Lignite planning, structural change and coal phase-out in Germany

Lignite planning in the Rhineland, central German and Lusatian coalfields is a core spatial development planning task at the federal state and regional levels. The Lignite Planning Information Group and Initiative (Informations- und Initiativkreis Braunkohlenplanung) was founded in 1994 at the ARL - Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association to provide a platform for expert discussion. Starting from experiences with the Rhineland and the structural upheavals in the new federal states in the early 1990s, it has since continuously addressed new technical and legal requirements involving resettlement, water balance issues, environmental assessments, the energy transition and the common good. Against the backdrop of rapid change and geopolitical events, the combination of structural change and the politically initiated phase-out of lignite-based power generation in a time frame between 'ideally 2030' and no later than the end of 2038 constitutes a challenge that will have to be met by the active players from the perspective of both federal state and regional planning and of regional development. This position paper takes stock of the situation across federal states and across coalfields and describes the required actions for lignite planning as a basis for reaching conclusions about a process with far-reaching national consequences. The various aspects of this process are subject to constant change and call for proactive strategies to exploit opportunities, tap potential, and effectively identify and avoid negative developments

Analyzing the engineering effort for the commissioning of industrial automation systems

In the industrial automation a paradigm shift from centralized, static automation structures to reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) might be lie ahead. RMS are seen as a key enabler for the required changeability of future production companies since they can reduce the engineering effort needed for the reconfiguration of existing or the construction of new production systems. However, it is not clear how the companies can benefit from RMS in detail. For example, the reduction of engineering effort cannot be expressed in figures by today. But such information is necessary to convince the industry of the advantages of the new production principle. Indeed, existing RMS paradigms like Service-Oriented Architectures are rarely used in the practice of automation. The basis for analyzing the advantages of RMS is an analysis of the status quo in the industrial automation. Regarding the engineering effort of current automation systems, this paper will present a case study considering the effort occurring during the commissioning process of a production system constructed by state-of-the-art components. The evaluation of the study can serve as a reference when comparing the engineering effort of RMS with today's systems

Braunkohlenplanung, Strukturwandel und Kohleausstieg in Deutschland

Die Braunkohlenplanung im Rheinischen, im Mitteldeutschen und im Lausitzer Revier bildet eine Kernaufgabe der Raumordnungsplanung auf Landes- und regionaler Ebene. Mit dem 1994 als "Informationskreis Braunkohlenplanung" gegründeten Fachgremium unter dem Dach der ARL - Akademie für Raumentwicklung in der Leibniz-Gemeinschaft besteht eine qualifizierte Austauschplattform, die sich ausgehend von den Erfahrungen im Rheinland und vom Strukturbruch in den neuen Ländern der frühen 1990er Jahre über neue fachliche und rechtliche Anforderungen zwischen Umsiedlungen, Wasserhaushaltsfragen, Umweltprüfung, Energiewende und Gemeinwohl durchgängig mit der Materie befasst. Der politisch eingeleitete Ausstieg aus der Braunkohlenverstromung in einem Zeitfenster zwischen "idealerweise 2030" und spätestens Ende 2038 in Kopplung mit dem Strukturwandel bildet vor dem Hintergrund dynamischer Entwicklungen und geopolitischer Ereignisse eine Herausforderung, die durch die "handelnden Akteure" sowohl aus landesund regionalplanerischer Sicht als auch aus der Perspektive der Regionalentwicklung zu bewältigen ist. Mit diesem Positionspapier erfolgt eine länder- und revierübergreifende Bestandsaufnahme mit Ableitung von Handlungserfordernissen zur Braunkohlenplanung als Grundlage für Schlussfolgerungen zum tiefgreifenden Prozess von nationaler Tragweite. Dessen Facetten unterliegen laufenden Veränderungen und bedürfen proaktiver Strategien, um Chancen und Potenziale zu erschließen und Fehlentwicklungen frühzeitig und wirksam vorbeugen zu können

An Earth-sized Planet around an M5 Dwarf Star at 22 pc

We report on the discovery of an Earth-sized transiting planet ( R _p = 1.015 ± 0.051 R _⊕ ) in a P = 4.02 day orbit around K2-415 (EPIC 211414619), an M5V star at 22 pc. The planet candidate was first identified by analyzing the light-curve data obtained by the K2 mission, and it is here shown to exist in the most recent data from TESS. Combining the light curves with the data secured by our follow-up observations, including high-resolution imaging and near-infrared spectroscopy with IRD, we rule out false-positive scenarios, finding a low false-positive probability of 2 × 10 ^−4 . Based on IRD’s radial velocities of K2-415, which were sparsely taken over three years, we obtain a planet mass of 3.0 ± 2.7 M _⊕ ( M _p < 7.5 M _⊕ at 95% confidence) for K2-415b. Being one of the lowest-mass stars (≈0.16 M _⊙ ) known to host an Earth-sized transiting planet, K2-415 will be an interesting target for further follow-up observations, including additional radial velocity monitoring and transit spectroscopy