Electricity for 250 households saved

Altstätten, 12 March 2013

The Swiss packaging company SwissPrimePack AG has significantly reduced its energy consumption. With the support of the Swiss Climate Foundation, SwissPrimePack AG has introduced a cooling system with outdoor air and also uses the waste heat from its compressors for heating.

Instead of a refrigeration plant, a cooling system – cooling with outdoor air – cools the production facilities at the plant of SwissPrimePack AG in low Niederuzwil. In addition, the company, headquartered in Altstätten (SG), has equipped the compressed air compressors with a heat recovery. This allows the plant to dispense almost entirely with oil and gas for heating in the Niederuzwil. These measures alone save up to 1,000 megawatt of electricity each year at the production site in Niederuzwil. This corresponds to the
consumption of around 250 family households. Another important project is the complete conversion of the Niederuzwil production site to LED lighting. This eliminated another electricity guzzler and replaced it with state-of-the-art technology. "The investments made enable us to significantly reduce electricity consumption in the Niederuzwil factory building," explains Roger Boog, Head of Production Engineering at SwissPrimePack AG.

Climate Foundation Switzerland helps to invest in sustainability
In total, SwissPrimePack AG is investing well over half a million Swiss francs at the production site in Niederuzwil alone. The freecooling system and heat recovery are supported by the Swiss Climate Foundation with around 110,000 Swiss francs. Vincent Eckert, Managing Director of the Swiss Climate Foundation, explains how the contribution comes about: "We calculate the contributions directly according to the amount of electricity and CO2 saved. For each tonne of CO2 saved, we pay 30 francs, for each megawatt hour of electricity saved, ten francs." The Swiss Climate Foundation supports small and medium-sized companies in Switzerland and Liechtenstein when they, like SwissPrimePack, implement environmentally friendly measures. The foundation's goal is to promote climate protection as well as to strengthen the business location.

Contact details:

SwissPrimePack AG
9450 Altstätten
Switzerland
Mr Fabrizio Finazzi (Head of Marketing & Sales)
Tel n° direct: +41 71 757 71 28
fabrizio.finazzi@swissprimepack.com