Energy options help logistics assets to be better neighbours
The key to future logistics real estate development in Germany is the integration of energy production, according to Garbe Industrial CEO Jan Dietrich Hempel.
Given that there is limited land available for development, combining logistics with energy generation will allow companies to overcome planning constraints, he said.
Interviewed by Real Asset Insights Richard Betts during the recent Transport Logistic event in Munich, Hempel said that Garbe plans to “use every square metre to maximum effect and also be as carbon neutral as we can”.
Although there is a good supply of brownfield land in Germany, logistics tends not to be favoured by its neighbours. To overcome this obstacle, “logistics real estate will transform into infrastructure nodes”, by implementing solar panels and energy storage using battery farms and hydrogen production, Hempel said.
Garbe has a department which is developing data centres. These produce a lot of heat which can be utilised by the general public. This could include charging stations for cars, providing either electric power or hydrogen, Hempel explained.
The development of driverless cars and further development of other environmentally sustainable vehicles will lead to further evolution of logistics real estate.
“Logistics sets the baseline, then we add a lot of energy production to it to balance the overall CO2 emissions, but also ESG balances in total,” Hempel concluded.
Please click on the video above to watch the full interview or listen to the podcast below.
