Industrial enterprises face a daunting task: balancing the societal obligation to reduce CO₂ emissions while remaining competitive in an increasingly globalized market. This challenge cannot be tackled alone. To make industrial processes more sustainable, innovative technologies must be developed, and collaboration among companies, research institutions, and public authorities needs to be expanded.
Innovation Through Cooperation
NEFI – New Energy for Industry brings together over 100 project partners across nine flagship projects, consolidating diverse expertise in energy research and project implementation. In November 2020, four additional projects were added.
The partnership, which runs from 2018 to 2025, is led by the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology as the network coordinator, alongside the Montanuniversität Leoben, the OÖ Energiesparverband, and the Upper Austrian business agency Business Upper Austria. NEFI operates in seven Austrian states, with a focus on the industrially strong regions of Upper Austria and Styria.
NEFI was established as one of three innovation clusters under the “Energy Model Region” R&D initiative by the Climate and Energy Fund, supported by the Federal Ministry for Climate Action (BMK). Additional funding comes from the states of Upper Austria and Styria.
Smart Energy Concepts
NEFI demonstrates that Austrian-developed energy technologies can enable 100% renewable energy supply for industry. Beyond increasing the use of renewable energy and improving energy efficiency, NEFI explores a wide range of research approaches to test intelligent energy concepts that drastically reduce CO₂ emissions. Key focus areas include:
- Digitalization and flexibility
- Industrial waste heat utilization
- New storage technologies, such as innovative hybrid storage systems
- Efficiency improvements
- Sector coupling
- Industrial energy systems
The goal is clear: to avoid CO₂ emissions and demonstrate the transformation of industrial energy systems toward climate neutrality through existing NEFI projects. This requires not only individual technologies but also technical and economic solutions for systematic rollouts, taking into account reinvestment cycles, new regulatory frameworks, and business models that extend beyond companies’ current operations.
Step by step, this path leads to the full decarbonization of industry by 2040.
Learn more: www.nefi.at/en/
