Regio Energie Solothurn
| Regio Energie Solothurn
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|---|---|
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| legal form | Public law |
| founding | 1861 |
| Seat | Solothurn , Switzerland |
| management | Felix Strässle ( CEO ) Kurt Fluri ( Chairman of the Board of Directors ) |
| Number of employees | 150 (2015) |
| sales | 88 million CHF (2017) |
| Branch | power supply |
| Website | www.regioenergie.ch |
The Regio Energie Solothurn is a public Swiss energy company. It is 100 percent owned by the city of Solothurn . The mayor is ex officio president of the board of directors. The board of directors consists of nine members who are elected by the municipal council. The order for supplying the city is defined by the regulations of September 11, 1984.
Field of activity and services
The Regio Energie Solothurn is active as a cross-network company in the fields of energy, water, energy efficiency and building technology. In the Solothurn region, it supplies around 35,000 households, industrial and commercial operations with electricity , natural gas / biogas , water , district heating and installations. She accompanies her customers through the energy transition and develops decentralized solutions with environmentally friendly energy sources.
Regio Energie is a partner in Gasverbund Mittelland AG and a member of the Association of the Swiss Gas Industry . It supplies the region with gas and is also a member of the Swiss Gas and Water Association. It is also a member of Swisspower, an association of 22 municipal utilities and regional utilities, as well as the Agency for Renewable Energies Suisse, the umbrella organization of the economy for renewable energies and energy efficiency.
As an energy company, Regio Energie Solothurn supports and implements sustainable projects to promote renewable energies and energy efficiency. These include, for example, the promotion of climate-friendly mobility using natural gas / biogas fuel, a strategic partnership with Optima Solar to jointly promote the construction of photovoltaic systems in the region. The “SOnnen-Dächer” program comprises a total of 102 systems that deliver more than 400 MWh of electricity per year.
Regio Energie Solothurn relies on customer proximity, quality and competence. With their energy advice, private individuals, companies and public institutions are supported in renovation and construction projects. The focus is on ecology, the property's value retention and costs. The Regio Energie Solothurn also offers contracting solutions. The company takes care of the planning, construction and operation as well as the financing of the energy systems.
Since 2007, Regio Energie Solothurn has been using the energy that KEBAG AG Zuchwil generates from the incineration of household waste to heat district heating water and thus operate its own district heating network.
history
Public gas lighting was introduced in Solothurn in 1860. A year later, the private gas company was founded and a gas works was built on the banks of the Aare. The first waterworks was built in 1880 and the first electricity works in 1886. In March 1903 the city of Solothurn bought the gasworks and one year later founded the Gaswerk Solothurn (GWS). A new coal gas plant was built in the Aarmatt in Zuchwil in 1925 and replaced the old one in Solothurn, which was subsequently demolished. At the same time, the city took the last gas lights out of operation. Electric lighting was introduced in Solothurn in 1896 and slowly replaced gas lighting, which had been widespread up to now. Nonetheless, gas consumption could be increased as cooking and heating with gas became more and more popular. The previously independent departments of the municipal administration, the electricity works and the gas and water works, were merged in 1968 under the name Städtische Werke Solothurn (SWS). In 1994 SWS was converted into an independent company under public law. In 2002 the SWS became the Regio Energie Solothurn. In 2006 the company acquired a stake in Trianel GmbH Germany, and in 2013 Regio Energie Solothurn entered into a strategic partnership with OptimaSolar and Swisspower. The hybrid plant Aarmatt represents a nationwide pioneering project ("lighthouse project"), which sets a milestone in terms of efficient energy generation.
partner
The Regio Energie Solothurn participates in various partner companies and is involved in organizations with which it maintains close cooperation for the sensible use of synergies:
- AEE SUISSE
- GVM Gasverbund Mittelland AG
- Kompogas Utzenstorf
- Optima Solar Cooperative
- Sysdex AG
- Swisspower
- Trianel AG
- Wasserverbund Region Solothurn AG
In addition to important partnerships, Regio Energie Solothurn also has a subsidiary, Genos Energie AG, which specializes in solar systems, solar power use, battery storage and maintenance.
Regio energy price
Every year the Regio Energie Solothurn honors companies that have distinguished themselves in terms of energy efficiency and climate protection . In recognition of this, the company awards the Regio Energie Prize created by a Solothurn artist. This is intended to sensitize the public to environmental and climate issues and to motivate companies to promote operational measures and behavior in favor of sustainable use of resources.
Aarmatt hybrid plant lighthouse project
In 2017, the Swiss population approved the Energy Strategy 2050 . The aim is to gradually convert the energy system towards renewable energies and energy efficiency. Regio Energie Solothurn is a pioneer in practice and operates the hybrid plant on the Aarmatt in Zuchwil , an energy system that is unique in Switzerland. It is part of the beacon program of the Federal Office for Energy SFOE and makes an important contribution to the implementation of the Federal Energy Strategy 2050. The energy system combines practice and science and, as a "glass workshop", makes part of the Swiss energy future tangible.
Because wind and solar energy accumulate irregularly, storage technologies are of great importance. At the intersection of the Solothurn electricity, gas, water and district heating networks, the Aarmatt hybrid plant converts renewable electricity into hydrogen. The renewable gas produced can either be used to generate heat or as fuel. With this process, excess renewable energy can be stored seasonally and over the long term, and is released when the customer actually needs it.
The Aarmatt hybrid plant of the Regio Energie Solothurn relies on thermal heat storage and the power-to-gas process, among other things. In this process, hydrogen is produced from water and renewable electricity by means of electrolysis, which is temporarily stored in storage facilities, from where it is fed into the natural gas network in a metered manner and thus made usable at any time as a renewable fuel.
As a rule, if there is an excess supply of electricity, solar, wind and hydropower plants must be taken off the grid so that the power grids are not overloaded. Thanks to the Aarmatt hybrid plant, the excess electricity is converted into energy, which in turn can be used in times of high energy demand. This new form of energy system is unique in Switzerland and is an example of an energy future in which integrated energy production and storage are of crucial importance. The system is planned and built in such a way that it can be expanded in a modular fashion with the further development of requirements and the technology used. On January 9, 2020, the project received the Watt d'Or award in the Renewable Energy category from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy .
Web links
Individual proof
- ↑ Regulations on the supply of energy and water by the Regio Energie Solothurn , City of Solothurn, dated September 11, 1984, accessed on May 16, 2019
- ↑ Regio Energie: Offer. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
- ↑ AEE SUISSE, our mission. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Region supplies more solar energy than expected. Retrieved May 16, 2019 .
- ↑ Weblink Hybridwerk
- ↑ Biological methanation with archaea in the hybrid plant , SFOE press release of January 9, 2020, accessed on January 10, 2020.