We asked our Renera energy change-makers across five countries:
- What added value do we offer our customers with Renera?
- What distinguishes us as energy change-makers?
Here are their answers.
22/02/2024
Corporate News
The year 2023 was a year of consolidation and internal strengthening for the Renera Group (formerly Energie Zukunft Schweiz and Sunwin). Our business areas of biomethane trading, CO₂ trading and the development of ground-mounted solar and battery storage systems in Italy also achieved strong growth – despite a difficult economic environment. 2023 was also the year of the transition to the new, unified Group-wide brand “Renera”. The name Renera refers to the dawn of the renewable era, which we are actively shaping in a way that benefits everyone.
In June, we signed a framework agreement with EKU for the development of battery storage systems in Italy with a capacity of over 1 GW.
Our green gas team succeeded in helping to finance the construction of new plants by concluding 15-year purchase agreements.
We developed 11 PV systems for PIMCO as a result of profitability analyses for 117 properties. The first were connected to the grid in 2023.
Our climate bonus subsidy programme funded over 800 renewable heating systems in 2023, helping to save an additional 140,000 tons of CO₂.
Moving forward together: The energy transition is gaining momentum.
The Renera Group Vision
«We are a leading force on the way to a completely renewable energy supply for the world.»
At Renera, we are helping to implement the energy transition quickly, efficiently and profitably. We continue to ensure that our positive impact grows across Europe. The following success factors will help us in 2024:
- Thanks to many years of continuous work by our development and consulting teams, we have succeeded in gaining the trust of key investors and major international players in the financial and energy sectors.
- Some of our development projects for ground-mounted solar power plants and battery storage systems are expected to reach “ready to build” status in 2024. This proof of concept will open up new opportunities for us.
- The most important success factor continues to be our “energy change-makers,” i.e. our talented employees. A 2023 survey revealed a high level of employee satisfaction. A very high proportion of our change-makers also clearly identify with our company and its goals and values.
Renera Group Executive Board: Aeneas Wanner, Nicole Gronau, Georg Meier, Stefan Rotzler, Lars Konersmann.
Moving forward together: The energy transition is gaining momentum.
The Renera Group Vision
«We are a leading force on the way to a completely renewable energy supply for the world.»
At Renera, we are helping to implement the energy transition quickly, efficiently and profitably. We continue to ensure that our positive impact grows across Europe. The following success factors will help us in 2024:
- Thanks to many years of continuous work by our development and consulting teams, we have succeeded in gaining the trust of key investors and major international players in the financial and energy sectors.
- Some of our development projects for ground-mounted solar power plants and battery storage systems are expected to reach “ready to build” status in 2024. This proof of concept will open up new opportunities for us.
- The most important success factor continues to be our “energy change-makers,” i.e. our talented employees. A 2023 survey revealed a high level of employee satisfaction. A very high proportion of our change-makers also clearly identify with our company and its goals and values.
Renera Group Executive Board: Aeneas Wanner, Nicole Gronau, Georg Meier, Stefan Rotzler, Lars Konersmann.
We are convinced that we can simultaneously open up new opportunities for people and companies as well as preserve our livelihoods if we implement the energy transition quickly. In 2023, we supported stakeholders in all our business areas – consulting, project development, trading and funding – in switching to renewable energies and increasing their energy efficiency. We supported energy supply companies, property owners, the public sector, and private individuals in saving CO₂, using renewable electricity or renewable heating and reducing energy consumption overall.
In 2023 – as we have done since our inception in 2006 – we not only advanced the energy transition but also made it tangible and shared our expertise so that the number of “energy changemakers” continues to grow.
The following graphic provides an overview of the impact we have achieved together with our customers. Unless otherwise stated, the savings potential relates to the total service life of the installations.
Around 300,000 households
can be supplied with electricity in the future with the ground-mounted photovoltaic pipelines that are being planned and, in some cases, already developed in Italy, Romania and Germany.
- Our Renera subsidiaries in Italy, Romania and Germany are developing pipelines with ground-mounted and floating solar power plants with a cumulative capacity of 800 MWp (Italy), 190 MWp (Romania) and 50 MWp (Germany). These plants can cover the needs of around 300,000 households.
- In order to stabilise the regional electricity grid, we have also been working on large battery storage projects since 2023. The development pipeline in Italy and Germany currently totals 1.6GW. The cooperation agreement with EKU was an important milestone in this regard.
The share of renewable energies in electricity production continues to grow steadily. At 44%, the share of renewable electricity in Europe exceeded the 40% mark for the first time in 2023. Additionally, for the first time, more electricity was generated from wind than from gas (Ember). We are committed to the expansion of renewable energies in 5 countries in Europe.
540 GWh of biomethane
were delivered and thus contributed to the reduction of 97,000 tons of CO2 in the gas grid.
- To support the decarbonization of the gas supply, we are constantly exploring renewable alternatives and trade in biomethane. In 2023, the volume of biomethane supplied amounted to 540 GWh.
- Long-term purchase agreements have enabled us to financially secure the construction of new biogas plants.
Renera is active internationally to provide innovative technologies and high-quality biomethane available for trading.
500,000 tons of CO₂
savings by 2030.
- Our climate bonus subsidy programme (German webpage) for renewable heating has enabled over 800 new funding commitments for projects that will save an additional 140,000 tons of CO₂ by 2030.
- Since the start of the funding program in 2020, the cumulative CO₂ savings amount to over 500,000 tonnes.
Renera’s Energie Zukunft Schweiz climate bonus subsidy programme makes switching heating systems much more financially attractive and thus accelerates the heating transition in Switzerland.
7.2 MWp newly in operation
Many of the thousands of properties analysed showed economic PV potential. In 2023, we assisted customers in Switzerland, Germany and Spain with the realisation of their projects.
- For major real estate clients in Switzerland, Germany and Spain, we supported the implementation and commissioning of over 50 medium-sized and large photovoltaic systems.
- Our energy specialists (German webpage) also identified a further 80 MWp of economic potential on our customers’ properties.
- Around 60 new systems are already in the implementation pipeline for 2024.
The real estate sector is an important driver in the expansion of solar power. Property analyses are an important step in identifying and leveraging the available potential.
9 heating network projects
were supported and technological alternatives evaluated.
- Our experts were able to identify renewable alternatives and CO₂ savings potential with around 50 status analyses and heating evaluations.
- The development of specific concepts and plans was supported for 12 properties.
- Over 50 operational optimizations and the renewable replacement of 13 large heating systems led to concrete CO₂ savings.
- The feasibility of climate-friendly alternatives was worked out in 2 target network plans for energy suppliers and 9 projects and consultations in connection with heating networks.
Sustainable heat supply in buildings is an important building block on the path to decarbonization. Our independent analyses show how the value and attractiveness of properties can be increased with a sustainable heat supply (German webpage).
584 solar installations
are monitored for optimal functioning on our monitoring platform.
- 204 solar installations with a total output of over 14 MWp are registered on our monitoring portal.
- More than 380 solar thermal systems were monitored and optimised in 2023 thanks to LORALARM (German Webpage).
197 GWh of electricity
savings generated by our electricity subsidy programmes and subsidies applied for on behalf of customers.
- 70 GWh will be saved in the future through projects that benefited from our electricity efficiency promotion programs (German webpage) in 2023.
- A further 127 GWh will be saved in the future through projects for which Renera has successfully applied for subsidies on behalf of our customers.
With its comprehensive range of subsidies in the area of electricity efficiency, Renera’s Energie Zukunft Schweiz subsidy programmes also enable large projects in particular.
18,300 people
informed about energy issues and motivated to take action.
- With our Linie-e (German website) education and visitor platform, we welcomed around 12,800 visitors to around 706 guided tours at various energy and drinking water infrastructure facilities.
- Around 2,900 people used our online, virtual classroom in 2023. A further 2,600 pupils took part in the 133 on-site school modules.
- Two new e-learning courses were launched at the start of 2023: Solar Energy Level I and Level II.
- We have developed products in the field of renewable energies for more than 10 energy supply companies, thereby promoting the decarbonization of the energy supply.
In order to successfully drive the energy transition forward, it is essential to impart the relevant know-how. Renera therefore shares knowledge relating to energy with as many people and institutions as possible and motivates them to take action.
In 2023, 19 additional energy change-makers joined the Renera Group. This means that over 200 people now work at Renera.
19 energy change-
makers
have been working with us since 2023.
Images: 2023 was a very successful year for our teams in (1) Germany, (2) Italy, (3) Romania, (4) Spain and (5) Switzerland.
The year 2023 was shaped by the name and brand change of all Group companies. We have given ourselves a new name in order to make better use of synergies and take better account of internationalisation: Renera. The name refers to the new age of renewable energies, the “renewable era”.
Image: 2023 was also the year of brand integration for us. The subsidiaries in Switzerland (Basel and Zurich), Italy (Milan), Romania (Timișoara), Spain (Madrid) and Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany) now operate as a strong group under a single brand.
Our commitment to the environment.
Our most important and effective commitment to the environment continues to be our business operations. At Renera, we create significant added value for our customers as this enables us to realise our vision of a climate-friendly world.
- We develop projects such as solar power plants, battery storage plants and heating networks for the use of renewable energies. We also develop specific products and services that act as catalysts for the energy transition. One example is our LORALARM (German webpage) monitoring system.
- We actively network stakeholders from different sectors and thus create synergies for the further development of the energy supply.
- We help energy supply companies to produce, procure and market green energy.
- We advise real estate owners holistically on energy management: on the generation or procurement of solar power, on the use of renewable heat and on increasing energy efficiency through building insulation or intelligent control systems. We are also committed to climate-friendly mobility and provide advice on charging stations and charging management for electric vehicles.
- With funding programmes and our expertise, we are making the energy transition profitable for everyone. Renewable energies are becoming the first choice, as increasing efficiency pays off time and again.
- We provide information about the opportunities of the energy transition and bring concrete examples to life – at events, at power plants, in the classroom and online.
All our projects are ultimately aimed at reducing CO₂ emissions, increasing the use of renewable energies and improving energy efficiency.
We optimise our electricity consumption and purchase green energy.
We use renewable energy sources for heating wherever possible.
We focus on sustainable mobility.
As a company, we consume energy and resources ourselves. The three most relevant areas for this are electricity consumption, heating requirements as well as commuting and business travel for our employees.
- Renera purchases 100% renewable electricity for all offices. Intelligent lighting control in our offices and efficient equipment ensure that we consume as little electricity as possible.
- All our Swiss offices are heated with renewable heat. In Basel, for example, we use district heating and in Zurich we use district heating and 100% biomethane. Additionally, our German office is heated with a ground water heat pump. The heating requirements of our offices in Italy, Romania and Spain are offset with biogas certificates where necessary so that all the heat we need is CO₂-neutral.
- Our large locations are deliberately chosen to be central and close to the train station so that our employees and customers can travel to them by public transport or bicycle. We also generally use public transport to meet with our customers. All employees are given the opportunity to work remotely. The flexibility of our work methods in terms of time and location reduces commuting
We also influence the global consumption of resources and energy when purchasing products and services. Our procurement guidelines contain ethical and ecological framework conditions. We have also been more conscious about our food and coffee consumption since 2023.
Our commitment to society.
As a medium-sized company, we are aware of our social responsibility and take it seriously:
- Job creation: We created a total of 19 additional jobs in our Group in 2023.
- Training: We offer internships, provide working students with an opportunity to earn an extra income and hire university graduates. We support our employees and provide them with continuous training.
- Ethical and ecological behaviour: We have developed a set of rules for business ethics, the Code of Conduct. When selecting our suppliers, we adhere to our procurement guidelines, which contain ethical and ecological criteria.
- Flexible working models: Our employees can work flexibly both in terms of time and location. This makes it easier to balance private and professional life. 51% of all employees work part-time.
- Diversity: With a proportion of women of over 36% (CH: 41%), we are above the industry average. We employ people of many different nationalities and ages. We aim to achieve the highest possible level of diversity, also in terms of women in management positions.
Image: Future Day in Switzerland is a day on which children can visit their parents’ workplace. In 2023, many of our employees’ children visited us again. An encounter like this makes it clear how important the goal of all our work at Renera is to preserve our livelihoods for future generations.
