Hanover/Frankfurt (dpa) - According to the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association (ZVEI), businesses and consumers in Germany should pay even more attention to saving energy and using more efficient technology. ZVEI President Gunther Kegel told the German Press Agency that the corresponding efforts for climate protection could be at least as important as the further expansion of green electricity supply. Ahead of the most important industrial trade fair, the Hannover Messe (April 17 to 21), he demanded: "We must make much better use of this potential - also because we cannot expand renewables as quickly as energy demand will grow. It is clear to us that the energy transition must also be an efficiency transition."

Replacing combustion processes with electrical systems makes it possible to optimize processes in terms of energy. "A Herculean task lies in making better use of the efficiency potential," said Kegel. "This applies to industrial production, of course, but especially to the climate-relevant sectors of mobility and buildings. A lot can also be achieved through sector coupling, for example the necessary heat transition through the use of electric heat pumps."

Climate protection technologies are a focal point of the trade fair, which is back in full swing this year after being canceled and cut back during the coronavirus crisis. Around 4000 exhibitors have registered in Hanover. The partner country this time is Indonesia.

Development of data rooms in Europe

The topic of "Manufacturing-X" will also run through the entire program. "This is about establishing data rooms in Europe that can be used by all companies - from large-scale industry to SMEs - on an equal footing," said the ZVEI boss. These are also essential for the "intelligent" use of energy - keyword: demand-based supply and billing. "Devices operated on an analog basis cannot determine exactly when electricity is needed, at what cost it can be drawn from the grid or when it makes sense to store energy temporarily."

Such data systems are also becoming increasingly relevant for households: "The washing machine doesn't care whether it starts at 2.00 a.m. or 4.00 a.m. - the main thing is that the laundry is washed at 10.00 a.m. in the morning. In future, intelligent control systems and hubs will enable such appliances to negotiate with the grid provider and electricity supplier when the best time is." Smart metering is crucial for the success of the energy transition as a whole.

Data protection must be maintained in all of this, Kegel emphasized. "Another advantage of Manufacturing-X is that companies do not hand over their data to a gigantic 'data vacuum cleaner', but can continue to dispose of it." The aim is also to create "digital product passports" that cover the entire service life of machines. "It would be extremely important for the circular economy that more intelligent disposal and recycling processes can be derived from such data models."

Artificial intelligence in the industry

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) will generally grow in electrical and mechanical engineering, Kegel estimated: "Chatbots will also move into industry at high speed - for example in the creation of documentation and manuals, but also in the harmonization of core business data." Automated processing is still in its infancy. "In ten years' time, this will be different and nobody will have to deal with it manually anymore." We are already further along in many manufacturing and development processes. AI has already been used there for some time.

The state of the industry

The development of a hydrogen economy in Germany is important for the expansion of low-CO2 industrial processes. According to Kegel, the picture here is currently mixed. "The good news is that the technology leaders are based here. Anyone who wants to build an electrolysis plant often uses local technology," said Kegel on the splitting of water into hydrogen and oxygen, which requires a lot of electricity - and preferably green electricity in the interests of a neutral carbon footprint.

"The bad news is that there are still relatively few electrolysers, because a sufficiently large supply of electricity from renewable energy sources is needed to increase the production of hydrogen," explained Kegel. "We don't yet have that in the long term."

Society must therefore ask itself critically: "How much of the currently scarce supply do we really want to use for electrolysis - or can we currently use this scarce electricity more efficiently elsewhere?" From a climate protection perspective, restarting coal-fired power plants that have already been decommissioned in Germany is "a joke that nobody really understands" due to the simultaneous nuclear phase-out and the energy shortage caused by the war in Ukraine.

The ZVEI President was somewhat optimistic about the situation for semiconductors. Since the pandemic, bottlenecks have led to a slump in production in a number of sectors - above all the automotive industry. "We are seeing a noticeable improvement in the supply situation if you look at the semiconductor market as a whole," said Kegel. For some components, things are almost returning to normal. But "for others, the high demand is continuing".