The Rhenish mining area is undergoing radical change, moving away from lignite towards sustainable economic models. Forschungszentrum Jülich is involved in tackling this key challenge facing society. Our research and projects addressing structural change demonstrate how the region can become a hub for innovative technologies with global appeal.
The energy transition is presenting our region with major challenges. How can qualified jobs be preserved and new ones created after the phase-out of coal-fired power generation? This issue is of utmost importance to ensure the region’s ability to meet future challenges. In our structural change projects, we collaborate with regional partners from industry, science, and civil society to make the region fit for the future.
To this end, we combine the scientific expertise from our three research fields of energy, bioeconomy, and information with the strengths of the region. Our projects, for example in the fields of agri-photovoltaics, next-generation storage and computer technologies, and a sustainable bioeconomy, attract cooperation partners and industries that move to our region. Forschungszentrum Jülich is thus becoming the nucleus of a new innovation and technology region – and an employment engine for the Rhenish mining area.
We need to restructure the energy system now, because the first coal-fired power plants will soon be taken off the grid. Agri-photovoltaic systems are suitable for the expansion of renewable energies in order to be able to utilize agricultural land multiple times.
Take hydrogen, for example: in 2022, we launched the Helmholtz hydrogen cluster (HC-H2), our largest structural change project to date. We are researching this promising solution for the energy transition along its entire value chain to find out how green hydrogen can be produced, transported, and used as an energy carrier. In Erkelenz, we demonstrate that hydrogen can supply even large buildings with energy in a reliable way. The Hermann-Josef-Krankenhaus hospital uses two innovative hydrogen-based technologies. Our goal is to turn the Rhenish mining area into a hydrogen model region that will have a far-reaching impact.
With our BioökonomieREVIER initiative, we also aim to transform the Rhenish mining area into a model region. The initiative focuses on a bio-based circular economy, in which even plant waste is put to profitable use – for example, grass cuttings are used to make cardboard for packaging. Together with farmers and companies in the region, we are researching and testing the cultivation of plants that can be used as raw materials for the packaging industry, for cosmetics, and for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Fields, however, are not only suitable for growing grain and vegetables. Researchers have calculated that Germany could meet its entire energy demand with solar power if photovoltaic systems were installed on 4 % of the land used for agricultural purposes. We are demonstrating how this can succeed without competing with the cultivation of food crops by installing agri-photovoltaic systems next to the former Garzweiler open-cast mine. Here, crops are growing on the ground, while PV modules are producing electricity high above them.
We are also contributing our scientific expertise to other structural change projects, such as the Center for Quantum Science and Engineering and the iNEW platform, which is dedicated to research into the industrial use of carbon dioxide. We wish to see the Rhenish mining area on our doorstep become a model region for sustainable economic activity.
