400th network launched

The Initiative for Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection Networks (IEEKN) has reached another important milestone with the launch of its 400th network. This means that more than 3,000 companies across Germany are now aware of the benefits of networking under the umbrella of the initiative.

The Federal Government and 21 trade associations support the Energy Efficiency and Climate Protection Networks Initiative and thus promote dialogue between companies and the concrete implementation of measures in companies. The total of 400 networks now registered in the initiative is an important building block in realising the goals of the German energy transition and climate policy. It shows that more and more companies are implementing energy efficiency and climate protection measures, jointly expanding their energy transition expertise and sharing best practice experiences.

According to the initiative's 7th monitoring report, the networks that have already been evaluated together save around 7432 gigawatt hours (GWh) of final energy, 9350 GWh of primary energy and 2.69 megatonnes of CO2 equivalents per year. For an average network, the annual savings are 28.8 GWh of final energy and 10.4 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalents.

The companies in the initiative's 400th network now registered, the ‘InfraLab Energy Efficiency 3.0’, were even able to achieve a total of 104.4 GWh in annual final energy savings and 22.2 kilotonnes of CO2 equivalents with their predecessor network. They have therefore more than quadrupled their network target of saving 24.6 GWh of final energy per year.

Since an amendment to the federal subsidy for energy and resource efficiency (EEW) came into force in May 2023, companies that are active in the initiative are additionally taken into account. In Module 5 ‘Transformation Plans’, they are eligible for a ten percentage point increase in the funding rate. For network companies, the maximum possible subsidy for ambitious future planning towards greenhouse gas neutrality increases to 90,000 euros.