In the “ETA-Fabrik” research project, a model factory is being built at Darmstadt Technical University together with 37 industrial partners under the leadership of PTW. The research team is investigating various interdisciplinary approaches to reduce energy consumption and load flexibilisation and implementing them within the framework of the research building. Since the beginning of the project in 2013, several innovative technologies for machine tools, cleaning machines, infrastructure and buildings have been researched and implemented both in and at the factory demonstrator.

With the official opening of the factory on 2 March 2016, research results will increasingly be transferred from research to teaching, further training and technology transfer in practice. The “ETA Forum” was therefore set up under the umbrella of the ETA factory. Research, teaching, networks and consulting services are brought together under one roof.

The result is the “ETA-Plus” network, which is intended to support regional companies in the areas of energy efficiency and energy audits. The occasion is the “Initiative Energieeffizienz Netzwerke” of the Federal Ministry of Economics. In the ETA Plus network, the participating companies are taught optimization potentials for increasing energy efficiency and methods for their identification. To this end, the partners are given the opportunity to participate in training courses on topics of their choice in order to increase energy efficiency in their own company environment.

Another field of work of the ETA Forum is to enable young engineers and industry experts to independently realize and implement a wide range of energy efficiency potentials in companies. The concept of the “ETA Learning Factory” therefore provides for the practical training of the energy managers of the future within the framework of lectures, exercises and workshops on “Energy efficiency in production”.

Website: www.eta-fabrik.de