Germany's best energy scouts – a small and medium-sized enterprises initiative to recognise trainees for outstanding projects

The best energy scouts to emerge from the small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) Energy Transition and Climate Protection Initiative in 2016 come from Bielefeld, Oberschleißheim, Iserlohn and Northeim. The twelve prize winners were honoured at a special ceremony staged by the SME Initiative in Berlin.

"Energy Scouts" are trainees who have acquired know-how relating to every aspect of the topic of energy efficiency from the chambers of commerce and industry. They are thus able to support the companies at which they are training in the smart use of energy and also assume responsibility for their own projects. Since the beginning of 2014, more than 2,000 trainees from about 700 companies have qualified as energy scouts all across the country.

First prize was awarded to Maren Neugebauer, a first-year foundry mechanic trainee, and Alexander König, who is in the third year of his apprenticeship in the occupation of electronics technician for industrial engineering. Both winners are trainees at Eisengiesserei Baumgarte GmbH in Bielefeld.

The two switched the operation of the extruders at the company to run on a timed basis in line with requirements rather than all the time. They used carefully designed test equipment to demonstrate that an interval switching system reduced the amount of electricity consumed by the extruders by around two thirds with no loss of quality.

Extrapolating this to all extruders in use at the iron foundry results in savings of 17 megawatt hours of electricity per year. This approximately corresponds to the amount of electricity used annually by four family homes each with four inhabitants. Conversion of machines and plants from permanent operation to run times adapted to the specific production process represents a considerable area of potential savings for many branches and companies.

Second place went to the energy scouts Andreas Gareis, Seda Kaleci, Marion Pollak, Daniel Waldhans and Alexandra Willis from the Schreiner Group in Oberschleißheim. The team carried out a comprehensive analysis to identify three areas where substantial savings could be made. These were the heat insulation of exhaust air ducts, the removal of compressed air leaks and the reduction of water and energy consumption in cooling water piping. Simply decreasing flow rate in the cooling water pipes is enough to deliver expected energy and water savings of approximately five percent.

Third prize was awarded to Lisa Schäfer, Christina and Steffen Kemna from Paul Serafini GmbH & Co. KG in Iserlohn. They found out that one third of energy used could be saved if the stamping die used in sheet metal manufacture was deployed diagonally at a certain angle. This has the added advantage of reducing the noise levels generated by the machine for staff working in production.

The special staff motivation prize went to Maximilian Bittmann und Rebecca Klasing, energy scouts at Thimm Display GmbH, who actively involved their colleagues in a project aimed at achieving energy savings in lighting, stand-by consumption and paperless work processes.

The winning projects were selected by a jury comprising representatives from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry and ebm-papst Mulfingen GmbH & Co. KG, which invented the concept of the energy scouts in 2010 and has saved around €1 million in energy costs with the help of its trainees since this time. This is the second time that the SME Initiative has awarded prizes to the best energy scouts of the year.

The SME Energy Transition and Climate Protection Initiative is jointly run by four partners – the Federal Ministry for the Environment, the Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts and the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry – and draws its financing from the Federal Ministry for the Environment's National Climate Protection Initiative and from the Energy Efficiency Fund of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

It works at a national level to initiate projects and events to raise awareness of the topics of energy efficiency and climate protection amongst small and medium-sized enterprises in the industrial, commercial and craft trade sectors and to disseminate ideas for the promotion of company energy efficiency.