Solar plants

At the Swiss headquarters in Frauenfeld, there is a photovoltaic system with a capacity of 178 kilowatts peak and an annual electricity production of 200 megawatt hours in operation on the roof of the production building. On the building extension that was built three years ago, we produce a total of approximately 240 megawatt hours of electricity with a capacity of 250 kilowatts peak. For classification: 440 megawatt hours corresponds to the annual electricity consumption of 146 households. As a result of this new installation, we have been able to more than double the production of environmentally friendly electricity and we can therefore now cover at least 40% of our electricity requirements. At our site in Italy, a photovoltaic system which can produce 115 megawatt hours was also built in 2019. In the Czech Republic, the system there produces more than 100 megawatt hours. At these two sites, the amount of electricity required is very high due to the large number of CNC automatic lathes, and we are able to produce over 10% of the electricity required using the installations.

High-quality building envelopes

Long before the energy crisis, SERTO had already set the course and invested early in environmentally-friendly energy. The new building complex in Frauenfeld that is based on the Minergie standard was newly built in 2012. Minergie buildings are characterised by the very low energy requirements that they have and the highest proportion possible of renewable energy they use. A high-quality building envelope and systematic replacement of ambient air play key roles in this. Room heating is based on the principle of thermo-active building components: Heating pipes placed in the concrete core ensure a pleasant temperature. The floors, ceilings and walls of the building become active radiation surfaces, whereby the concrete mass acts as a thermal storage system and provides heat in winter and cools in summer.

Heating using groundwater and using exhaust heat

From the roof, we are now moving into the depths of the cellar. We use neither oil nor gas for heating. Instead, we use the energy from the groundwater in the Thur lowlands combined with a heat pump-refrigeration unit. One pump extracts a maximum of 1,000 litres of groundwater per minute from a depth of 14 metres. At another location, the water is returned back into the ground with a temperature difference of up to 3°C. Furthermore, the central compressed air compressor produces the operational compressed air of 6 bar for the entire building. The exhaust heat from this is fed into the heating system via a heat exchanger.

Using rainwater

Production: Energy and raw materials

Making turned stainless steel parts in the Czech Republic and turned brass parts at our Italian site consumes a lot of energy. The CNC machines are replaced periodically, based on two objectives: To have cutting-edge technology at hand at all times, and to be able to operate our facilities with as little energy as possible. The stainless steel blanks for production at SERTO CZ have been optimised to produce less scrap when lathing them. You can’t plane a piece of wood without producing chips. Not only carpenters face that problem, but turneries like us also. We collect the chips left over from production and return them to the supplier, where they become a raw material for later reuse. Cutting something by chip removal also requires large quantities of oil. Centrifuges in both Brembate (IT) and Klatovy (CZ) recover this oil for purification and return to the production cycle. The same applies to the large volumes of water flowing through our ISO Class 8 cleanroom every day. This water cycles several times before it is contaminated wastewater, which the correct disposal channel guides on to treatment. A perfect circular loop.