FXB, the Gozo furniture manufacturing group, has installed a wind turbine at its Xewkija plant in a major step towards its goal to derive all its energy requirements from renewable sources.

The 16-metre high vertical axis wind turbine installation, the first of its kind in the country, has been fitted by the group’s green energy solutions subsidiary Econetique.

Three metres in diameter, the US-supplied wind turbine is an urban environment model designed to be completely silent and space-efficient.

It is capable of generating four units of electricity at optimum wind speeds. Econetique is currently fine-tuning its parameters.

FXB believes the installation will save it around €2,000 in energy costs under the current metering system – the authorities have not yet issued feed-in tariffs for wind energy – and will eventually supply the factory’s adjacent offices and all its plant’s interior lighting power.

Established over 18 months ago, Econetique fulfils FXB directors’ ambition to enhance their business’ green credentials to their full potential. They approached Ryan Xuereb, a mechanical engineer who has designed automotive components and control systems for high-end marques throughout a long career with an international firm.

Mr Xuereb was tasked with heading Econetique to feed his fascination with green technology. He heads a team comprising of an electrical engineer, and three electrical specialists besides other part-time staff. The firm’s Xewkija office, already CO2 negative, is a showcase of eco-prototypes.

FXB Group managing director Joseph Borg is a fervent believer in the Econetique project. The group, he said, was investing heavily in the subsidiary and was prepared to be patient for significant returns to materialise.

“The international furniture manufacturing sector is increasingly environment-conscious,” Mr Borg said, mentioning various drives, ranging from sourcing timber from renewable forests to the elimination of toxic materials in components.

“We have adopted this culture across our processes, and Econetique is part of that culture.”

Mr Xuereb described Econetique as a very active initiative of FXB’s “aggressive and ambitious” corporate social responsibility strategy: its ultimate aim was to reduce the group’s carbon footprint to the extent that it would eventually be CO2-neutral.

Immediately after inception, Econetique carried out an internal energy audit of FXB’s plant and showrooms to identify ways to reduce consumption and to streamline operations.

Mr Xuereb explained that as soon as reductions reached minimum levels, solutions would be created to generate the company’s remaining energy requirements.

“The target is for FXB’s manufacturing operations to be energy-neutral – all energy will be derived from renewable sources,” Mr Xuereb said.

“The first step was the installation of the turbine to offset the offices’ energy requirements.

“The second will be the replacement of all interior lighting to LEDs. FXB will boast one of the islands’ very first plants to have a total LED installation.

“We will reduce our energy consumption to 20 per cent of the current usage in terms of interior lighting – a level low enough to also be generated totally by the turbine.”

In a third phase of the FXB project, Econetique will carry out an audit of the plant machinery in a bid to reduce energy consumption through the installation of intelligent controllers.

Econetique, Mr Xuereb stress-ed, was not designed to be a retail operation providing off-the-shelf solutions.

Essentially, it was an engineering company with far-reaching ambitions.

“We take pride in our profession. We engineer our ideas,” he said. “We test each product we put on the market and endeavour to keep every promise in each tailor-made proposal. Our aim is to optimise every installation.”

Besides being able to source the most suitable products for its solutions – such as photovoltaic systems, insulation, and tubular systems – Econetique sought to build its consultancy arm to provide solutions for residential and business green energy requirements.

It was also heavily involved in designing tools to assess industry’s impact on the environment.

Despite being in its infancy, Econetique had a wide-ranging vision for its projects portfolio, mainly creating solutions for large-scale plans or developments in a variety of industries.

Research and development was an integral part of the firm’s structure: Econetique maintained full data logging for its own offices’ PV system which monitored wind speed, temperature, and sunlight and energy levels.

It was also running tests on innovative active and passive cooling measures on its own systems. The studies are being carried out in collaboration with a company and a university in the UK.

Ultimately, Econetique aims to venture into the manufacture of the renewable energy products it designs.

“The company is going full circle with FXB,” Mr Xuereb pointed out. “To keep manufacturing alive in Malta and in Gozo – the FXB group’s core ethos – it is essential to identify niche markets and products which are high value adding. It is important to target specific areas and maximise potential to achieve more growth.”