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Nächtliche Panoramaaufnahme einer Industrieanlage und Stadt, beleuchtet mit Straßenlichtern, neben einem Fluss.
© Gettyimages/Westend61

Lighthouse projects for CO2 savings in industry

dena supported ten exemplary projects to reduce harmful emissions in the SME sector and publicised them throughout the industry.

© shutterstock/Anton Kurashenko

Our mission

Companies in Germany are to reduce their emissions by around 50 per cent by 2030. Industrial companies must therefore fundamentally reorganise their energy procurement, energy conversion and production processes. Technically complex measures, which typically incur high investment costs, are being required in more and more cases.

The German government supports these investments through funding programmes. These programmes need to be publicised in order for them to be utilised. This is where dena’s lighthouse project came in. The project was implemented on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, BMWK). The projects paid close attention to four energy-intensive industries – the chemical industry, plastics processing, the glass industry and the foundry industry.

© shutterstock/Dmitry Kalinovsky

Our approach

dena provided technical support to ten companies, from planning the measures and applying for state subsidies to implementation and commissioning. The focus was on industrial waste heat, renewable process heat and energy-efficient production processes.

dena cooperated with the four federal associations of the sectors on which the project focussed: Verband der chemischen Industrie e.V. (federation of the German chemical industry), Industrievereinigung Kunststoffverpackung e.V. (German association for plastics packaging), German Bundesverband Glasindustrie e.V. (federal association of the German glass industry) and Bundesverband der Deutschen Gießerei-Industrie e.V. (federation of the German foundry industry) in order to facilitate sector-specific communication. The cooperation included an exchange of ideas on ways to reduce carbon emissions in companies and the benefits of funding programmes.

Our project partners