Operation Wolfsburg
Cassaundra Marley
Wolfsburg West power station is an operating power station of at least 288-megawatts (MW) in Volkswagen Wolfsburg facility, Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating.It is also known as Werk Wolfsburg West power station.
CHP is an abbreviation for Combined Heat and Power. It is a technology that produces electricity and thermal energy at high efficiencies. Coal units track this information in the Captive Use section when known.
In July 2019, an EPC agreement (engineering, procurement and construction) was awarded to Mitsubishi. The contract includes construction and commissioning and the delivery of two H-100 class gas turbines, two waste heat recovery boilers, two steam turbines and generators and ancillary systems. The new gas-and-steam plant, with a total output of 288 megawatts (MW) of electricity and approx. 265 MW of heat, will go into commercial operation in the fall of 2022.[7]
As of April 2022, due to energy security concerns in light of the war in Ukraine, no gas conversions had taken place. The company was unsure when the transition would happen, but Wolfsburg West would be converted before Wolfsburg North.[10]
In May 2022, Volkswagen stated that they would be prolonging the use of coal at the Wolfsburg North power station and Wolfsburg West power station. Though originally planned to be phased out by 2022, coal would remain in the fleet due to strained gas supplies.[11]
To access additional data, including interactive maps of the power stations, downloadable datasets, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Plant Tracker and the Global Oil and Gas Plant Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
Following a successful three-month pilot project to test the application of 3D smart glasses for in-plant logistics tasks at its plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, Volkswagen has now made the equipment standard across the plant.
Plant logistics personnel are using the smart technology glasses, which are provided by UbiMax, for order picking. The use of the technology is voluntary and workers are gradually being introduced to its use. Currently, 30 employees in various areas on the assembly line, including windshields or driveshafts, are working with the smart glasses.
Reinhard de Vries, head of plant logistics at Wolfsburg, said, "Digitalization is becoming increasingly important in production. The 3D smart glasses take cooperation between humans and systems to a new level."
According to VW, users automatically receive information, such as storage locations or part numbers, directly in their field of vision. The technology provides touch or voice control for easy operation and workers generally have both their hands free while they are working. The camera in the glasses is also used as a barcode reader. Correct barcodes on parts removed from the storage location are shown in green while parts incorrectly removed are shown in red.
The planetarium in Wolfsburg has been showing its audience the stars using a STARMASTER projector from ZEISS since 1996. With 25 years of uninterrupted operation, the projector is far from being old news. Nevertheless, it had earned itself a little refresh. During the pandemic-related shutdown in April, service technicians from ZEISS moved in and dove into the guts of the projector. They have now left it with an extensive upgrade. This will ensure that the stars shine even more brilliantly and will not fade in the 15-m dome for years to come. New LED light sources have replaced the previous metal vapor lamps. This not only saves on energy costs, but also means that costs for new lamps, lamp replacement and storage are a thing of the past.
Reliability is an important issue for planetariums because they do not want cancel shows. To ensure that the 25-year-old technology is reliable for years to come, some mechanical and electronic components needed to make way for modern solutions. This upgrade also applied to the control computer which had to make way for modern hardware and software.
The Wolfsburg Planetarium is very pleased with the upgrade. While the artificial starry sky was always impressive, it is now even brighter and more evenly illuminated. The sun and moon are "da bomb" and we think that's an accurate description.
As soon as the planetarium can open its doors again, visitors can expect an unforgettably beautiful starry sky. A starry sky that arouses curiosity about the secrets of space and our cosmic home.
In addition, project management, marketing, the installation of charging infrastructure at several locations in the city area, the evaluation of data and user experiences as well as the accompanying public relations work were among the core elements within this showcase project.
The eMobility CUBE project originally emerged from the federal initiative "Schaufenster Elektromobilitt". The Hannover-Braunschweig-Gttingen-Wolfsburg metropolitan region applied for the funding and was selected as one of 4 showcase regions in April 2012. Of the 23 applicants, 4 regions throughout Germany that demonstrated the most innovative elements of electromobility were selected for funding:
- Living Lab BW E-Mobil (Baden-Wrttemberg)
- International Showcase of Electromobility (Berlin/Brandenburg)
- Our horsepower goes electric (Lower Saxony)
- Electromobility Connects (Bavaria/Saxony)
- The establishment and organizational development of an electromobility center in a central location in the city (directly next to Wolfsburg's main train station).
- the establishment of an integrated sharing system with pedelecs and e-cars
- the creation of a barrier-free and innovative access medium
- the installation of charging infrastructure
- the occupation of the new building with information events and services (staff deployment) and
- the integration of concentrated urban offers (e.g. innovations from mobility and work) in a transit space.
As part of the project, which was given the title "eMobility CUBE- Elektromobilittszentrum Wolfsburg" (Wolfsburg Electromobility Center) in the course of the project, a temporary new building in a central location of the city and a fully automated pedelec rental system with 50 pedelecs at 10 rental locations in the city area were therefore set up, among other things. This approach is unique in Germany: an automated pedelec rental system with one-way rides and 24/7 access via app or RFID card (= contactless identification card), was not found on the German market until now. The eCAR-Sharing to be realized in addition should comprise at least 5 vehicles at 3 rental stations and also offer the possibility of one-way journeys.The aforementioned requirements for the operator, which was sought through a Europe-wide call for tenders, and the associated task of linking pedelec sharing with e-car sharing via a common app or access card posed the greatest challenge. With the help of a dialog process, a provider was found who would bring the fulfillment of the above-mentioned subprojects to implementation.
With the installation of one DC and three AC charging stations in the city, another sub-project of the overall project was successfully implemented. Furthermore, 75 charging docks for automatic closing and charging of pedelecs were placed at 10 locations in the city area. The following overview map "eMAP" in the newly developed corporate design of the eMobility CUBE shows the charging points and rental locations in the city area in stylized form.
The eMobility CUBE building, which visually resembles a cube (from which the project title "eMobility CUBE" was also derived) served as a service point for customers and interested parties. From the start of operations, the service desk was manned 7 days a week and the specially recruited "eTEAM" was available to answer questions and to register users of the sharing or workstations (first floor). On the 1st floor, an exhibition on the basic idea behind the conceptualization of the project, Volkswagen's "MicroCity" vision of the future, was realized. Here, interested parties were able to obtain information on the topic of the city of the future, and Volkswagen also used the exhibition to solicit visitors' opinions on the topic and to evaluate and further develop specific issues relating to the MicroCity idea.
Eight rentable workplaces were built on the 2nd floor. The aim was to combine the topics of mobility, work, information, exchange and participation in public life and thus to implement some of the approaches of MicroCity as a living lab. The workstations could be rented by the hour or by the day via the operator's website. A rentable multifunctional room was set up on the 3rd floor. This could be used for small events as well as meetings and conferences. The fully equipped room with a kitchenette and a terrace with a view of the listed facade of the VW plant rounded off the building's potential uses.The city of Wolfsburg, in cooperation with the architectural firm modulorbeat, also succeeded in taking an innovative approach with the building: with the eMobility CUBE, a complex spatial program with different uses could be realized at an urbanistically challenging location: The building plot was very limited (previous use: 3 car parking spaces) and offered only little space to realize the diverse requirements for the use. The idea of the building was therefore the vertical stacking of the different functions into a concise structure, visible from many locations.
The four-story building was erected as a wooden structure made of solid wood elements, which was intended to meet the sustainable requirements of the project, since wood is a renewable raw material. Despite the high demands of fire protection, it was possible to make essential components of the wooden construction visible in order to make this new type of construction tangible for the visitor. As the first four-story wooden building in Lower Saxony, the construction project is characterized by a high degree of innovation.
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