BUTTING: One year of green electricity

Have you been to Knesebeck? In addition to the woods and meadows around the BUTTING company premises, the picture is completed by a large photovoltaic installation, which can be seen in the middle of what was formerly a sheep pasture on the opposite side of the road. This new development brings the family business one step closer to its CO₂ emission reduction target. 

For more than 245 years, BUTTING has been "thinking in generations" – in many different ways. The aim has always been to pass on a healthy and autonomous company to the next generation. This stance also includes the responsibility to ensure that we leave our children and grandchildren a clean environment. That's why BUTTING has been taking a new approach for over a year – green electricity, generated by a photovoltaic installation, for the main plant in Knesebeck. 

A plant with solar cells was built by an external operator on a company-owned area of land and supplies BUTTING with 100 per cent of the generated electricity. A good year after the plant went into operation, the positive developments can be illustrated in figures. "Within this relatively short period of use (December 2021 to January 2023) we were able to generate more than 761 MWh (megawatt hours), which is equivalent to 761 000 kWh (for comparison, a private household consumes an average of 4,000 kWh per year). This allowed us to save more than 168 metric tonnes of CO₂. Figuratively speaking, we would have needed 15 954 trees (10.53 kg per tree)," reports Ralf Köllner, Energy Management Officer at BUTTING. 

Sebastian Ballendat, Managing Director at BUTTING Procurement, is enthusiastic about the concept. "With the commissioning of the photovoltaic installations, the company has achieved a major milestone with regard to sustainable energy procurement. Our objective was to generate around 700,000 kilowatt hours of green electricity per year with this plant, thus continuing to intensively pursue our CO₂ emission reduction goal. We have more than achieved our goal in 2022, and planning is also currently underway for further plants in Knesebeck," he adds.