R. STAHL building 6 MWp solar park at Waldenburg site

Waldenburg, 9 December 2021 - A ground-mounted photovoltaic installation with a rated output of 6 MWp will cover a significant portion of R. STAHL's electricity consumption at the Waldenburg site from the end of 2021 and will also feed green electricity into the public grid

The R. STAHL Executive Board has approved the €3.8 million investment for a ground-mounted photovoltaic system at the Waldenburg site. The solar park is being built on the company's grounds, directly east of the existing buildings, and is scheduled to go into operation in the fourth quarter of 2022. The system will consist of 11,070 modules and cover an area of nearly 4 hectares.

With an annual output of approximately 6 gigawatt hours, the volume of climate-neutral electricity generated will be around 40% higher than the explosion protection expert's own electricity requirements at the Waldenburg site. The excess electricity will be fed into the local power grid. R. STAHL expects the investment to pay for itself after six years at the latest.

"The solar system will allow annual savings in the mid-six-digit range to be generated from the first year onwards. Financing, which has already been approved, will be carried out within the framework of a leasing agreement with our partner, Würth Leasing GmbH & Co KG, Albershausen; this means that, from today's perspective, the investment will be cash flow positive already in the first year", says Philipp Öhler SVP Corporate Finance & Controlling as well as Project Manager for the solar park at R. STAHL.

The plant will save 2,200 tons of CO2 emissions annually; there will still be space for flora and fauna in the open space beneath the solar panels, which will be erected as a post and beam construction.

With this step, the globally active group has once again demonstrated its commitment to Germany as a production location and is investing in securing the future of its plants. For the Group's other German sites (Cologne and Weimar), evaluations are currently underway for further solar park projects.

In a second step, the company's e-mobility concept calls for up to 50 electric vehicle charging stations. These will be available to future fleet management as well as to the company's employees and guests. The application for funding from the German Development Bank (KFW) is currently under review. Work is also underway on a hydrogen-based storage solution with initial talks already initiated with potential partners.

This also gives R. STAHL the opportunity to gain additional experience with the highly explosive energy source of the future. For the supplier of explosion protection solutions, the entire hydrogen economy - especially the transport and storage of the volatile gas - is already a strategically important market.

About R. STAHL - www.r-stahl.com
R. STAHL is the world's leading supplier of electrical and electronic products and systems for explosion protection. These products and systems prevent explosions in hazardous areas and contribute to the safety of people, machines and the environment. The portfolio ranges from products used in switching/distributing, installing, operating/monitoring, lighting and signalling/alarming up to automation. Typical customers are the oil & gas industry, the ch
emical and pharmaceutical industry and the food industry. In 2020, global sales amounting to €247 million were generated by 1,690 employees. The shares of R. STAHL AG are traded on the Regulated Market/Prime Standard of Deutsche Boerse (ISIN DE000A1PHBB5).

Forward-looking statements
This release contains forward-looking statements based on assumptions and estimates of R. STAHL's management. Although we assume that the expectations of these forward-looking statements are realistic, we cannot guarantee that these expectations will prove to be correct. The assumptions may involve risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause such discrepancies include: changes in the macroeconomic and business environment, exchange rate and interest rate fluctuations, the roll-out of competing products, a lack of acceptance of new products or services, and changes in business strategy. R. STAHL does not plan to update these forward-looking statements nor does it accept any obligation to do so.