Archive News In Brief

Twelve teams from the Ruhr valley area are delighted to be nominated for the final round of the second edition of the successful school competition “Förderturm der Ideen” (winding tower for ideas). They impressed with their suggestions for how to reshape their environment and their ideas for improving community cohesion. The competition jury (Figure 1), headed up by Bärbel Bergerhoff-Wodopia, ...

Perpetuity starts at the former Pluto mine in Herne-Wanne/Germany. All the elements that are needed to manage and control post-mining tasks converge at the new control room of RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany (Figure 1). The company is thus ensuring that its water-related processes run smoothly – for the protection of people and the environment. Monitoring staff man the new control room ...

Shareholders’ investment in the STEAG Group has once again paid off. The Essen-based energy company is transferring 45 M € in profit for the 2018 business year to its owner, Kommunale Beteiligungsgesellschaft (KSBG). “We faced up to the far-reaching challenges in the energy industry at an early stage,” said Joachim Rumstadt, Chairman of the Board of Management of STEAG GmbH, during the ...

The energy company STEAG GmbH, Essen/Germany, once again registered its two Saarland power stations Weiher 3 (724 MW) and Bexbach (780 MW) with the German Federal Network Agency for provisional closure on 29th April 2019. The process has been formally started to ensure that statutory deadlines are met and to explore the prospects for both sites beyond 2020. The announcement ...

With the phase-out of nuclear power production in 2022 and the planned end of coal-fired power generation in 2038, one thing is certain: Wind and solar energy will be the main pillars of electricity supply in Germany in the future. However, both renewable energy sources are subject to weather-related fluctuations. As an energy medium, hydrogen can balance out these fluctuations ...

Kamp-Lintfort/Germany, at the edge of the Ruhr valley area: In a place once dominated by noise, dirt, sweat and coal, there is to be a horticultural show in 2020, with millions of visitors descending on the former mining site of Friedrich-Heinrich mine. How to transform former working sites into local recreation areas was one of the focal points of “NACHBergbauzeit ...

Germany’s energy consumption in 2018 fell to its lowest level since the early 1970s. With a total volume of 12,963 PJ or 442.3 Mtce, consumption was 3.5 % below the previous year’s level (Figure 1). As outlined by Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen (AG Energiebilanzen – Working Group on Energy Balances), Berlin/Germany, in its 2018 Annual Report published at the end of March, this ...

Getting excellent data four times faster than with conventional methods, while still protecting the environment: Using a combination of wireless seismic technology and slip sweep methods that is unique in Europe, DMT GmbH & Co. KG, Essen/Germany, has investigated a total area of 1,484 km2 in Lower Austria over the past three years. The contract was awarded by the two Austrian ...

Nuclear law has changed from being a law on the use of nuclear energy to a law on the phasing out of this technology. This is the consequence of the politically agreed end to the peaceful use of nuclear energy in Germany. The commentary on nuclear law published by Prof. Walter Frenz explains the German Atomic Energy Act (Atomgesetz) and ...

RAG Aktiengesellschaft, Essen/Germany, has initiated a pilot study on the possible exposure of miners to PCB. The impetus for the study was the question as to whether exposure that took place many years ago, i.e. resulting from the use of liquids containing PCB in mining until the 1980s, can be reliably detected in the blood. A new detection method was ...