Consumables

Since the beginning of the year, Koehler Paper has been producing 100% with green electricity

Thursday 14. October 2021 - Further element of Koehlers climate strategy successfully implemented. For production line 8, with a demand of 75,000 MWh per year, only green electricity from the Schluchsee hydroelectric power plant is used. Further building blocks will follow in order to achieve the Koehler Promise 2030.

Several years ago, the Koehler Group developed the first building blocks of its climate strategy, one part of which is the “Koehler Promise 2030”. In doing so, the company has committed itself to the self-imposed goal of producing more energy from renewable sources than is necessary for its own needs by the year 2030. For many years, projects have been successfully implemented to continuously reduce energy consumption in paper production. Another component of this climate strategy has now been successfully implemented. Since the beginning of the year, the new production line 8 in Kehl has been using 100 % green electricity. In addition, the steam from the biomass cogeneration plant at the Kehl site has ensured almost CO2-free drying of the paper web since the start-up of the plant in 2019.
Production plant uses green electricity from a regional source
Since the beginning of 2021, the company’s production on production line 8 at the Kehl site has been climate-neutralised. The plant’s consumption of 75,000 MWh of electricity per year will be marked with green electricity from a regional source, exclusively from the hydroelectric power plant at Schluchsee in the Black Forest. “Through this step we save arithmetically about 45,000 tons of CO2 per year”, Dr. Stefan Karrer, Chief Technology Officer at the Koehler Group, is enthusiastic.
The company thus underlines that its sustainable orientation does not end with sustainable products. “The flexible packaging papers, as well as the environmentally friendly thermal paper Blue4est, which we produce on production line 8 in Kehl, have thus been produced with renewable electricity since the beginning of the year,” continues Dr. Karrer. The sustainability concept thus runs through the entire value chain of the papers.
Further projects follow to implement the climate strategy
The implementation of climate-friendly production on production line 8 is one of many projects that the Koehler Group is tackling in order to achieve the goals it has set itself in its climate strategy and to contribute to the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement. The company is working on covering the entire energy supply in paper production with alternative, more sustainable energy sources in the future. Another major step in the implementation of Koeh- ler’s climate strategy is, as already reported, the conversion of the hard coal-fired combined heat and power plant at the company headquarters in Oberkirch to biomass. This will save an additional 150,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
The Koehler Renewable Energy division, which is part of the Koehler Group, is also contributing to the implementation of the climate strategy. Koehler Renewable Energy has already implemented numerous projects in the fields of biomass cogeneration plants, wind power, photovoltaics and hydropower. In the process, the experts have mastered all stages of the value chain, starting with acquisition, through planning and development, to smooth, long-term operation. Koehler Renewable Energy, together with various partners, already generates over 320,000 MWh of electricity, over 545,000 MWh of heat and over 780,000 tonnes of steam annually at its various locations in Europe. And all from renewable energy sources.