Confiserie Felicitas – Solar energy for refrigeration
Confiserie Felicitas is a chocolate manufacturer from Lower Lusatia. Chocolate fans do not have to travel to Belgium or Switzerland, because the best Belgian chocolate is combined with Lusatian handicraft in the south of Brandenburg. Since July 2019, the products of the confectionery are even cooled with solar energy.
In 1992, the story of Confiserie Felicitas began in a 35 m² kitchen. Today, more than 28 years later, the chocolate factory in Hornow now covers an area of around 2,000 m², including storage facilities, as well as production rooms, a café, a factory outlet, an adventure barn, a chocolate cinema and an exhibition workshop. With a second branch in Potsdam, Felicitas is an integral part of Brandenburg‘s culinary life.
Chocolate stays cool
Everybody knows it, chocolate melts in your hand when you hold it for a long time. Therefore, all production, packaging and sales rooms of the factory must be tempered to 18-19°C. Especially in summer, the cooling systems run 24 hours a day, to provide the necessary cooling. After all, we are talking about around 70 tonnes of chocolate mass, which is processed here every year. A significant part of the manufactory‘s energy costs is therefore spent on keeping the buildings cool.
To reduce energy costs, a photovoltaic system was installed on the roof of a barn located on the confectionery‘s premises with the help of subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The former agriculturally used barn was completely rebuilt from the ground up, including masonry, roof and building installations, so that it can be used as an adventure barn and event location ("school in the barn").
Green Energy
Due to its gable roof orientation, the building provides the best conditions for feeding solar energy through photovoltaic modules. A system with 258 modules and a total surface area of 433.4 m2 was constructed. The total output of the plant is around 80 MW per year, always depending on the annual duration of sunshine. This facility generates renewable electricity, which sustainably reduces the high energy costs for cooling the buildings of the chocolate factory.
Sustainable activities
Sustainability is not only a buzzword for the confectionery but has also been presented to the outside world since 2016 with certification by the Brandenburg world. Currently, the internal IT structure is being expanded in order to connect all production steps in a digital way. In the long term, in addition to increasing efficiency and speeding up processes, this should lead to orders no longer being printed out on paper.
For further information, visit www.confiserie-felicitas.de
In 1992, the story of Confiserie Felicitas began in a 35 m² kitchen. Today, more than 28 years later, the chocolate factory in Hornow now covers an area of around 2,000 m², including storage facilities, as well as production rooms, a café, a factory outlet, an adventure barn, a chocolate cinema and an exhibition workshop. With a second branch in Potsdam, Felicitas is an integral part of Brandenburg‘s culinary life.
Chocolate stays cool
Everybody knows it, chocolate melts in your hand when you hold it for a long time. Therefore, all production, packaging and sales rooms of the factory must be tempered to 18-19°C. Especially in summer, the cooling systems run 24 hours a day, to provide the necessary cooling. After all, we are talking about around 70 tonnes of chocolate mass, which is processed here every year. A significant part of the manufactory‘s energy costs is therefore spent on keeping the buildings cool.
To reduce energy costs, a photovoltaic system was installed on the roof of a barn located on the confectionery‘s premises with the help of subsidies from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The former agriculturally used barn was completely rebuilt from the ground up, including masonry, roof and building installations, so that it can be used as an adventure barn and event location ("school in the barn").
Green Energy
Due to its gable roof orientation, the building provides the best conditions for feeding solar energy through photovoltaic modules. A system with 258 modules and a total surface area of 433.4 m2 was constructed. The total output of the plant is around 80 MW per year, always depending on the annual duration of sunshine. This facility generates renewable electricity, which sustainably reduces the high energy costs for cooling the buildings of the chocolate factory.
Sustainable activities
Sustainability is not only a buzzword for the confectionery but has also been presented to the outside world since 2016 with certification by the Brandenburg world. Currently, the internal IT structure is being expanded in order to connect all production steps in a digital way. In the long term, in addition to increasing efficiency and speeding up processes, this should lead to orders no longer being printed out on paper.
For further information, visit www.confiserie-felicitas.de