Case Studies

At first glance, one does not suspect how important the terrain in the Austrian Erlauf valley is in terms of industrial history. The valley in lower Austria is part of the so-called Eisenwurzen - the birthplace of the Austrian small iron industry. In Neubruck, in the 1820s, the industrialist Andreas Toepper, pioneer of Austrian ironmaking and inventor of the rolled sheet process, built the first imperially and royally privileged iron, steel and rolled sheet factory.

Just 100 kilometers outside the capital of Poland, the countryside looks exactly like you would picture beautiful farmlands: flat as far as the eyes can see, interrupted by dense pine forests. But just one bend ahead there is a new sight, one of the country’s first and few PV farms.

For over 20 years, Windkraft Simonsfeld has been active in the renewable energy sector, overseeing a broad portfolio of wind farms in Austria, a wind farm in Bulgaria, and a solar park in Slovakia. But it was Windkraft Simonsfeld’s longevity that created a new challenge for the company in 2016.

On an otherwise quiet morning in the in a small town in western Germany, the two cogeneration units installed at the Center for Agricultural Technology in the town of Melle are running at full capacity, which creates quite a din behind the strong concrete walls of the engine room. At a biogas plant, the noise is a good sign.