Caption: Gelsenkirchen- a model to move dirty energy source to sustainable and clean solar energy (Photo Source: FC Schalke 04 and the City of Gelsenkirchen Official Website)
Immediately after the World Cup opening match in Munich on 9 June 2006, the second match of the tournament is kicked off at the FIFA World Cup Stadium Gelsenkirchen, a city once know “the city of a thousand fires” for its dependency on coal-mining, now has shifted its energy focus dramatically to become a national solar energy technology centre.
The city was once dominated by the coal industry, however, the coal crisis in the late 1950s brought about a structural change away from coal and steel. Today, Gelsenkirchen is more renowned for cleaner solar energy and has developed into a national business and research centre for solar technology. More than 21,000 of jobs in the renewable energy sector are also created throughout the transformation. Moreover, the end of coal to exploitation has also made way for a rich cultural landscape with mineshafts being replaced by theatres and cabarets.
Green power and solar energy debates have been lasted for years in Australia. However, moving to solar energy means a decentralization of electricity service and a reform of economy structure, which involves heaps of vested interests and large corporations. The myth between government-business relationship is definitely the biggest barrier for the clean energy transformation, from my point of views. That’s why the solar energy development in Australia is always stayed within the academic domain, while centralized nuclear energy plants development dominated the policy agendas in Oz.
(The next match in Gelsenkirchenis the quarter final between England/Ecuador and Portugal/Holland on 1 July. I do looking forward a good game in this Solar City!)
More about the city:
Science Park, Solar City, "Stairway to Heaven"
The history of the city of Gelsenkirchen
3 comments:
Saw your travelpictures....,rich, much, (maybe I later can pick one for my own blogs...,) no doubt about it, you have the heat for journalism, on many levels I think.... when it comes to the environment thing-debate, it appears many places,...for the moment I´m hit by the fact, that in northern Europe, not live much people,....it sometimes here seems a little bit childish, maybe also because of the conservatisme look bigger in a smaller playground....
Maybe your are right. But the Scandinavia countries are alreay very ahead in environmental conservation and they are being a role modle as well, although it still has lots more to do.
During some "PR-marketing" of my blogs I have sent (a little bit funny..) "info" about them to some politicians, among them the "top" of the green environmentparty", never got answers from them, but several times from politicians belonging liberal (leftwing), had mostly focused on other things. Now, my ironic/satiric improvisations (in the swedish blogs)often so far had focus on other "questions", fx "feminism- womensliberation" and "everydayculture" (Im bored about many mens violent behaviors -on the other side many silent men do not care at all)As they said somewhere; Silence is the worst enemy. Give me a week or so, I´ll write you by mail some more information - and some of music to,..., I find it unbelieveable that you "not know anything"
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