A region full of energy
The water power of the Agger has been used to generate electricity since the 1920s, there was already a wind turbine in Gummersbach-Lantenbach in 1890, and the Upper Bergisch forest has been providing people with energy for thousands of years.
The 11.9-kilometre "Energy Trail" leads from the hiking parking lot at the dam wall of the Aggertalsperre dam through the forest up to the village of Lieberhausen. The village is supplied with heat and hot water from a central wood chip heating plant via a local heating network. Along the way, the hiker not only learns basic facts about energy and that, strictly speaking, it cannot be "consumed", but also discovers the traces of earlier coppice use. The forest was "cut down" at regular intervals in order to obtain firewood and raw material for charcoal production. The rootstocks of the trees then sprouted again.
The site where charcoal was produced until a good hundred years ago is located at the edge of the circular route, as is a farmstead for which electricity, heating and hot water are generated in its own combined heat and power plant. Two 140-metre-high modern wind turbines near Gummersbach-Piene can be spotted from a vantage point before the trail leads through the valley of the Rengse, which flows into the Aggertalsperre reservoir, back to the starting point.
At the beginning or end of the hike, it is worth making a detour to the foot of the dam wall to take in the full scale of this enormous structure (a path leads down to the Agger at both ends of the dam wall).
You should also visit the Bergisch Energy Competence Center :metabolon in Lindlar. There you will learn a lot about the resource-conserving handling of waste, environmental technology and renewable energies.
Gummersbach is a stage on the "Bergischer Panoramasteig".
The trail has a total of 8 information boards and 3 adventure stations. We would like to thank Birgit Gauer, who looks after the trail as a volunteer trail patron.
The 11.9-kilometre "Energy Trail" leads from the hiking parking lot at the dam wall of the Aggertalsperre dam through the forest up to the village of Lieberhausen. The village is supplied with heat and hot water from a central wood chip heating plant via a local heating network. Along the way, the hiker not only learns basic facts about energy and that, strictly speaking, it cannot be "consumed", but also discovers the traces of earlier coppice use. The forest was "cut down" at regular intervals in order to obtain firewood and raw material for charcoal production. The rootstocks of the trees then sprouted again.
The site where charcoal was produced until a good hundred years ago is located at the edge of the circular route, as is a farmstead for which electricity, heating and hot water are generated in its own combined heat and power plant. Two 140-metre-high modern wind turbines near Gummersbach-Piene can be spotted from a vantage point before the trail leads through the valley of the Rengse, which flows into the Aggertalsperre reservoir, back to the starting point.
At the beginning or end of the hike, it is worth making a detour to the foot of the dam wall to take in the full scale of this enormous structure (a path leads down to the Agger at both ends of the dam wall).
You should also visit the Bergisch Energy Competence Center :metabolon in Lindlar. There you will learn a lot about the resource-conserving handling of waste, environmental technology and renewable energies.
Gummersbach is a stage on the "Bergischer Panoramasteig".
The trail has a total of 8 information boards and 3 adventure stations. We would like to thank Birgit Gauer, who looks after the trail as a volunteer trail patron.
