Lolland Municipality as a partner for innovative companies
As an example of how they use available land, technical equipment and available manpower for their testing platform, in 2003-04 the municipality build a 20 MW combined heat and power plant based on wood-chips in two divisions, one for conventional feeding-cooling systems, the second is used for testing various new innovations in heating and processing systems. The facility staff control and optimize single-handedly, but the reference plant is connected to an international network of technicians and work with a web cam as a reference for the network. They cooperate with external commercial partners that use Lolland for testing and innovation on the full-scale facility. This instead of a having companies work alone in the laboratory and then take a chance in a large scale operation.
By being part of the industry's research and development departments, the municipal technicians and staff at the wood-chip plant receives first-hand knowledge about investments in new plants, and are 3-4 years before others able to pre-upgrade local plans, Environmental Impact Assessment processes, and develop infrastructure etc. Therefore, they can quickly get investors to build the mentioned facilities. The municipality disclaims any Intellectual Property Rights by renouncing the financial benefits from profitable innovations, but instead upgrades the entire system after a new technical reference. Local companies that have provided machine parts, boilers etc. receive firsthand knowledge of the new business areas. The systems are also used here to further train technicians
Ready for advanced biofuel plants
This position has given them a strategic launch-pad for the allocation of 500.000 m2 of land in the amendment to the regional plan in 2004 for the construction of advanced ethanol, biogas and biodiesel plants. The municipality purchased the land, got hold of investors and has started, with funds from Growth Forum Zealand, to uncover the biological fuel potential on Lolland. The straw-based plant will be stopped in 2009, instead will an EPUS gasification plant for production of biogas be constructed, based on straw, sugar beet tops, liquid manure, garden waste etc. Thereafter will an, also EPUS based, ethanol plant be build.