by Rob Elmore (Twitter: @RobElmore)
After the recent – and excellent – VERGE conference
in San Francisco (see VERGE-day-1 and VERGE-day-2), I came up
with a short phrase to describe the energy-related advances that I have been
researching for a number of months: “Next Generation Energy Systems.”
Here I want to lay out the thinking behind
that phrase – and share some relevant links that focus on creating a positive
future for Earth.
“Next”
At the most basic level, it is easy to say
why “Next” is in this phrase: Given clear scientific consensus about human
impacts on climate systems (see http://buswk.co/PIUzUl), our energy status quo is unsustainable. So we need to
ask: “What’s next?”
“Generation”
One implication of the word “Generation,” of
course, is alternative, sustainable generation of energy. This includes wind – both
small- and large-scale – and solar, whether rooftop-scale decentralized or
large and centralized (see http://buff.ly/YssB1y and http://buff.ly/SQ0uDV). In addition, there are other energy generation technologies
like geothermal heat pumps that are advancing in both small- and large-scale
capabilities (see http://clmpr.gs/SSdmrU), and newer technologies such as landfill gas to energy
(LFGTE) facilities (see http://buff.ly/SmUMtb).
In addition, “Generation” in this phrase also
takes on the meaning “Next Generation”: emerging improvements to established sustainable
energy technologies as well as novel new “possibilities.” This includes both
technologies in the pre-development “pipeline” and those already in
development, sometimes with the support of agencies like DOE ARPA-E (see
http://buff.ly/YvQ5mA and http://buff.ly/V77Q5a), or undertaken by private firms or foundations. “Next
Generation” also includes “speculative” new technologies like “artificial leaf”
replication of the photosynthesis energy-from-sunlight extraction processes
(see http://buff.ly/Yki2Oh).
“Energy”
“Energy” is easy, right? It includes electricity
from wind, solar, and other sources for power lines throughout the Earth, plus non-food-source
biofuels for vehicles, etc.
Indeed, it is true that ever since the start
of the Industrial Revolution we have been advancing the production of energy that
can do human-centered work (beyond fire for cooking) – starting with wood and
coal, and evolving to our modern worldwide addiction to oil. Today’s energy use
is primarily focused on use of electricity for in-place applications – such as generating
light, powering machines and electronic equipment and communication networks, and
heating and cooling – and on oil and its “cousin” natural gas both for in-place
heating and for transportation via the internal combustion engine.
The other way to look at energy production,
however, is in terms of the opportunity to produce less because we use less:
the emerging focus on efficiency in energy use. One kind of advance in energy
efficiency is the use of information technology for energy management in order
to reduce energy use within buildings (see http://buff.ly/TWMwRm and http://buff.ly/SmXm25).
“Systems”
Here’s where “the rubber meets the road” in
the phrase “Next Generation Energy Systems.”
The production and use of energy is not
isolated, it scales as an integrated set of systems: this includes both “looking
in” at how individual humans live within our households and communities, and “looking
out” to our Sun-and-Earth system of daily solar energy input, to total human energy
production and use, and to human impacts on climate systems – climate change
and global warming.
As mentioned earlier, a systems approach to
energy efficiency can work to minimize the need for energy generation (see
http://buff.ly/SB42fH).
This includes the thinking pioneered by the Rocky Mountain Institute (see @RockyMtnInst) years ago regarding the “Negawatt” (see http://buff.ly/VbDOgK):
focusing through and beyond efficiency, in order to radically reduce energy use
in everyday life. One important focus is finding high-leverage points for new
efficiencies in how our industrial-production operations use energy (see
http://buff.ly/Vmvmvp).
A systems approach to energy also calls for radical
redesign of urban energy use, both retrofitting existing cities (see http://grn.bz/YgKKNk) and planning for and building new city centers (see
http://buff.ly/TU6EDw) – as well as systematically
reworking and expanding urban complexes to accommodate a whole-Earth population
expected to crest at roughly 9 billion (see http://buff.ly/V2pSpq).
This calls for radical redesign of cities and all their energy-using systems,
such as stopping the energy waste “built in” to most buildings’ air
conditioning systems. This kind of city redesign can be approached both by
retrofitting old buildings and by designing new buildings to minimize needs for
cooling, as well as by landscaping cities and their rooftops to minimize heat
buildup (see http://buff.ly/Vb7tH3).
Also critical are new systems for distributing
energy, broadly referred to as “smart grids” (see http://j.mp/TkiKEV). Smart
grids are focused both on using information technology to refine the existing
centralized electrical grid system, as well as to enable radically
decentralized local/regional smart grids with vastly improved resilience in the
face of storms and other disruptions (see http://buff.ly/12nRmeW).
Modern agriculture is also a high-impact
energy-use system, in need of radical reconfiguration (see http://buff.ly/VmsMoY),
perhaps including urban “vertical farms” (see http://buff.ly/Tg56U6).
One way to look at fossil fuel, such as
petroleum, is as an energy storage system: energy was derived from sunlight
captured and stored by fossil-era plants millions of years ago, and it is
extracted and stored today in forms such as crude oil and gasoline which can be
transported to points of refining and end-use. Electricity, on the other hand,
is generated and fed into the traditional electrical grid from central sources
only as needed to meet real-time demand. Perhaps energy storage next could advance
to enable what we might call “virtual storage” of electricity using highly
decentralized hydrogen/fuel-cell-based systems tied directly to localized
wind-and-solar-energy production installations, as proposed by Jeremy Rifkin
(see http://www.foet.org/ongoing/hydrogen-economy.html).
Finally, we will need new financial systems
to enable the wide-ranging investments required to create Next Generation
Energy Systems. One well-established new financial system of this kind is the
German example of implementing Feed-In-Tariffs that are made available to financially
reward any individual or organization that implements wind or solar generation
(see http://buff.ly/W7tHz5). An example that would require a change in U.S. tax law
would be to enable master limited partnership investment in renewable energy, as
it is now enabled for petroleum investment (see http:/buff.ly/QkMUMa). And as of this writing (December 2012) we are starting
to see a possible U.S. political-and-business consensus emerge on the need to
put a price on carbon production / carbon emissions in order to achieve replacement
of carbon-based fuels (see http://clmpr.gs/RFcTP5
and http://buff.ly/12nSFKT) – and thus to help speed “Next
Generation Energy Systems” innovation.
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Rob Elmore is working
toward a positive future for Earth by researching and publishing advances in
“Next Generation Energy Systems.” Such advances – each with a background link
like those above – are posted several times daily on Twitter (to access the archive,
follow this link or web-search: Twitter @RobElmore). Rob is an expert technology solutions
marketing writer working as a project contractor. Phone (U.S.) 831-818-2316 to
discuss your writing-project needs.
