At BeBa-Energie in Hemmingstedt, everything revolves around renewable energies - from photovoltaics and wind turbines to electric vehicles. The Dithmarschen-based company has now been awarded the "Green Giraffe" sustainability prize by Bündnis 90/Die Grünen in Kiel's state parliament for its many years of ecologically oriented commitment and, above all, for the continuous development of its business areas. "With its long neck, the giraffe looks beyond the end of its nose and symbolizes foresight, future orientation and resilience," explains parliamentary group chairman Dr. Robert Habeck, who awards this prize to twelve companies in the state. "It is meant to be an award for sustainably operating businesses." In Habeck's view, it is important for Schleswig-Holstein, which is poor in raw materials, to master the future with the inventiveness of small and medium-sized businesses.

For BeBa Managing Director Bernd Bartels, this is a good day. Not only because he was awarded the "Green Giraffe". Above all because the Federal Government has decided not to cut solar subsidies as of 1 July. The plans to cut the feed-in tariff has led to uncertainty in the industry. "The phone is no longer standing still for us," said Bartels, who has seen a veritable flood of orders. But solar is only part of his business. Bartels, who employs 120 people in Hemmingstedt alone, is full of ideas. For example, he sells the electric Porsche from the sports car manufacturer Ruf throughout Northern Europe - even if business with the electric runabout, which has a range of 250 to 320 kilometers, is still rather slow.

He has invested over three million euros in research and development for hydrogen storage. In a salt dome in Lieth, the energy generated by wind power is not to be fed into the grid, but used to produce hydrogen and stored at a depth of up to 800 meters to be recovered when needed. The energy comes from two wind turbines that Bartels still wants to build.

At the moment the hydrogen storage, which is unique in the country, is still a demo project, of which Bartels mainly wants to convince the politicians and show that it works. However, he already has expansion plans in the drawer. Habeck is enthusiastic about the project.

Source: https://www.shz.de/1489256 ©2021