The city of Idar-Oberstein, OIE and Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld have founded an infrastructure company. Mayor Frank Frühauf, Mayor Friedrich Marx, the two OIE board members Thomas Johann and Andreas Berg and the two board members of Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld, Torsten Rothfuchs and Markus Zens, met at the OIE premises to sign the founding agreement.
"Things are moving forward. We are pooling the expertise of the city with that of OIE and Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld to enable CO2-neutral energy generation in Idar-Oberstein through the implementation of projects. Three partners have come together here who stand for the region, for the people and for love of their homeland. The city council has given its approval by a majority - it is a milestone that will change Idar-Oberstein," emphasized Frühauf and Marx at the signing ceremony. The first step has now been taken with the founding of the "Energie Idar-Oberstein" company. Hardly any other economic sector has changed as much in recent years as the energy sector. This applies to both the public and private sectors. Both sectors have to face up to the energy policy framework conditions of sustainable requirements and climate policy challenges. "We all have a common goal with our founding initiative: we want to promote projects in the electricity and heat generation sectors that will help to secure the energy future in our region," Johann is convinced.
The purpose of the company is to plan, construct and operate electricity and heat exclusively from renewable energies or in efficient decentralized combined heat and power (CHP) plants. "Of course, this won't happen overnight; there are many framework conditions that need to be taken into account. We have to find opportunities and spaces for generation plants and plan projects, which of course also have to be technically feasible and economical. But we have laid the foundations for this today," agree Günter Schiffmann, Head of the Heat Department at OIE and also Technical Managing Director of the new company, and Carsten Stützel, Head of the Idar-Oberstein municipal treasury and also Commercial Managing Director of "Energie Idar-Oberstein".
The company's potential target groups are real estate and properties owned by municipal institutions and public corporations, industrial and commercial customers and private customers. Energie IO" will take over the planning, installation, operation, maintenance and energy supply for the energy generation plants to be built. Renewable energy sources and CHP processes or heat pumps will be used to cover the demand for heating and process heat. Here, "Energie Idar-Oberstein" focuses on energy generation from wood chips, photovoltaic systems, solar systems and heat pump systems.
Kreissparkasse Birkenfeld is an important partner alongside the equal shareholders, the town of Idar-Oberstein and OIE. "We take care of the necessary financial products for the projects and, of course, also support our partners with legal advice," says Rothfuchs, explaining the bank's involvement.