Schwarze Pumpe power station

The site has been a large-scale industrial site processing lignite since it was first developed in 1955 during the DDR era. The DDR-era plant produced high-temperature lignite coke from lignite for blast furnaces, coal gas to fire steam turbine electrical generation, motor fuels, and a variety of chemical feedstocks.

Carbon capture and storage pilot plant

On 26 May 2006, construction started on an oxy-fuel combustion process carbon capture and storage pilot plant in the Black Pump industrial area. With a thermal power of 30 MW, the plant burned coal with pure oxygen (nitrogen-free) gas, replacing air in what is known as oxy-fuel combustion. The idea was that the resulting carbon dioxide would be compressed and liquefied. It would then be put into geologic formations and stored so as not to contribute to global warming. The aim of the plant wasn't to produce electricity but to produce steam, which would then be used by nearby industries.

Vattenfall stopped carbon capture research and development at the plant in 2014 because they found that "its costs and the energy it requires make the technology unviable."

The facility was meant to serve as a prototype for larger power plants. Back in 2005, environmentalists criticized the facility. In their opinion, a greater impact on the reduction of global warming could have been obtained for the same money through investments in renewable energies and efficient power production and use.