CLEANTECH-LOCATION - SAXONY-ANHALT

Saxony-Anhalt is the federal state of the renewable energies

Approximately 52% of the net electricity production was produced by renewable energies in 2013. Thus, the federal state is clearly above the German average regarding the electricity production from renewable energies and has - already today - almost achieved the Federal Government’s objective for 2030. In total, the renewable energies should produce 40 to 50 percent of the electricity supply in Germany in 2025 and 55 to 60 percent in 2035. Electricity from wind energy provides the greatest share with approx. 68 %. The wind energy, the bioenergy and the solar sector have leading positions in the field of the environmental technologies.

An overview of selected CLEANTECH lead markets and fields:

Wind power

• The most modern wind turbines do not just turn in Saxony-Anhalt – they are built here too. In Magdeburg, the German market leader Enercon produces the largest wind power stations in the world and employees more than 3,000 employees (as of 2012)
• Many companies produce all components, including concrete component towers, rotor blades, kingpins and main frames
• The most important energy source with approx. 65 % of the energies generated from renewable sources is the wind power (Ministry of Agriculture and Environment Saxony-Anhalt 2012)
• Wind energy plants in Saxony-Anhalt feed roughly 6,240  GWH into the energy grid each year (2012)

Photovoltaics:

The heart of the SOLAR VALLEY beats in Saxony-Anhalt. No other region has developed into a competence centre of industry-oriented research. International investors have been investing more than 9 billion euros in this location since 1991.

• SOLAR VALLEY is the centre of the silicon photovoltaics 
• Is the number one regarding the expansion of photovoltaics in the new federal states of Germany 
• Approx. 2,500 jobs (as of 2012) were created with it
• At present, approx. 1.7 GW of installed photovoltaic capacity (approx. 23,000 plants) are available
• It unites all PV technologies 
• There are some companies with their headquarters in Saxony-Anhalt and own research and development capacities
• Close R&D co-operation, e.g. the Fraunhofer Centre for Silicon Photovoltaics (CSP) is the world’s only centre for the crystallisation and material analysis of solar silicon
• Saxony-Anhalt was awarded the Cell Award as the world’s best region for PV production companies

Bioenergy

• 25 % of the electricity production from renewable sources comes from biomass and is thus the second most important renewable energy source after wind power
• The installed capacity in the field of biomass is approx. 400 MW with 412 plants
• Leading position regarding the capacities for the treatment of biogas for the feed into the gas grids

Electric mobility

With the project "ELISA" (ELISA  - electric mobility, light and intelligent for Saxony-Anhalt), it is aimed at supporting the objective of Saxony-Anhalt to establish the federal state as leading research and production location for concepts, components and systems of efficient and sustainable mobility solutions.

Water management

• Wastewater – The connection rate to municipal sewage plants amount to approx. 95 %. Altogether, there are 239 mechanical-biological sewage plants in Saxony-Anhalt, which clean approx. 177,334,000 m3of wastewater annually. From the cleaning process in the municipal sewage plants, sludge with an annual quantity of approx. 57,147 tonnes of dry matter is generated. Approx. 37 % of the sludge is used in agriculture (Sewage Sludge Ordinance), approx. 30 % is compensated, approx. 22 % is thermally disposed of and approx. 11 % disposed of by other procedures (Statistics Saxony-Anhalt 2015).
  
  
• Drinking water – According to statistical data of 2013, 99.9 % of the population in Saxony-Anhalt has direct access to drinking water. The water loss in the drinking water networks amounts to approx. 7.7 % and the daily consumption per inhabitant approx. 92.6 litres. 74 % of the water is extracted from groundwater, 20.3 % from bank filtrate and enriched groundwater. approx. 3.7 % from surface water and 2 % from spring water.

Circular economy

The waste management in Saxony-Anhalt has been developing rapidly since 1990. At the beginning of 2005, the landfill constituted a key element of the disposal concepts - albeit at a significantly higher level of environmental protection than before 1990. Currently, it is finally an obsolescent model.

Today, the waste management in Saxony-Anhalt is considered a successful example of the combination of active environmental protection and attractive business location. An indication of this are the decisions of private investors to construct state-of- the-art disposal plants at locations in Saxony-Anhalt - even without the prospect of receiving state funds or subsidies. This is much more than just an image gain for the federal state. Worth mentioning are the additional value creation, jobs and higher tax revenues in the longer term. Likewise, the start-up conditions for business and industry are improved by safe disposal, supply of energy and the increase of the infrastructure. 

14 thermal waste treatment plants operate in Saxony-Anhalt, including waste incineration plants, sewage sludge incineration plants and hazardous waste incineration plants. With almost 30 %, this disposal method plays an important role in the disposal management of Saxony-Anhalt.

In 2013, 2.3 million tonnes of waste were energetically recovered in thermal waste treatment plants in Saxony-Anhalt (Federal State Statistical Office of Saxony-Anhalt).

In approx. 365 waste disposal plants in Saxony-Anhalt, more than 8.3 million tonnes of waste are annually recovered or disposed of (2011), 1.2 tonnes (or 1/7) of that are hazardous waste.

There are 365 waste disposal plants in Saxony-Anhalt. A further subdivision of the individual plants and the delivered quantity of waste is shown in Table 1 (as of 2013). 

29 landfills (23 of them domestic waste landfills) of the 38 active landfills, which were within the competence of the higher waste authorities until the summer of 2005, were shut down on the due date June 1st, 2005 (or July 15th, 2005). 65 landfills were already shut down before 2005. Regarding the 9 landfills that continued operation, 5 landfills (3 domestic waste landfills, 1 mono-landfill, 1 industrial landfill) continue operation for an unlimited period and 4 landfills (3 domestic waste landfills, 1 hazardous waste landfill) continue operation for a limited period.