Initial situation

An important part of East Germany's power generation industry and a large part of its gas production were concentrated in the Schwarze Pumpe site until well into the eighties, and it was here that a large number of innovative coal upgrading and chemical industry processes were initially implemented. In recent years the Schwarze Pumpe site has developed from being an energy and coal upgrading area to a multifunctionally designed industrial park.

Approach

In order to realise the Schwarze Pumpe Industrial Park in its present form, the first step was to remove the three existing industrial power stations and other plants, which included two briquette factories, a coking plant, a tar settling facility, and large sections of the gasworks. This entailed not just demolition and demolition with explosives, but also after-use oriented rehabilitation involving, for example, deep rubble removal to gain, or regain, access to the area's potential. These rehabilitation measures took place in the period between 1992 and 2006.

Result

Today Schwarze Pumpe is the site of one of the world's most modern lignite power stations. This power station, which has been awarded a design prize, uses state of the art technology to achieve a high level of efficiency. Another factory on the site is a paper and corrugated cardboard factory, which today employs over 300 workers.