Eye on energy at Hannover Fair

Walking around the vast halls at Hannover Messe Sunday the day before the world’s largest automation trade show opened in Hannover, Germany, it seemed every fifth word out of people mouths was energy and then it was quickly followed by efficiency.
Energy and efficiency are the buzzwords at this year’s show and it is abundantly clear when you talk to the Chief Executive of Hannover Messe, Dr. Wolfram von Fritsch.
“In our energy building we have solutions that are up and running. Energy efficiency runs throughout the show,” Fritsch said. “Energy efficiency is now more important for industry as it has been before.” The show this year has 6,100 exhibitors from 60 countries.
At an exhibit where a scaled down version of a biofuel plant was on display, Friedhelm Loch, president of Zvei tried to bring the energy issue down to the basics.
“Energy efficiency is not only dear to the hearts of politicians, but it is dear to the hearts of everyone,” he said. In short, he said, “energy efficiency is the intelligent use of modern technologies and control technologies.”
Whether it was the Siemens booth or Danfoss, Turck or Pheonix Contact, walking by all the gigantic booths, one commonality was exhibitors touched on the energy efficiency theme.
Roland Bent, vice president of marketing and development at Phoenix Contact said while his company, as is every company in the world, is facing a difficult economy, they decided not to downsize their booth. They wanted to show the industry they are looking to move forward and work their way through these difficult times.
The Rittal booth wanted to move forward with their plan to create technology for recharging filling stations for electric cars.
Festo showed their wireless self actualizing flying helium-filled penguin that would fly around their huge exhibit area on its own, without remote control. The penguin flew around freely using its sensors which would tell it when it was too close to something.