Energie-, Aurich

The Energy, Education and Experience Center is a structure of a predominantly tourist nature created by the city of Aurich in the Sandhorst district and opened on July 1, 2015 after 28 months of construction. According to its own statement, Aurich wants to use it to present itself as a "city of regenerative energies", alluding to the wind turbine manufacturer Enercon, which is based in Aurich and is adjacent to the center. This is to be underlined by the futuristic architecture of the four crescent-shaped buildings with silvery facade elements made of stainless steel. The 6800-square-meter facility is located on the island of an artificially created lake fed by the Tannenhausen Ehe and cost 27 million euros.

The center is home to the mechanics and electronics training workshops as well as the Enercon visitor center, the Aurich study seminar with the Center for Sustainable Nutrition of the Rut-und-Klaus-Bahlsen Foundation, offices of the Regional Pedagogical Center of the East Frisian Landscape as well as the "Energy" Competence Center of the Ems Axis Growth Region and the Aurich Tourist Office. The Center for Science and Technology provides laboratory space for the city's schools. The public travels free of charge in the accessible corridors, whose glass doors allow a view but no access to these rooms. The city of Aurich uses or rents the entrance hall of the EEZ for events with larger audiences, for example for citizen participation in planning.

By contrast, a self-contained 1,800-square-meter exhibition is subject to a fee and, according to the city, is expected to attract the 110,000 annual visitors needed to finance it - a figure that was widely criticized in advance as illusory. The more than fifty exhibits are specially produced for this purpose and thus have no museum character. They are intended to make it possible to "experience energy," are declared to be one-of-a-kind, and the vast majority consist of touchscreens that reveal their information by plugging in an electronic visitor's badge in the form of a power plug. In the dome-shaped interior of the three-story "energy tower", a ten-minute multimedia show runs on the hour. Staircases wind around it, ending at the top on a circumferential open-air viewing platform, which is free to visit.

The desire for a corresponding exhibition has occupied the council and administration since about 2005 and was accompanied by the local press. Initially, it was to be realized under the title "The Sun of Aurich" in the city's harbor. The ever-growing scope of the concept finally forced the new location.

An article published in the local press at the beginning of 2016 states that at that time it cost the city of Aurich approximately €500,000 per year to maintain the EEZ. Previously, doubts had arisen about the published visitor numbers, which a local politician said could not cover the running costs.