It is the declared objective of J. Schmalz GmbH to be a positive-energy company, since regenerative energy is the key to solving many problems. For this reason, the responsible persons at Schmalz recently decided to replace the old wood-chip heating system with a new, modern system.

After 20 years of operation, it became necessary to shut down the existing wood-chip heating system in January 2007. This system was installed by Artur Schmalz, the father of today's managing directors Dr. Kurt Schmalz and Wolfgang Schmalz, in 1987 – long before turnkey wood-chip heating systems were available on the market. "Our father had to purchase the pre-combustor in Sweden," says Wolfgang Schmalz. "He was far ahead of the times and has looked after the old heating system carefully for two decades."

Shortly after the old system was shut down, the company applied for planning permission for the new wood-chip heating system, and the ground-breaking ceremony for this system was held in May 2007, in the presence of the planners, the shell builders, the Schmalz management and the Mayor of Glatten, Tore-Derek Pfeifer. With a rated output of 500 kW, the new system is far more powerful than the old one and will supply all buildings at the Schmalz headquarters with heat via a local heating network. The system will have a wood-chip bunker with a capacity of 330 m³ and its annual consumption of 1,800 m³ of wood chips will mean that Schmalz can reduce its CO2 emissions by about 378 tonnes per year. Commissioning of the new system is planned for October 2007. The natural wood used as fuel comes primarily from thinning work in the local forests and the waste wood which results from other forestry work.

Due to the extensive use of regenerative sources of energy – solar energy, wind power, wood chips –Schmalz is able to produce, in a sustainable manner, about the amount of energy which the company consumes. The new wood-chip heating system, which can supply about 96% of the heat needed by the company, will make a major contribution to this, since almost all of the heating oil used today will no longer be needed. Furthermore, the company plans to put its water turbine back into service in 2007, thus increasing the amount of regeneratively produced energy even further.