Lusatia in Brandenburg and Saxony wants to become a model region for environmentally friendly technologies. The region, which is characterized by coal mining, is to become the first European Net Zero Valley with a decision expected today (4 p.m.). With as little bureaucracy as possible and quick approvals, companies are to settle there and new projects are to be created.
The city of Cottbus speaks of pioneering work. Interest from investors is already there, according to the authority's economic development department.
What is behind Net Zero Valley?
The Net Zero Valley is an EU initiative. With the Net Zero Industry Act, it aims to strengthen the production of key technologies for the energy transition - such as solar, wind and hydrogen - in Europe. The background to this is the EU's climate neutrality target for 2050, which aims to use the Net Zero Industry Act to produce at least 40 percent of the annual demand for strategically important climate-neutral technologies in Europe.
Net Zero stands for the goal of not releasing any more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Valley, in reference to Silicon Valley in California, stands for a region in which research and production facilities of an industry are concentrated.
What are Lusatia's goals?
The model region includes eleven industrial sites for which a strategic environmental assessment has already been carried out. The aim is to accelerate the development and expansion of "clean" industry on around 800 hectares of land. This includes battery and storage technologies as well as hydrogen and power grid technologies. "Lusatia has great potential, as the expansion of renewable energies is already very advanced there," said the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) in response to an inquiry.
The mining region of Lusatia is already in the midst of change in view of the agreed coal phase-out by 2038. The energy company Leag, for example, is already focusing its business activities on wind power and photovoltaics and is planning a huge battery storage facility at the Jänschwalde site. The German-Canadian company Rock Tech wants to build a lithium factory in Guben. However, the financing for the 800 million project has not yet been secured.
In Germany, the Rhenish mining district and the coastal region of Lower Saxony also want to be recognized as Net Zero Valley.
What does the model region mean for new settlements?
The Net Zero Valley is intended to facilitate the settlement of production capacities. To this end, the federal states also provided a central point of contact to take care of all the necessary approval procedures, said Maria Marquardt, project manager in the financial management, economic development and social affairs division of the city of Cottbus.
"At this stage, it is already clear that there is a high level of interest from national and international investors who are interested in the framework conditions and in settling in Europe's first Net Zero Valley." There is also talk of a kind of special economic zone.
Companies are already settling outside the area, stating that they want to benefit from the "valley vortex", said Marquardt. She expects interest to increase further once the model region has been designated. According to the expert, funding programs have also been announced to support the use of artificial intelligence in administrative processes, among other things.
Where are the hurdles?
The authorities find it difficult to speed up planning and approval in practice. There are different responsibilities, and much of what the Net Zero Industry Act aims to achieve has not yet been transposed into European and national law, says Cottbus project manager Marquardt. "But we didn't want to wait until everything was implemented, we wanted to be part of this process. As the first Net Zero Valley, we are doing pioneering work in the concrete design of Net Zero Valleys."
She is concerned that new technologies in the field of e-mobility or in the battery sector have come under pressure, said Christine Herntier (non-party), mayor of the Lusatian town of Spremberg, who is strongly committed to Net Zero Valley. However, the project is not too big for Lusatia, which already has a lot of experience with structural change.
Electric cars have not yet caught on in Germany as hoped. In addition, Germany as a whole is in an economic crisis.
From a scientific perspective, research must also be promoted in the coming years. "The climate targets must not be pushed into the background again and again, as the effects on the global climate are very critical and, without countermeasures, further serious consequences are to be expected that would no longer be acceptable for the population," says BTU Cottbus.
Is there criticism of the model region?
Environmentalists are skeptical as to whether environmental standards will be met. "In the name of climate protection, trees and participation rights are to be cut down, in some cases for fossil fuel projects. This is not what the EU wants to promote with the Net Zero Industry Act," said the Cottbus environmental group of the Green League in May, criticizing Lusatia's plans. The fear is that the actual environmental impact of construction projects would no longer be properly recorded due to the region's special status.
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