Who was more surprised: the inhabitants of Gelsenkirchen and the Ruhr region or the local business community?
Everybody was surprised, and they are still. Convincing people that they have to change their mindset is a very long process. I mentioned that 3500 blue collar workers used to work on this site, while today 500 white collar workers are employed at Science Park Gelsenkirchen. This is a process of change in itself, which was focussed on strengthening our small scale industry. Also, we began to produce solar energy, not knowing whether or not we would be paid for it, to demonstrate to the people how it could work. Now, after 13 years, people here are able to accept that they are part of a solar city, and that solar power can be synonymous with a better life. While the intention was to create a new industry cluster in the Ruhr focussed on photovoltaics, this initiative quickly opened up to include the whole renewable energy sector. After the reunification of Germany, investment in the solar industry shifted towards the East where industrial initiatives such as Solar Valley were launched. N
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