Suncom: making heat demand more sustainable at a candy manufacturer
Energy technology company Suncom Energy, owned by entrepreneur Henk Arntz, focuses on the heating needs of companies that use process heat at temperatures between 100 and 475 degrees Celsius in the Netherlands and Spain with power-to-heat solutions .
Suncom supplies integrated systems , combining solar panels, modules that convert solar power into heat, solar mirrors that generate heat (concentrated solar thermal energy), heat batteries, and boilers. Customers’ grid connections are also integrated, for example, to tap into excess wind power.
Last month, Suncom announced the arrival of three new customers in the Netherlands, including candy manufacturer Confiserie Napoleon from Zeeland. “They need steam at a temperature of around 170 degrees Celsius for their processes to liquefy sugar and glucose. Our Sunfleet ensures that sustainable energy sources can provide almost 30 percent of Napoleon’s heating needs and one-third of its electricity consumption,” Arntz explains.
Confiserie Napoleon is able to take steps to make its energy consumption more sustainable, thanks in part to a DEI+ subsidy for innovative energy and climate projects. This subsidy covers part of the capital investment.
The Netherlands also has the SDE++ scheme. This is an operating subsidy for sustainable energy projects. It is a price subsidy, compensating for the so-called unprofitable portion of renewable electricity, among other things, when market prices for renewable energy are higher than those of fossil fuel alternatives.
Arntz points out that the SDE++ scheme works well for large companies looking to make their heating demand more sustainable, but not for small and medium-sized enterprises. “This scheme is currently limited to large companies with a grid connection of at least 3 megawatts. In the food industry, for example, this is a limited group, accounting for approximately 10 percent of the natural gas consumption in this sector.”
A much larger group of companies in the food industry has a grid connection between 170 kilowatts and 3 megawatts and accounts for 90 percent of the natural gas consumption in that sector, says Arntz. “After the chemical industry, the food industry is the largest sector within the industry, with companies often spread regionally. If you create a separate category for that group within the SDE++ scheme, you can make the heat demand more sustainable much more effectively.”
Suncom is also working with an alternative model, in which Arntz’s company finances the capital investment for renewable energy generation and the heat batteries itself. The customer pays only for the heat consumed, based on long-term contracts. “We’re doing this in Spain with the chip manufacturer Patatas Fritas Maribel. In the Netherlands, we’re in discussions about this with three different parties,” says Arntz.
Read the full article here
