The joint company of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and RWE Power AG – Perspektive.Struktur.Wandel GmbH (PSW) – has one main task: the qualification of complex RWE operating sites for their subsequent use. PSW works closely with the municipalities concerned and key stakeholders to ensure a high level of commitment in the formulation of future utilisation goals at an early stage. It bundles the interests of the ‘public sector’, the company as landowner and civil society, thus establishing a high level of acceptance for the utilisation goals and visions of the conversion areas.
The future conversion areas that PSW is already qualifying today include the Neurath power station site, the Niederaußem power station site, the Frimmersdorf power station site, the former Wachtberg briquette factory and what are known as the surface facilities of the Hambach opencast mine with their administrative, common and workshop buildings as well as storage areas with the adjoining lignite and loess bunker. All of these sites have excellent infrastructure connections and are particularly suitable for commercial and industrial businesses relocating to the area due to their previous structural and operational utilisation. As conversion sites, they help to avoid further large-scale land sealing in the region. Structural change is set to gain further momentum here, particularly with the establishment of new jobs and training centres.
The Rhenish lignite mining area
The Rhenish mining area between the cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Aachen is facing a major transformation process with the coal phase-out by 2030. In a few years, the last lignite-fuelled power plant units will stop producing electricity and the opencast mines will be filled with water. Large commercially utilised RWE Power AG sites – generally operating sites of the three large-scale opencast mines as well as the power station and refining sites – are gradually being made available for subsequent use.
The more than 100-year history of lignite mining and power generation has created almost unique real-estate and infrastructure conditions for various (subsequent) uses in the region: sites larger than 100 hectares offer prospective tenants special site conditions, such as excellent connections to the electricity grid or railway network.
The development areas in the Rhenish mining area are set in a lake landscape that will develop until 2070 and then remain permanently. It meets all the requirements of an attractive working, living and recreational environment. This highly active future region is becoming increasingly important for national and international investors thanks to the opportunities it offers.