ENERGY IN THE LIMBURG AREA

[BIZ: Lanaken, January 20]
An assessment of the energy context, part of the province’s new programs, shows that the area’s assets include money for co-participation with the provinces ‘Acceleration Fund’ (50% private, 50% from the province). It shows a useful connection with Germany at the Avantis cross-border science and business park and the start of energy-oriented industries, including Solland, Scheuten, and Buggenum.

On other fronts it’s noted that: NedCar is able to produce a flexible-fuel car based on the Smart model; that the existence of a Hill country means the option of hill-lakes and water energy; the presence of old mine shafts opens the option of thermal energy, which is already being explored in Heerlen and Aachen. There is a cooperative environment, with the presence of Aachen’s top engineering school, the RWTH University; Europe’s biggest multidisciplinary research center at Jülich and the Fraunhofer Institutes for various disciplines. IT options in engines, heating systems, and fine chemicals are available; as are development companies in the form of LIOF and Senter Novem.

Other optional focuses are the solar-energy orientation, biomass usage from waste, the use of lignocellulose from the Ardennes and the developments to produce bio-ethanol in the Walloon country. An option for the platform would be to create energy entrepreneurs.
http://www.limburg.nl