In 2019, munsterschwarzach abbey has significantly improved its energy balance compared to the previous year. The eco project, which has been running since 2000, has never generated as much regenerative energy as it did last year. With a total of 3,858,388 kwh of generated electrical energy and 5550 mwh of thermal energy, not only the needs of the monastery and its operations can be met, according to a press release. In fact, much more renewable energy was generated than was consumed.
The monastery printing house "benedict press" was awarded the "EMAS" environmental certificate and took a further step towards a "green print shop" by purchasing a chemical-free platesetter. The monastery bakery introduced a deposit system with reusable coffee cups and also joined the groundwater protection program of the french governments. The monastery’s own four towers publishing house now does without plastic foil for all hardcovers.
The abbey was also able to significantly reduce its heating oil consumption in 2019. Most of the heat energy is supplied by the biogas plant, which replaces more than 200,000 liters of heating oil through power-heat coupling. With a new heat exchanger, it has been working even more efficiently since fall. Only on very cold days and for cooking and baking does the monastery still need fossil fuels.
For the car journeys, however, the benedictines still have to rely largely on conventional energy sources. However, in order to also reduce the ausstob here were driven in 2019 about 250 000 kilometers by train. Due to the worldwide connections and the activity as a missionary benedictine, however, some air travels are not omitted.