"We are the generation that makes life better for our descendants!" emphasised our CEO Walter Kreisel right at the beginning of our #neoomlive04 event. 

The fact that these efforts are being honored was also noted by the Governor of Upper Austria, Dr. Thomas Stelzer, as part of his welcoming remarks: "Setting out to do something is one thing, making a timeline is another, but doing it and hitting the nail on the head is a completely different dimension and exactly what Upper Austria needs. Because it needs pioneers - and neoom is such a pioneer. We need people who motivate others. More than 200 people have joined the team in the last 4 years, and that's exactly the spirit we need!"

Natural & Unnatural Greenhouse Effect  

Where did we get this sense of optimism?  

"For 150 years we were foolish and drilled into the earth and didn't look up at the sky!", climate hunter, meteorologist & presenter Andreas Jäger told us in his keynote and explained vividly with examples why CO2 fuels the greenhouse effect: Why do we see the sun? Because the atmosphere is transparent - and why is it? Because the atmosphere consists largely of nitrogen and oxygen molecules - and various trace gases. And still we can see the sun, because there is no interaction, these molecules don't care about the sun. Glasses are also transparent, the frame is not. But the ground absorbs the sun and radiates this energy back, but in a completely different waveband - infrared. But the radiation that originally comes from the sun is in the micrometer range. For the oxygen and nitrogen, this reflection in the infrared range is completely irrelevant. If the atmosphere consisted exclusively of oxygen and nitrogen, the earth would be 30°C colder and a frozen snowball. 

But this is not the case, because: Other molecules like CH4 and CO2 are so large that they correlate with the long wavelength in the infrared range and reflect this radiation in all directions. And because of this reflection of solar radiation, it has a stronger effect and it is getting warmer. This is the natural greenhouse effect. But this gets stronger and stronger the more CO2 and CH4 molecules there are in the atmosphere. This can be proven with drillings from the Arctic, going back to that time before man intervened: About 8000 years ago, the CO2 level in the atmosphere was 180 ppm (parts per million) in a cold period, 270 ppm in a warm period. In the meantime, we are at 420 ppm - far from a natural fluctuation. 

Andreas Jäger was also able to refute the common argument that the sun is getting stronger: The sun was indeed getting stronger until the 1960s, but the greenhouse effect only emerged in the 1980s.

With drastic consequences: The lack of snow will mean that nuclear power plants in France will no longer be able to draw cooling water from the rivers and will have to be shut down. That's where the energy shortage is pre-programmed. And that is why, Andreas Jäger concluded, we need companies like neoom that do something about it!

So again, where do we get this sense of optimism? Because we already have the solutions to make energy transition a reality and we are already working hard on it!

The Ecological & Economic Benefits 

Because if we continue as we are, our Sustainability Manager Christina Huber noted, we will emit 500 gigatons of CO2 by 2030.  

This can be prevented: Globally, 73% of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by the use of fossil fuels. In the EU, the share of electricity, heat and transport from fossil fuels is even higher than globally, accounting for more than two-thirds. But with our market-ready renewable energy alternatives, we can replace fossil fuels. So, the question is not whether we can replace them, but how quickly we can manage this transition.  

It's not only worth it ecologically, but also economically: we currently import energy from outside the EU at a cost of one trillion euros (from 2020 to 2030) - a massive capital loss for a disposable product. In addition, we will also pay 1.2 trillion euros for climate damage from 2020 to 2030. Thus, we are paying twice. The EU has therefore set itself the goal of stopping this negative spiral and invested 1 trillion euros in the Green Deal - the same investment that would be needed for fossil energy, except that the Green Deal is a long-term investment in Europe's future and independence, creating 3 trillion euros in revenue as local value and 1.1 million jobs in the solar sector by 2030 in the EU. And that's just by decarbonising heat, transport and energy.

Hardware & Software

"So, one of the first big tasks is to create more renewable energy generation plants!", our CPO Kurt Leonhartsberger thus concluded from the remarks of our Sustainability Manager.

Already 600 GW of renewable energy generation plants have been implemented in Europe, and by 2030 we want to triple this figure, and even quadruple it in the field of photovoltaic production. 

By 2030, Europe will need more renewables than fossil-fuel power plants. However, since it is inherent to renewable energies that generation and consumption do not always coincide, a massive expansion of electricity grids and electricity storage facilities will be needed to relieve the strain on the grids. Specifically, more than 50 million photovoltaics, made up of over a billion solar cells, and over 100 million storage units will be needed alone in Europe. Decarbonisation and electrification are also advancing in other areas - mobility and heat - so by 2030 we will have 60 million heat pumps and 60 million electric cars in Europe. That's why we also need digitisation, which connects consumers and the many centralised, decentralised, large and small storage facilities in buildings and across buildings. That's the only way to use them efficiently and relieve the strain on the grids.  

"Without software, the hardware won't work!" agreed our CTO Thorsten Roth Kurt. 

Therefore, we linked with 600,000 lines of code 32,000 users in 16,000 locations throughout the DACH region and their 80,000 devices, which are monitored and controlled by our neoom platform, generating 130 million data points daily. 

 In 2023, we already have 123 MWh installed in the form of storage - that's 55 million AA batteries. But the goal is one gigaton, so the journey continues!

- Thorsten Roth, CTO neoom 

Value Chain & Circular Economy 

That sounds challenging - and it is. To get all these components for energy transition, we have developed global sourcing. But here, too, we emphasise localisation, as you could hear from COO Herbert Mühlböck. Through our global sourcing in three countries outside the EU and in 11 countries within the EU, we employ 400 people in outsourced value chains to be able to achieve our goal - the gigatonne of CO2 savings. Since neoom was founded, we have delivered 16,500 storage systems, which are finalised and assembled in Austria, tested and installed at the customer's site. Since our existence, we have thus delivered 285 MWh in 95,200 battery modules or 3.1 million battery cells. 

"With these 285 MWh, we save 30,500 tons of CO2 annually!" highlighted Herbert Mühlböck. "And to generate the products - all these components - we generated only 28,800 tons of CO2 once." We are working to reduce these emissions as well, because the value chain knows no boundaries.

Our products last 20-25 years. They are already 85% recyclable with today's technologies and are thus returned to the energy cycle

- Herbert Mühlböck, CCO neoom

Partner-Power 

The fact that our success has been possible at all is due to our 240 system partners who work with our products. That is 9000 hands, including their employees, who install photovoltaic systems, receive electricity storage systems, set them up, put them into operation, assemble them and are the local contact persons, explained CCO Roman Diesenreiter. We ensure that this number is constantly growing and that more and more people are entering our industry with our training courses, webinars and support. "That's why we have already invested 15,000 training hours in training programs," pointed Roman out.

The Green Standard 

One of our guest speakers, Burkhard Holder, Managing Director of VDE Renewables, explained the importance of industry standards during his keynote speech:  

It's about much more than standards - it's about trust and bridge building! 

- Burkhard Holder, Managing Director VDE Renewables

Because quality standards minimise risks and help to deal with new challenges, they bring market confidence and willingness to invest in companies like neoom. However, they have inherent challenges themselves: they take 6-7 years to be published. Speeding up these processes is currently one of the biggest challenges facing organizations like VDE.  

And yet, for energy transition, the shortage of skilled workers must also be addressed. This is not only an Austrian and German problem, but also a Swiss one, as Country Manager Claudio Carbone pointed out in the panel talk with Burkhard Holder and Johannes Marek. Switzerland is tackling this challenge with two new apprenticeship programs, and the neoom Academy is doing its part with targeted training for (future) system partners. 

Award-Winning Projects 

Since we prefer to let our actions speak for us instead of many words, VP Sales Bettina Lagler presented our best reference and projects such as one of our largest projects, IKEA at Vienna's Westbahnhof, which will save 400 tons of CO2 in 25 years.  

On the other hand,  Freiraum Freistadt, a multi-apartment building, which shows that energy transition and blackout protection can also be successfully enabled for tenants.  

Since we have projects for everyone, a commercial customer could not be missed: The energy concept for the Autohaus Reichhart  in Mauthausen. 

We are pleased that many people stand behind our vision of the future and are walking the path to energy transition together with us. To honor all these people, we have created the neoom Award. We congratulate the winners  Unimarkt (Innovator of the Year),  Linz AG with the project Autohaus Feichtmayr (Sustainability Leader), Convoltas (Newcomer of the Year)  and Energyforlife (Highperformer). 

We are looking forward to many more years with you!

The lucky winners of the neoom Awards