Young Energy Europe reviews 2022
In 2022, the bilateral chambers of commerce abroad (AHKs) once more qualified numerous young professionals in eight European countries to become Energy Scouts. The Energy Scouts’ projects contain practical approaches individually tailored to their companies that help to reduce energy and resource consumption and save costs at the same time.
The need to save energy was omnipresent in Europe, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. As a result, 84 companies took advantage of the opportunity to train employees as Energy Scouts. During this, a total of 210 young professionals developed 97 practical projects that identified energy guzzlers and proposed concrete savings measures.
Which savings measures did the European Energy Scouts of 2022 choose, and what savings potential do the practical projects reveal?
Photovoltaics top 1 project category for the first time
As in previous years, the project categories lighting and compressed air systems were particularly popular among the Energy Scouts, with twelve and eleven practical projects respectively. Leading the pack with 18 practice projects was the use of photovoltaics, making it the most popular project category for the first time. Together, the 18 photovoltaic projects have a capacity of nearly 28 megawatts of peak power.
Potential savings of 47,000 MWh of electricity and 34,000 tons of CO2 revealed
Energy Scout’s practical projects for the year identify potentials and suggest specific solutions so that more than 47,000 MWh of electricity can be saved each year at the 84 companies they work in. This is equivalent to the electricity consumption of 14,429 average two-person households in Germany.
Based on the electricity mix of the respective countries, the associated CO2 emissions can be reduced by a total of 34,340 tons per year through the measures designed by the Energy Scouts. This corresponds to the amount of CO2 that would be emitted by 3,118 regular flights from Frankfurt to Sydney and back. Or expressed in road traffic terms: it is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 24,616 medium-sized cars that would be taken “off the road” each year.
Furthermore, practical projects save additional fossil energy sources directly. These include 908,514 m3 of natural gas, the annual heat requirement of 865 typical German households, and 103,559 liters of diesel, the annual consumption of 115 diesel cars. Last but not least, 113,000 m3 of drinking water can be saved in operational processes.
Would your company also like to train Energy Scouts? Energy Scout trainings will be offered again in 2023 in the countries Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. If you are interested, please contact our partners for further information on training dates and procedures.