Swedt in change: departure or skepticism in the industrial city?

Swedt in change: departure or skepticism in the industrial city?

The industrial city of Schwedt (Uckermark) is located in the middle of a crucial transformation that aims at departing fossil fuels. The structural change was publicly discussed on Monday at an antenna. Michael Kellner from the Greens, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, made it clear that the PCK refinery would not be left alone. In order to increase planning security for the approximately 1,200 employees, the employment guarantee for the refinery was extended by the end of June. The refinery is 54 percent owned by the Russian Rosneft subsidiaries, which are under trust administration of the federal government due to the Ukrainian war; This was recently extended until March 10, 2025, such as rbb24 reported.

challenges due to the unclear ownership of

The unclear question of owners and the economic framework are considerably slow the progress in the region. While discussions are underway on the sale of the Russian shares in the refinery, the Mayor of Schwedt Annegret Hoppe expressed the urgent need for a stable company that reliably operates the refinery. In order to make the refinery future-proof, the city is planning investments in renewable energies, including wind and solar parks, which are supposed to drive electrolysis systems with a total output of up to 400 megawatts. This should also enable the production of hydrogen to transform the refinery.

The investment amount of 15 billion euros, however, leads to uncertainty within the population, as Konstanze Fischer from the Future alliance Schwedt states. In addition, the city councilor Peggy Lindemann from the AfD criticized the switch to renewable energies because areas have to be cleared. These and other topics are also addressed in the RBB documentary "Black Gold and Green Plans-as Schwedt reinvented", which was broadcast on January 14th. The film focuses on Schwedt's attempts to become an attractive location for young companies and the challenges associated with this transformation, such as [rbb-online] (https://www.rbb-online.de/doku/o-r/rbb-story/schwarzes-gold-und-gruene-plaene.

rbb24