In Germany, the carmaker wants to soon generate up to half of the electricity used together with partners using wind turbines and solar systems.
(Photo: dpa)
Paris The car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz intends to meet its electricity requirements as self-sufficiently as possible from renewable sources in the future. “In the next few years we will make ourselves completely independent of fossil fuels, that applies to Europe, the USA and China,” said CEO Ola Källenius on Monday at the sidelines of an event in Paris.
In Germany, the brand with the star wants to generate up to half of the electricity used together with partners using wind turbines and solar systems. According to Källenius, Mercedes recently signed a letter of intent to build a new offshore wind farm in the Baltic Sea with a major European energy supplier.
This is not a simple contract for purchasing green electricity from existing plants, but a completely new project. “We are creating new green electricity for us here,” emphasized Källenius. The new Meerwindpark alone, which is scheduled to go online in 2027, will cover up to 25 percent of Mercedes’ electricity needs in Germany.
“In this way we are making ourselves partially energy self-sufficient, because that is reserved for us.” Källenius left open which energy company the Swabians would specifically agree to on the project, as well as the investment amount.
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However, his group announced a similar project at the end of September. By 2025, the Stuttgart-based company wants to set up a wind farm with a capacity of more than one hundred megawatts on its test site in Papenburg. With the help of dozens of wind turbines in northern Germany, the Swabians want to cover a good 15 percent of their electricity needs in this country. Another ten percent is to be obtained from photovoltaic systems on the roofs of corporate buildings.
Mercedes calculates a power consumption of two terawatt hours per year
All in all, Mercedes plans to produce up to half of the electricity it needs to manufacture vehicles and components itself with green power plants or have it produced by partners.
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Every kilowatt hour that Mercedes needs in addition, the company obtains via a green electricity contract with the Luxembourg energy supplier Enovos. All in all, the Stuttgart-based company is calculating with an annual electricity consumption of around two terawatt hours in Germany in the future.
The Ukraine war and the heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas were a “wake-up call” for Europe, Germany and obviously also for large corporations like Mercedes, explained Källenius. On February 25, one day after Vladimir Putin ordered the war of aggression against Ukraine, Mercedes began to define a catalog of measures as to how the Dax group could replace Russian natural gas.
As a first immediate measure, Mercedes switched off all combined heat and power plants that were fired with gas. In addition, the factory buildings have been heated less since then, and the temperature has been regulated downwards. This year, Mercedes wants to reduce its gas consumption by more than 50 percent through such savings.
In 2030, the Group plans to cover more than 70 percent of its entire energy requirements in production with more than 30 car plants around the world from renewable sources. Process gas will still be needed for a while before green hydrogen is available in larger quantities for industrial applications, explains production director Jörg Burzer. “We will certainly still need gas in the forges and foundries.”
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