Watt d'Or 2022 awarded
On January 6, 2022, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy awarded the Watt d'Or energy prize for the fifteenth time. Two SMEs are also among the winning projects.
Innovative Swiss companies and universities are already successfully and courageously putting the energy future into practice. In their honor, the Swiss Federal Office of Energy created the Watt d'Or, the seal of approval for energy excellence. Now in its 15th year, this award was presented in three categories on January 6, 2022. The non-endowed prize recognizes exceptional achievements in the energy sector. The trophy - a snow globe - was presented on a smaller scale this year due to the pandemic situation. The jury for the Watt d'Or 2022 was chaired by St.Gallen National Councilor Susanne Vincenz-Stauffacher.
Winner of the Watt d'Or 2022
A total of 31 organizations submitted projects that were evaluated by a team of experts. Finally, 11 entries were nominated for the final round. From these, the jury has now selected the winning projects in the four Watt d'Or categories, although: this year there was no winner in the mobility category. This year, SBB won the prize in the "Energy Technologies" category, Verora AG from Edlibach ZG in the "Renewable Energies" category and schaerraum AG from Horw LU in the "Buildings and Space" category.
Intelligent load control against power consumption peaks
SBB received an award for its intelligent load control against power consumption peaks in the interval timetable. You have to imagine: When trains accelerate simultaneously throughout Switzerland, this causes huge power consumption. After all, one locomotive alone sucks up to 8 megawatts (MW) of power from the rail power grid. With 800 to 1,000 trains running at the same time, this leads to sometimes extreme - and expensive - fluctuations in consumption. Within just a quarter of an hour, consumption can rise or fall by 300 MW. After all, that's 50 percent of the maximum load in the traction power network. To solve this problem, SBB has developed its own load management software. During load peaks, this software switches off the train car and switch heaters for a short time - usually only for a few seconds to a minute, until the load peak has passed. In this way, SBB makes consumption more flexible and, as a "prosumer," optimizes the interaction with electricity production. By 2023, SBB will be able to flexibly control 70 megawatts in this way. In this way, it is also taking on a model role for Switzerland's general power grid, according to one of the jury's conclusions.
Vegetable carbon stores CO2
The moraine region of Menzingen/Neuheim (Canton Zug) is home to a nucleus for the still young negative emission technologies (NET). Since 2012, Verora AG, a group of farmers from the Zug mountain region, has been producing plant charcoal from natural tree and shrub cuttings here. Over the past 10 years, the Verora AG team has developed the pyrolysis plant required for this from a prototype from the German university spinoff Pyreg GmbH to a reliably functioning production plant. The plant charcoal obtained in it has a very large surface area and a porous structure. Thus, it acts like a sponge. As a feed additive, it reduces the formation of greenhouse gases during cow digestion, it reduces the smell of ammonia in the barn, increases the nutrient content of fertilizer and compost, makes agricultural soils more robust and fertile, and binds CO2 in them for centuries. The Verora AG production plant has an annual output of 600 m3 of vegetable carbon, which can store around 460 tons of CO2 in the long term. Verora AG does little advertising for the vegetable carbon and has nevertheless arrived in the profit zone.
Also awarded the Watt d'Or 2022: Climate-neutral commercial and residential building
Wooden buildings are increasingly becoming an economically attractive alternative to conventional construction methods. schaerraum AG from Horw in Lucerne has built a climate-neutral commercial and residential building based on the modular planning principle "RaumRaster". The principle is based on a wooden skeleton that stands on a concrete base and bears the entire load of the building. Thanks to flexibly combinable modules, the construction time was significantly reduced: The building was constructed in just eight months. The building technology also conserves resources and costs: the smart coupling of the air-conditioning technology with the energy piles, the heat pump, the solar systems on the roof and carport, and a battery storage system means that the building produces around 50% more energy than it consumes. By coupling the entire air conditioning technology, the energy piles and the heat pump, the latter achieves the very good annual performance factor of 7 to 8, which means that it produces 7 to 8 kWh of heat with 1 kilowatt hour of electricity. And finally
the energy flow is monitored, optimized and billed using smart meter technology.
In the eyes of the jury, the planning principle "RaumRaster" by schaerraum AG for the construction of multi-family houses made of wood is a promising approach to building in a climate-friendly, resource-saving and cost-effective way. The building mentioned has been occupied since January 2021 and the tenants are very satisfied, according to the report.
Source: Federal Office of Energy
