Electrifying Ideas Award – we are nominated!

The prize is awarded by The German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZWEI) for ideas and concepts for more sustainability, energy efficiency and climate protection

A top-class jury of business, research, politics and civil society experts has nominated Schaltbau and the NExT Factory for the first Electrifying Ideas Award. The main reason for their choice was the exceptional energy concept of our NExT Factory.

Thanks also to its own PV roof system the NExT Factory is using to 100% green electricity and is therefore CO2-neutral. In addition, it works exclusively with direct current from generation to consumption – a novelty in the productive sector. This way the connected load that factories draw from the public grid can be reduced by up to 70%. Moreover conversion and transmission losses are significantly reduced, which makes a direct current grid up to 15% more efficient than conventional solutions. And because power peaks can be compensated for by the energy storage in the system, the wiring can be smaller in size. This saves up to 25% copper, resulting in lower investment costs. In combination with other measures such as the installation of energy storage and intelligent automation, the total energy consumption of the NExT Factory is 35% lower than that of conventional factories.

The winners will be honored at the ZVEI Annual Congress on May 23, 2023 in Berlin. The handover is carried out by Dr. Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection.

More information about the award is available at https://www.zvei.org