by a photovoltaic plant, is being supplied to our main factory in Knesebeck.

Have you been to Knesebeck? During their first visits, many of our customers spoke to us about the forests and meadows they had driven past before the BUTTING company site came into view. Now something new has been added to this picture: across the road a large photovoltaic installation can be seen in the middle of what was formerly a sheep pasture. This new development brings us one step closer to our CO2 emission reduction target. 

For more than 240 years, BUTTING has been “thinking in generations” – in many different ways. We want to pass on a healthy and independent company to the next generation. For us, however, this stance also includes the responsibility to ensure that we leave our children and grandchildren a clean environment. That's why BUTTING is now taking a new approach: green electricity supplied by a photovoltaic plant to our main factory in Knesebeck. 

Photovoltaics is the direct conversion of light energy, usually from sunlight, into electrical energy by means of solar cells. A corresponding plant with solar cells was built on a company-owned area of land by an external operator and will supply BUTTING with 100 percent of the generated electricity initially for the next 29 years. Just one month after the plant went into operation, the positive developments can be illustrated in figures. "Within this short operating period (13 December to 13 January) we were able to save more than 3.43 tonnes of CO2. Figuratively speaking, we would have needed 325 trees (27.22 kg / tree) to compensate for this amount of CO2," reports Ralf Köllner, Energy Management Officer at BUTTING. 

Sebastian Ballendat, Managing Director of the BUTTING Einkaufsgesellschaft, is enthusiastic about the concept. “With the commissioning of the PV systems the company has achieved a major milestone with regard to sustainable energy procurement. Our objective is to generate around 700,000 kilowatt hours of green electricity per year with this plant, thus continuing to intensively pursue our CO2 emission reduction goal,” he adds. 


BUTTING – more than pipes – for a better quality of life
 


Photo Ralf Köllner
Ralf Köllner
Energy Management Officer