Herzogenaurach (dpa/lby) - With the purchase of a solar park and a stake in a hydrogen manufacturer, the Franconian automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler has taken the first major steps towards its energy goals. Schaeffler wants to produce ten percent of its energy requirements itself by 2025, and 25 percent by 2030, as CEO Klaus Rosenfeld told the German Press Agency on Monday. "The acquisition of the photovoltaic park in Kammerstein is another successful implementation of our sustainability roadmap, which we are consistently and successfully driving forward," he said. The company did not disclose the purchase price.
According to Schaeffler, the new solar park in Kammerstein (Roth district), taken over from the agricultural supplier BayWa, with a peak output of almost ten megawatts, can generate the electricity for two percent of the company's German locations. A few weeks ago, Schaeffler laid solar modules on a 1,800 square meter roof area at its headquarters in Herzogenaurach.
The sustainability concept also includes an electrolysis plant at the Herzogenaurach site, which is to be built by the French hydrogen expert Lhyfe. The 15-megawatt system is an important building block for being able to produce climate-neutrally by 2030. Schaeffer is bringing the property in Herzogenaurach to the company and will purchase a large part of the hydrogen produced there, for example to operate hardening furnaces, said Rosenfeld. Lhyfe wants to emit 3.7 tons of hydrogen a day in Herzogenaurach from 2025.
The subject area is economically interesting for Schaeffler, partly because the company manufactures key components for electrolysers for hydrogen production itself. The supplier had only recently announced that it wanted to cut 1,000 jobs in the car division in Germany by 2026. The transformation from the combustion engine to alternative drives is progressing faster than expected, said Rosenfeld.
