With its specific structural features, lignite plays a key role as an energy source in transforming the energy system, in terms of industrial or corporate history, as well as the political, commercial, ecological and regional structure. Understanding these structural features of the German lignite industry is essential to determine the significance of the lignite industry from the past to the present, and to implement the restructuring of this industry sector.
The structural ecological, economic and regulatory features, which are interlinked in many different ways, create corresponding incentives for operators of mines and power stations to react to energy price signals or energy policy governance. The aim of this project is to describe these structural features, to prepare the basic data and information that is not always available in transparent form, to understand their interdependencies, to navigate through some highly complex circumstances and to situate them in longer-term developments, which is particularly important for political and social processes