Shortly after the shutdown of the Swiss old reactor Mühleberg it goes Philippsburg 2 nuclear power plantfrom the grid on 31.12.2019 as planned. This will be followed in a few months by Fessenheimthe two oldest reactors in France. In addition, at the end of the year in Sweden, the 45-year-old "Ring neck 2" from the grid. Shutting down nuclear reactors significantly reduces the risk of accidents and avoids masses of radiating nuclear waste and its transport in Castor containers.
In 1989, there were still 177 nuclear reactors in Europe. An interactive map of the remaining 126 still in operation (As of 1 January 2019, there should still be 121 after the shutdown of the above-mentioned nuclear power plants) can be found here: www.global2000.at/karte-atomkraft-europa
There, projects are listed that are considered to be type representatives of certain themes that are still frequently mentioned in sustainable settlements and neighbourhoods today.
Great joy in Aachen: One of the central urban development projects is awarded special federal funding.
Mayor Sibylle Keupen: "This is a super message for our city!"
The Büchel old town quarter is one of 24 projects nationwide that are now being supported with a total of 75 million euros.
98 cities and municipalities had applied.
A most welcome piece of news reached the city of Aachen this morning (17 March 2021): Federal Minister Horst Seehofer has announced this year's selection of the "National Projects of Urban Development" and announced that the development of the Büchel old town quarter will receive up to 5.5 million euros in funding. Aachen is thus one of four municipalities in NRW to have been awarded the contract. With the amount of funding, the city is in third place nationwide.
Great news from Berlin: The federal government wants to support the development of the Büchel in Aachen's city centre with up to 5.5 million euros. Photo: City of Aachen / Andreas Herrmann
OBin Keupen: "We feel the spirit of optimism!"
"This is a great message for our city," says Mayor Sibylle Keupen in her first reaction. "We have long felt the spirit of optimism around the Büchel in Aachen. The demolition of the multi-storey car park is imminent, the planning workshop was a great success, many groundbreaking political decisions have been made, and more are on the horizon. Above all, many city makers are on board and want to be involved in a very concrete way. They want to participate, to shape, to plan, to build. The fact that this high level of commitment of all those involved here on site has now also triggered such a response at federal level encourages us to continue on the path of 'making a city at Büchel'."
City Planning Director Burgdorff: "Aachen can play in the Bundesliga!"
The municipal councillor for urban development, construction and mobility, Frauke Burgdorff, adds: "I am extremely pleased that Aachen, if it sticks together, can also play in the Bundesliga! Aachen's politicians have united behind the project and have given their backing to the state and federal governments. Thank you for that! But I would also like to express my sincere thanks to those who have done the substantive work here on site, to the municipal project manager Nils Jansen as well as to Christoph Guth and Antje Eickhoff, who have done an excellent job on the part of the municipal development company SEGA."
Making town at the Büchel
A special piece of the city at eye level is to be created at Büchel. It is being developed together with many committed people and institutions. With this approach, it has also precisely met the requirements of the call for proposals. The Federal Ministry's project overview states: "Knowledge, living, meadow" are the keywords under which a mixed-use, urban quarter is to be created in the heart of Aachen's old town in a cooperative and exemplary development process that is wanted and supported by the urban community.
The basis for the development is the exploratory procedure "Stadt machen am Büchel" (Making a city at Büchel), which the city of Aachen launched in spring 2020. City Planning Director Burgdorff sums up: "A multi-storey car park has been blocking the development of the old town for decades. We are tearing it down and building a new urban quarter. The urban community itself is developing the programme, urban design and investment strategy. This project offers a unique opportunity to find answers to the question of how a major wound in the old city can be healed with contemporary building-cultural responses."
The next steps
Following today's basic commitment by the federal government to fund the project, the detailed applications for funding will be drawn up in phase 2. In this ongoing process - and on the basis of upcoming landmark decisions of Aachen's municipal politics - it will now be worked out how the Büchel of the future will take shape with the funding millions.
National urban development projects
National urban development projects are nationally and internationally visible, larger-scale urban development projects with clear impulses for the respective municipality or city, the region and urban development policy in Germany as a whole. They are characterised by a special quality standard with regard to the urban development approach, the building culture aspects and the participation processes, contribute to the realisation of the federal government's building policy objectives and have innovation potential. National urban development projects are projects that generally solve tasks and problems of considerable financial dimension. The focus is on the major challenges currently facing cities and municipalities in Germany (e.g. preservation of existing buildings, conversions, sustainable neighbourhood development).
A total of 24 projects for forward-looking urban development are being funded by the federal government with a total of around 75 million euros. 98 cities and municipalities from all over Germany applied for the funding.
More info Interesting facts about the Büchel can be found on the Internet at www.buechel-aachen.de
From Aprill 2021 the Demolition work on the Büchel multi-storey car park. All the info on this has been presented as part of an online event. The stream is still available on the YouTube channel of the city of Aachen: https://youtu.be/KQqFq6v_edA.
Within the framework of a cooperative planning workshop, three teams of experts developed three exciting designs for the Büchel, each with a focus on the major themes of "knowledge, living, meadow". The final presentation of the planning workshop, which took place digitally in January 2021, is also still available as a stream: https://youtu.be/AWSb5Gx3gKA.
Project platform for exploring electricity-to-gas (SzG) technology in the Thüga Group successfully completed
Important findings have been gathered and scientifically validated over the past five years of project work
SzG and gas distribution grids are an integral part of the energy transition
Politicians must create appropriate framework conditions
Frankfurt/Munich 08/08/2017: The Thüga Group's project phase to explore electricity-to-gas storage technology has been successfully completed. "Reversible storage systems are an important component of the energy transition. The technology enables surplus wind or solar power to be utilised in the best possible way. We were able to clearly demonstrate that the joint system has passed all load tests in the past three years of practical operation. The technology has provided many insights for further utilisation," said a delighted Dr Constantin H. Alsheimer, CEO of Mainova AG. When the plant was commissioned on Mainova's premises in Frankfurt in 2014, it was the world's first demonstration plant to convert electricity into hydrogen and feed it into the municipal gas distribution network. The aim of electricity-to-gas or power-to-gas technologies is to convert surplus electricity from renewable sources into gas for use in the heating, mobility or power generation market.
In the project, 13 Thüga Group companies pooled their expertise and jointly invested in the development of electricity-to-gas storage technology. The focus was on testing its suitability for practical use. From the project partners' point of view, the electricity-to-gas technology has proven that it fulfils the necessary requirements for practical use. During live operation, the system was interconnected with wind and solar plants, a combined heat and power plant (CHP) and electricity consumption using computer simulation in a virtual smart grid. According to the project partners, the technology has thus also proven itself as a component of intelligent grid structures.
"The system has exceeded our expectations, particularly in terms of efficiency. In its relevant load range between 50 and around 325 kilowatts, the entire system - from electricity extraction to gas feed-in - achieves an efficiency of up to 77 per cent, based on the calorific value," emphasises Michael Riechel, Chairman of the Management Board of Thüga Aktiengesellschaft. "We were also able to prove that electricity-to-gas technology is also suitable in principle for use in the primary control energy market. The great commitment of our colleagues at Mainova played a decisive role in enabling us to achieve these results." More than 1,300 visitors have seen the advantages of electricity-to-gas technology for themselves over the past few months.
SzG and gas distribution grids are an integral part of the energy transition
From the project partners' point of view, the following economic and energy-related reasons speak in favour of a smart combination of SzG technology and gas distribution grids:
The necessary gas network infrastructure as a storage medium is available
Only the gas grid has the capacity to cover the enormous overall storage requirements of the energy transition
A large proportion of the storage requirements existing in 2020 can already be covered by converting electricity into hydrogen and feeding it into the gas distribution grid
Virtually unlimited storage capacity is created by additional methanisation of the hydrogen produced
Coupling the electricity sector with the gas sector via the SzG technology leads to significant relief for the electricity grids and reduces their need for expansion
Decarbonisation of various sectors possible via SzG
The project partners feel confirmed in their view by the latest study by management consultants enervis. This has analysed various paths to sector coupling, i.e. the networking of electricity and heat by 2050. The study focussed on the topics of costs and security of supply. Two key findings are that, firstly, natural gas is the most cost-efficient CO2avoidance option for heat and, by 2050 and beyond, a cost-effective CO2-energy source for backup power plants. And secondly, that a decarbonised world with a conversion from electricity to gas can be economically more favourable than a world without gas.
Politicians must create appropriate framework conditions
"Anyone who fails to take SzG technology into account as part of the decarbonisation of electricity generation, the heating market and the mobility market is blocking the future of what is currently the most promising long-term storage solution and hindering the energy transition," emphasises Mainova CEO Dr Constantin H. Alsheimer. In the opinion of the 13 project partners, the new German government is called upon to present a coherent concept for the development of SzG technology. In concrete terms, the focus is on three points: For market implementation, politicians should launch targeted funding programmes with the aim of reducing costs and further increasing efficiency. Furthermore, a joint network development plan for the network infrastructures (electricity/gas) should be created and an integrated cost analysis of the overall system should be carried out. "Hydrogen and methane from renewable energies must be recognised as biofuels, which will open up additional sales channels for operators," says Michael Riechel, formulating the third demand.
The "Alternative Economic Policy Working Group" has published its MEMORANDUM 2018 report.
Price of the "black zero": distribution deficits and gaps in supply
Germany, with its senseless ideology of austerity and cuts, has not yet arrived economically in the 21st century. The small-minded hucksterism in the ruling policy is also slowing down the recovery in the European Union and the Eurozone.
The Memorandum 2018 shows urgently needed alternatives to the economically narrow-minded "zero policy". In Germany, the focus must be on strengthening domestic demand and thus on higher incomes for dependent employees and more government spending. The state share is significantly too low. In Europe, it must be about cooperation instead of blind competition. Prof. Dr. Heinz-J. Bontrup explains: "Germany's current account surpluses have been and are being generated at the expense of dependent employees and are therefore counterproductive and dangerous. Germany's chronic current account surpluses are by no means a healthy indicator of competitiveness. Rather, they are the result of domestic economic imbalances. Permanently and senselessly, much more is produced in Germany than is consumed, while important domestic economic sectors such as infrastructure, care, education and the Affordable housing on the basis of public housing are criminally neglected.
Millions of precarious jobs have led to poverty wages and later to poverty in old age. Frustrated, many citizens are turning away from established politics. National ideas that are hyper-dangerous for democracy are becoming more and more popular. Prof. Dr. Mechthild Schrooten explains: "The demand for an unconditional basic income shows how many people feel that working life has no prospects. In fact, a basic income that is resistant to poverty is not an option in purely mathematical terms.
What is urgently needed is better participation in the labour market. "Contrary to the manipulated official statistics, mass unemployment with a growing number of precarious poverty work still characterises society," says Heinz-J. Bontrup. Reducing working hours with full wage and staff compensation is therefore urgently needed and would be easily financed against the background of an overall rich Germany. Last year alone, Germany produced over 2.3 trillion euros in distributable value added. The distribution issue is the core problem in Germany. "A lot of capital in the hands of a few also means that the financial markets no longer function; risks are again accumulating more intensely here," explains Mechthild Schrooten.
Against this background, the Alternative Economic Policy Working Group is focusing on strategies that put a definitive end to the redistribution from the bottom to the top. Economic growth must reach everyone. Wages must rise, working hours must be shortened and the welfare state must be expanded instead of dismantled. To finance this, taxes must rise sharply. In the past, the much-lamented national debt was mainly caused by taxes that were too low. Therefore, the top tax rate and corporate taxes must be increased. In addition, a one-time wealth tax must be levied and the immediate reintroduction of the wealth tax must be implemented. This can then be used to finance, in addition to additional national debt, a public investment programme of at least 120 billion euros. Last but not least, and once again, the Alternative Economic Policy Working Group calls for a democratisation of the economy. The 40 million dependent employees in Germany must finally have a say in the economy, on an equal footing with capital.
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