Eastern Germany's historic mining belt could get a new lease on life thanks to plans to build the country's largest battery park at the site of Boxberg, a communist-era coal-fired power plant on the Polish border.
The project, unveiled by the Czech-owned mining and power company LEAG last week, involves building a €200 million ($218 million) facility to store wind and solar energy that will gradually replace the sprawling coal pits of the Lusatia region.
It follows on from plans announced last year by LEAG to build solar and wind plants with a capacity of up to 7 gigawatts, which the company expects to involve more than 1,000 employees directly or indirectly.