Across North-West Europe, business parks are stepping into a new role - becoming engines of the energy transition. Through the Interreg North-West Europe project GEMS (Green Energy Management Systems for business parks), these industrial and innovation hubs are adopting smart, digital energy solutions that help them use renewable energy more efficiently, collaborate locally, and reduce pressure on already-strained electricity grids. One of these pioneers is FiDT in Kassel, Germany - a business park with a history as unique as its ambitions for the future.
FiDT is a technology and start-up center that started its story with reinvention. Once part of a military property, the site has undergone continuous modernization since the late 1990s. Today, it hosts around 90 companies across 10,000 m² of office, production, and event spaces, offering young and growing businesses modern infrastructure and tailored support.
The diversity within the park reflects its role as a regional innovation catalyst: Businesses range from life sciences and logistics to B2C product development, IT, and marketing. FiDT offers start-ups and scale-ups exactly what they need – accessible space to begin, and opportunities to grow.
The GEMS-programme
Growing on business parks is however an increasing problem. Across Europe, industrial areas are facing an increasingly urgent challenge: Grid congestion. As renewable energy generation grows and the electrification of transport and production accelerates, local networks struggle to meet rising demand. For many companies, this bottleneck is slowing down both their sustainability efforts and their ability to expand.
GEMS aims to break through this barrier. The Green Energy Management Systems for business parks initiative is an Interreg North-West Europe project led by Oost NL and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). GEMS supports business parks in five countries – the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, and Ireland – in developing and implementing smart energy management systems that optimize local renewable energy use and increase grid resilience.
Business parks as catalysts for the energy transition
FiDT’s participation in GEMS reflects its belief in the critical role business parks play in Europe’s green transition. Industrial and commercial areas concentrate a significant amount of energy use and therefore hold significant potential for carbon reduction. As project manager Danny Nils Schneider (Economic Development Agency for the Kassel Region) explains: “Industrial parks have significant leverage in green energy transformation. High CO₂ emissions can best be prevented or reduced at the source.”
Understanding and unlocking the business park’s energy-saving potential is therefore a high priority for FiDT. “Our focus is on long-term modernization and decarbonization,” says Schneider. “We want to identify where the energy potential lies so we can apply targeted smart technologies that make the FiDT as climate neutral as possible.”
Building together
This ambition cannot be achieved in isolation. Within GEMS, FiDT works closely with TU Darmstadt, the House of Energy, and the Kassel Region Economic Development Agency, forming a strong knowledge and implementation partnership. Local stakeholders – including the municipality, district authorities, municipal utilities, and the tenants themselves – also contribute to shaping the project, ensuring that solutions reflect both technical expertise and local needs.
FiDT has already taken important steps toward sustainability through its solar PV installation which is planned to be extended in the future. Yet to advance further, it seeks deeper insights into how energy is produced, used, and shared across the site. Through GEMS, FiDT is therefore developing a digital twin of the business park — a virtual model that will reveal hidden inefficiencies and support scenario-based planning. This digital foundation will allow for smarter, coordinated energy use across the entire park. To support these efforts, FiDT has partnered with Folivora, an EMS provider that is helping to establish the park’s energy monitoring system.
Easier said than done
However, before these benefits can materialize, FiDT must gather reliable, comprehensive energy data, a task easier said than done. Strict German data protection laws, combined with the technical complexity of integrating diverse systems, pose real challenges. These obstacles are far from unique to Kassel; many European business parks face similar difficulties as they attempt to modernize their energy infrastructure.
This shared struggle highlights precisely why structured, collaborative initiatives like GEMS are indispensable. By providing expertise, digital tools, and opportunities for peer learning, GEMS helps business parks overcome barriers that would be difficult to address alone. With smart systems, coordinated governance, and a strong cross-border network, sites like FiDT are not only improving their own energy resilience — they are paving the way for similar business parks across Germany and Europe.