Energy-materials linkage

This looks like an interesting new book, published out of the engineering faculty at Cambridge University: Sustainable Materials - With Both Eyes Open. It is accompanied by a website at www. withbotheyesopen.com. The central premise is the need to rethink how we use materials in order to cut our carbon emissions. As well as switching to renewable energies, the authors set out three key principles concerning how we design the use of materials:

1) make lighter products with less materials in them

2) keep products for longer making more use of the embodied carbon within them

3) use them more intensively.

In addition they suggest the reduction of wastage in production processes and better reuse of components in old products.

So taking the case of steel-frame commercial buildings, they propose lighter-weight designs with less scrap during production, greater reuse of steel, buildings planned for a longer life and more people per sq.m. within the buildings.

In bits, we know all these things but it is interesting to see it all put together.

Yvonne Rydin

London’s Energy Future

The London’s Energy Future Symposium took place on 19 March at UCL. The event was the first in a series organised by London 2062. This is a project under the UCL Grand Challenge Grants Scheme which looks at the long term future of London across a number of issues by bringing together a range of leading academics and practitioners. Speakers included Paul Ekins and Bob Lowe of the UCL Energy Institute, Peter North of GLA and Bob Fiddik from the London Borough of Croydon. Among the many issues discussed that day few are listed below:
· Current policy challenges including the price of energy (i.e. low-carbon energy is currently more expensive than high-carbon energy); energy efficiency in buildings (measuring building performance, building industry skills, building valuation and motivating/ regulating
household reduction/ consumption); and incentivising investment (via the electricity market reform, Green Deal loans and Green Investment Bank).
· GLA’s policy is that London is moving towards district heating! GLA has already produced a series of ‘heat maps (see http://www.londonheatmap.co.uk/) and is drawing up at the moment an ‘Energy Master Plan’.
· ‘Lessons’ from other countries show us that the UK needs to move towards more ‘collective thinking’ which is, however, deeply counter cultural in this country; and de-risking legislation for the energy market
· Who should design energy systems and energy policy? Economists and engineers, alongside policy makers, not only policy makers as done over the last 10 years!
· For the scale of envisaged change to happen we need to built a ‘community of practice’, continuous and coherent policy support, and include economics and engineer ‘literates’ in policy processes.
This was an interesting discussion, loaded with economic and technical stuff! However, the role that institutions and people might play in this transition has been little touched upon!

Catalina Turcu, UCL
21 March 2012

A golden age for gas - but not in Europe!

Just came across this interesting post on the EU Energy Policy Blog...

'Forget the gloom about fossil fuels. True, oil is scarce; granted, coal is dirty – but natural gas is clean and plentiful. In terms of local air pollution, gas burns very cleanly indeed. In terms of greenhouse gases it emits half what coal does, per KWh generated. Unlike oil, or even coal, the world’s gas reserves are expanding dramatically. The coming decades could be a golden age for natural gas, as the International Energy Agency explored in a recent report by this title. However, it is doubtful that Europe will share in this new gas era.'

If you want to read more go to http://www.energypolicyblog.com/2012/03/21/a-golden-age-for-gas-but-not-in-europe/.

Catalina Turcu, UCL

21 March 2011

CLUES project presented in Sweden

The CLUES project was presented this week at the Swedish Energy Outlook Congress held at the Swedish Exhibition Centre in Gothenburg. This is the major annual event for the energy sector in Sweden to come together and discuss policy, see new technology and generally just network. Extending over three days, the Congress saw a major exhibition from the many companies, universities and consultancies working on energy in Sweden. The CLUES project had been invited by Tengbom to present an analysis of centralisation/decentralisation in a very different context to Sweden. The influence of local authorities and the heavy use of all kinds of renewables sets a very different framework for pursuing a more sustainable energy path. However it was interesting to see some familiar concerns from the UK being aired: the limitations of regulations, the need to engage with local stakeholders and the problem of low housebuilding rates putting the emphasis on retrofitting.

Community Energy event

UEA and Sussex Universities hosted a lively debate on community energy at UEA London yesterday. Speakers included Chris Church of the Low Carbon Communities Network, Rebecca Willis who has recently co-authored a guide to 'Cooperative Renewable Energy in the UK', Rufus Ford of Scottish and Southern Energy, Patrick Allcorn from DECC and Damian Tow, founder member and Director of Brighton Energy Co-operative. Among the many issues raised were:
- the importance of a sound business case for community energy
- the need to invest in skills and capacity building as well as technology
- the potential dangers in the grant system of a) over-reliance on subsidies and b) inherent bias as past winners of grants succeed time and again, and
- the need to recognise equity issues in making any grants.
The aim has to be to create a self-sustaining community energy sector, which is currently proving difficult. The complexity of the policy landscape does not help and some suggested that the community sector was treated rather patronisingly, rather than recognising the way that - collectively - it is a major player in the energy field. In the managed market for energy, a separate Community Feed in Tariff would be a good way forward, establishing the basis for community enterprises to scale up and function as businesses. Normalisation of community energy should be the ambition which many argued was within reach.