District Cleantech

District Cleantech:

Charleroi Métropole's Cleantech District was born of the desire to create a Walloon, Belgian and European economic and innovation hub, aimed at accelerating the transition of Charleroi Métropole's businesses towards carbon neutrality and the emergence of new circular models.
This ecosystem, initiated by Wallonie Entreprendre, Sambrinvest and Igretec, is built around major cleantech themes:
- energy transition, with the initial focus on hydrogen, carbon capture and utilization, and heating networks,
- renovation and sustainable construction, with a focus on the industrialization of energy renovation and sustainable materials,
- circularity, with an initial focus on brownfield redevelopment, soil and water decontamination, and urban agriculture.
This ecosystem will be located on Charleroi's Porte Ouest, at the heart of a 40-hectare business park made up of industrial companies active in the ecosystem's cleantech themes.
The renovated “Vestiaires” building will become the first operational reception area, with offices, coworking spaces and training rooms. This will be followed by the facilities housed in the former Centrale power plant, which will be the real beating heart of the ecosystem, a gigantic playground for companies developing new products and processes with “plug & run” workshops. The Cleantech District will bring together players in the field of training, universities, research centers, startups, venture capitalists and the business world in a “campus” approach.
In this vision of collaboration and innovation, these players will exploit shared infrastructures and facilities, conducive to the emergence of new start-ups, collaborations, cleantech pilots, job creation and the development of training programs. The proposed training offer will be unique and complementary to the existing offer in Charleroi Métropole (such as E6K or on the Charleroi Métropole campus). The proposed training courses will be geared to practical cleantech applications, and will be based on tools used by the business world, thus promoting interaction and exchange between the worlds of business, entrepreneurship and training.
In its development, the District Cleantech is surrounded by the following strategic partners: Wallonie Entreprendre, IGRETEC, SORESIC, Sambrinvest, Charleroi Entreprendre, GreenWin and Mecatech. In addition, nearly 80 organizations (startups, manufacturers, research centers, universities) have officially joined the dynamic.
As part of the Fonds pour une Transition Juste, two project portfolios linked to the ecosystem were validated by the Walloon Government on 18/01/2024: “Creation of a Cleantech ecosystem in Charleroi Metropole - Campus” and “Creation of a Cleantech ecosystem in Charleroi Metropole - Energy transition and research”. The first aims to create campus dynamics and develop shared infrastructures. The second focuses on developing an ecosystem dynamic around the Energy Transition.