Basic information about the Emscher-Lippe Region

The Emscher-Lippe Region forms the northern sector of the Ruhr Metropolitan Region, Europe’s third-largest conurbation. The Ruhr itself is in the heart of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf are nearby. The area covers about 1000 km² and is named for the Rivers Emscher and Lippe – two tributaries of the Rhine that flow from east to west through the region. About one million persons live in the cities of Gelsenkirchen and Bottrop and in the Recklinghausen administrative district, comprising ten further towns.

The coal, iron and steel industries characterized this part of Germany in the last century. Most of the coal mines have been closed and that has triggered a major structural transformation. A major problem, of course, was and still is the loss of many jobs. This represents a tremendous challenge for the people who live there.

The area is typified by a number of contrasts that reflect the diversity of the region. This is the transitional area from the industrialised urban region in the south to the more agricultural and recreational area in the north. Thus, for example, the Recklinghausen administrative district is the one with the highest population density in Germany. At the same time it is home to the largest contiguous forested area in the entire Ruhr Region.

The Ruhr region was typified by hard coal mining and it continues to be Germany’s power plant. This is particularly true for the Emscher-Lippe Region. Two hard coal mines continue to operate in the region, although the last of them is scheduled to close in 2018. Nowadays the energy sector employs a total of 15,000 people.

The Region has in recent years developed a reputation as a competence centre for future energies. Apart from the use of solar and geothermal energy, heat pump technology and mine gas, the use of biomass for energy production represents another domain. Biomass, as a renewable energy source, has been actively promoted for several years now. Characteristic for the Emscher-Lippe Region is the ability to make the link between biomass producers in rural areas and biomass consumers in urban quarters. A wood-powered, cogeneration plant with 50 MW of thermal output is already operating in the region. Moreover the area showcases the entire spectrum of biomass conversion technologies. Here several rural biogas plants are findable, cogeneration plants fired with vegetable oil and others fired with wood chips.

A further field for the future is the generation of hydrogen from biomass. At the town of Bottrop, Germany’s largest digester sludge treatment plant will incorporate a novel procedure to process digester gas for large-scale production of methane. In a further step, a bit down the road, this methane will be transformed into hydrogen gas. Furthermore in Feb. 2009 the foundation for the "Blue Tower" was laid in Herten, a demonstration project for the production of hydrogen and electricity from the sustainable exploitation of renewable waste (roadside green). These examples illustrate how the Emscher-Lippe Region systematically links classical and new energy technologies in order to be ready for the future.

A scientific-based study (“BioRegio”) came to the conclusion that it would be possible to supply 18% of private households with power and heat recovered from regional biomass within the Emscher-Lippe Region. The BEn project and the regional energy register should be excellent vehicles for getting considerably closer to this goal.