Saving energy costs, protecting the climate - Intracting pilot project successful

Thus, in the project period to date, a total of 30 different measures have been carried out at the Kassel University that have led to a reduction in energy consumption or to the university's own generation of electricity. The portfolio of initiated projects ranges from changing lighting strategies to new LED lights, to refurbishing heating circuit distributions and replacing pumps and fans.

To date, the project has invested over 580,000 euros in improving the efficiency of building operations. With these funds, it has been achieved that 661 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity and 632 MWh of heat are now saved per year at the university. At the same time, the installed in-house photovoltaic (PV) systems produce 345 MWh of electricity annually, which now no longer needs to be purchased from the utility.

In accordance with the basic idea of intractability, the energy costs avoided through the savings or in-house generation will be available in the future for new, further energy efficiency measures. This means that in the current year 2021 alone, the project-related cost center will again be credited with around 280,000 euros. Since the energy costs saved can be refinanced again over the entire life of the measures, the financial resources of the project improve from year to year. A positive side effect of the increase in efficiency is that energy-based carbon dioxide emissions are also reduced by around 130 tons per year. Thus, the project is making an additional contribution to the university's climate protection efforts.

"This confirms what was suspected when the pilot project, which is new for the German university landscape, was introduced," says Chancellor Dr. Oliver Fromm, "namely that intracting can be a key tool through which energy efficiency increases, climate protection is pushed and university finances are relieved in the long term and permanently."

Currently, the implementation of intracting at the Kassel University is financially supported by a grant from the state of Hesse as part of the innovation and structural development budget. In view of the positive interim results and the projected development of the project, the university is counting on the intractings being made permanent after the implementation phase ends at the end of 2022

Contact:

Dirk Schnurr
Kassel University
Energy Efficiency Manager
Phone: 0561-804-2162
Mail: dirk.schnurr[at]uni-kassel[dot]de