Municipalities as key actors of German renewable energy governance: an analysis of opportunities, obstacles, and multi-level influences

In recent years, policies to promote renewable energy have become increasingly popular among municipalities in different parts of the world. This article examines the case of Germany. It argues that municipalities, compared to other state and private actors, already have the potential to play a key role in German renewable energy governance. Although both private actors and the European Union have gained importance in the past 20 years, German municipalities still play a crucial role and can apply five distinct and important modes of governance in the field of renewable energy policy. In this regard, the notion of a general development towards a "cooperating and ensuring state", which increasingly delegates its tasks and thus becomes less important, cannot be confirmed in the field of municipal renewable energy governance in Germany.Seit einigen Jahren ist in verschiedenen Weltgegenden eine zunehmende Verbreitung kommunaler Ansätze zum Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien zu verzeichnen. Der vorliegende Artikel widmet sich deutschen Kommunen und argumentiert, dass diese im Vergleich zu anderen staatlichen Ebenen und privaten Akteuren das Potenzial haben, eine Schlüsselrolle bei der Energiewende in Deutschland zu spielen. Obwohl private Akteure ebenso wie die Europäische Union in den letzten 20 Jahren an Bedeutung gewonnen haben, spielen Kommunen hier weiterhin eine wichtige Rolle und können im Politikfeld erneuerbare Energien fünf bedeutsame und voneinander abgrenzbare Governance-Modi anwenden. Die weit verbreitete These einer stetigen Entwicklung hin zum so genannten Kooperations- und Gewährleistungsstaat, der seine Aufgaben zunehmend an Private delegiert und an Bedeutung verliert, kann im Bereich kommunaler Erneuerbare-Energien-Politik daher nicht bestätigt werden

Semantic Visual Localization

Robust visual localization under a wide range of viewing conditions is a fundamental problem in computer vision. Handling the difficult cases of this problem is not only very challenging but also of high practical relevance, e.g., in the context of life-long localization for augmented reality or autonomous robots. In this paper, we propose a novel approach based on a joint 3D geometric and semantic understanding of the world, enabling it to succeed under conditions where previous approaches failed. Our method leverages a novel generative model for descriptor learning, trained on semantic scene completion as an auxiliary task. The resulting 3D descriptors are robust to missing observations by encoding high-level 3D geometric and semantic information. Experiments on several challenging large-scale localization datasets demonstrate reliable localization under extreme viewpoint, illumination, and geometry changes

Hybrid search and the dial-a-ride problem with transfer scheduling constraints

In a conventional dial-a-ride-system passengers are moved with the same vehicle between their pickup and their drop-off location. In a dial-a-ride-system with transfer, it is possible (or even standard) that passengers change the vehicle once or several times. Transfer Scheduling Constraints (TSC) are imposed in order to ensure that the comfort of the transfer remains on an acceptable level by avoiding too short or too long transfer times but also for limiting the total riding time between the initial pickup location to the final destination. In this contribution, we investigate the dial-a-ride-problem with transfer scheduling constraints (DARP-TSC) as an example for routing scenarios with TSC. We provide initial insights into the consequences of introducing TSCs using computational experiments with a memetic algorithm metaheuristic

Vehicle routing with source selection: Integration sourcing in fleet deployment

We analyse the benefits and limitations of the integration of sourcing decisions into the operational route compilation task of a road-haulage company. A trucking company has to supply several customer sides. The demanded quantities are given. The trucking company has to decide which truck serves which customer location(s) (routing decisions). In contrast to previously reported fleet deployment problems the trucking company can select from several loading positions for each individual transport request (sourcing decisions). We propose a mathematical model for the integrated sourcing and vehicle routing decision problem. For this purpose, we merge a network flow model and a vehicle routing model. The first mentioned model represents the sourcing decision problem and the second model represents the fleet deployment (routing) decisions. We propose a matheuristic approach to solve the proposed integrated model. This matheuristic combines an algorithm for solving the network flow problem part and a metaheuristic that searches for least distance vehicle routes. Both algorithms interchange information through an adaptable distance matrix that is accessed by both algorithms. We use the proposed model-based approach to evaluate the benefits from integrating sourcing decisions in fleet deployment tasks and execute comprehensive computational experiments

Scheduling of Sport League Systems with Inter-League Constraints

We investigate the simultaneous schedule determination of several leagues in a championship. Beside limited availability of venues, the substitution of players among teams of a club requires the consideration of mutual match slot exclusions associated with teams playing in different leagues during schedule construction. We propose a mathematical optimization model for this complicated decision task and report results from initial computational experiments

Von der „Gentechnikfreien Zone“ zur „Gentechnikfreien Anbauregion“ : Erfahrungsbericht aus dem Biosphärenreservat Rhön

Was wir erreichen wollen, die wir diesen Kompromiss von nur 3 Jahren mittragen, ist eine Ausweitung auf den gesamten Flächenlandkreis Fulda und darüber hinaus Richtung Vogelsberg („kreisübergreifende gentechnikfreie Bewirtschaftung“). Des Weiteren sollen Engagierte (Anbauverbände, Naturschutz und Verbraucherschutz, Imker und Weiterverarbeiter, Lebensmittelhandel/Tegut) stärker bzw. neu eingebunden werden. Entsprechende Gespräche haben begonnen. Allerdings ist in Zukunft der Anbau transgener Bäume ein über die landwirtschaftlichen Anbaugebiete hinaus notwendiges Aktionsfeld. Hier müssen Waldbesitzer und staatliche Forstwirtschaft mit einbezogen werden

Phosphorus, sulfur and pyridine

The synthesis of distinct neutral or anionic P,S compounds in solution provides a great challenge for chemists. Due to the similarity in the energies of the P–P, P–S and S–S bonds nearly solely a mixture of compounds with different composition and charge is obtained. Our interest focuses on the system consisting of phosphorus, sulfur and pyridine, with the aim of a greater selectivity of P,S compounds in solution. The combination of these three components offers the opportunity of stabilizing unusual P,S compounds as pyridine adducts or pyridinium salts, integration of main group and transition metals (formation of metal-thiophosphates) and the investigation of many more reactions of this class of compounds in a basic environment