Category: Techno

Six years have passed since the dr.-haas alley in hochstadt’s city center has been completely redesigned. At present, the cul-de-sac covered with concrete pavement is already being dug up again. The reason: a dilapidated 20-kv power cable.

"If we knew that, we would have renewed the cable at the same time", says esther knemeyer, press spokeswoman for bayernwerk AG today. This company – a wholly owned subsidiary of eon, by the way – is now also responsible for the infrastructure of the power grid in the city of hochstadt.

At the time, however, there was no reason to replace the cable at the same time as the strabe was being rebuilt. After a recent storm, however, the renewal of the cable is now inevitable.

Has the dirtiest job in the county of kitzingen? Willi knotgen has to laugh at the question. Since 1990 he has been employed by the city, since 1995 he has been on the canal trolley. No one else knew the kitzingen underworld as well as he did. Dirt and stink are part of the job. But on the whole, willi knotgen and his colleague matthias hinnerkopf get through their daily work cleanly.

Kitzingen, alte burgstrabe: willi knotgen parks the canal car just before the traffic circle. Warning lights on, pylons set up. Below us lies one of the city’s roughest and most important traffic jam ponds. Matthias hinnerkopf lifts the manhole cover from its anchorage. The view goes about five meters into the depths. A black hole. Willi knotgen slips into a protective suit, pulls on the black chest strap, grabs a powerful flashlight and lets his colleague secure him with a carabiner. "A bit like a mountain climber," he says and laughs. He’s already disappeared into the hole. A little later and much more clumsily, the editor follows suit – and is astonished.

38 underground reservoirs

The ruckhaltebecken below the gustav-adolph-kreisel appears like a subterranean cavern. This is where the sewers from the city center converge. This is where the water collects if there is ever a heavy rainfall. "Up there are the sliders," says knotgen, shining his light into a corner. They close automatically when necessary so that excess wastewater is not washed onto the road. There are 38 retention basins in kitzingen. Without them, the canals would quickly overflow during heavy rains.

In order to curb the negative consequences of climate change, politicians have been calling for a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions for some time now. This also affects the automotive industry, which is relying on technological innovations to reduce emissions of gases that are harmful to the climate. Battery manufacturer moll, based in bad staffelstein, germany, is providing a building block for this with a car battery that was developed to meet the new requirements of the automotive industry. This EFB (enhanced flooded battery) is specially designed for use in vehicles with automatic start-stop systems.

"In the past, car batteries were basically pure starter batteries", explains rainer wagner, who as technical director oversaw the three-year development of the new battery. The main task of the battery was to provide a cold start for the vehicle. However, with increasing electronics on board, especially since the 1990s, it has become more and more important that the car battery can survive many landing and discharging cycles.

"Cold-starting ability and cycle life are actually opposed to each other," says wagner, rainer wagner explains the basic problem in the development of the battery. With the push for micro-hybrid vehicles, which have automatic start-stop systems and regenerative braking, the demands on the car battery have increased even more. When a car with an automatic start-stop system stops, the engine switches off. "The engine speed is then at zero, and the battery has to supply the entire vehicle with power", says rainer wagner. This leads to a greater discharge of the battery.