Green-Invest Perliminary Study
successfully completed at the Zalando logistics site

For the first time in Germany, the ‘Green Invest’ demonstration project presents an economically viable contribution from large logistics centres to individually-driven climate protection (CO2 emission reduction) at the Erfurt ZALANDO Logistics Centre.

The core idea of the investigation is to couple a static-friendly lightweight photovoltaic system with ice storage integration to store generated electricity and to load shift power consumption for building cooling systems. Power not used at any given time can therefore be temporarily stored and retrieved only when it is needed.

The potential reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the Zalando site is almost 2,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. Net power costs for the logistics centre, after deducting all of the investment capital costs and operating costs, can also be reduced by more than 12%.

As well as the project sponsor, the study partners are Thuringia Logistics Network, the network company AHP, Lindig, maxx solar and the Weimar Energy Efficiency Institute. The project was funded by the Thuringia ‘Green Invest’ programme, using funds from the European Regional Development Fund.