ClimateandFuel

CO2 emissions worldwide

• Buildings, heating and lighting 21%
• Industry 33%
• Transport, cars, lorries, bus, train, boat, aircraft 14%
• Forestry 14%
• Agricultural waste 18%

There is much scope for making savings but so far governments have given minimal incentives to do so. If effective incentives to individuals, industry and commerce are introduced there will be an impact as it will also if green electrical generation alternatives are taken seriously on a large scale.

Eco estates and housing - northern (cold) climate version.

Eco houses of the future in cold climates are being developed now, an example being the BASF eco house. This is said to be easy and low cost to build.

Eco house features include very good insulation all round, large windows facing southwards to provide passive solar heating (possibly with double glass wall-greenhouse area to trap sun-vents to cool in summer) and heat pump. Where practical, other features could be included such as wind generator, solar voltaic electrical generation, reimbursed power return to grid, solar water heating, biomass wood or waste heating.

The inside of the BASF house wall has a 'boarding' made of Micropal phase change material which assists in absorbing heat as temperature rises and emits heat as it falls. There will be a connection to the electric distribution.

Eco estates would have eco houses, provide battery or hydrogen public transport and encourage electric /hybrid cars; fossil fuel being discouraged or disallowed.

Eco house showing most alternatives:-

Micro CHP (Combined heat and power) - Biomass or wood chips or gas

CHP consists of using heat generated in a boiler to generate electricity (via for example a sterling engine) and to use the remaining (reject) heat after the process to heat the house. This is an efficient way to generate electricity as the heat after use for generation is not wasted but used. 1kw of electrical power could be generated for 2kw of heat for central heating. The electrical efficiency of 30-40% (in a power station) is effectively boosted to 40 - 60% and the benefit to the consumer will be the regeneration credit from the electricity supplier.

Eco city in desert - Masdar, Abu Dhabi - complete by 2018 for 30,000

A zero carbon zero waste traditional walled city is being designed by Foster Architects, supplied by a solar and wind power station and solar operated desalination plant for water supply but with standby connection to external transmission lines and tree plantations for biofuel and waste recycle. Solar mirrors will focus the sun on power generators in the power station. See Masdar initiative.

Features are underground driverless electric cars dialed up by mobile phone, overhead electric sky rail, building design to encourage air flow and shade, awnings with solar panels, canals - cost estimate $15 billion or $500,000 per inhabitant. Houses are being allocated now.

Dongtan, Chongming island, Yangtze, China - by 2010 housing up to 5000 people & by 2050 for 500,000 people design by Arup - 86 sq km site.

Energy sources will be solar cells on grass rooftops, wind turbines, biomass plant using waste from rice production to generate steam/electrical power, and methane gas from digested sewerage and waste materials. Waste is also to be recycled for fertilisers.

Transport will be either electric from the renewable sources or hydrogen. Petrol and diesel cars must remain on the city boundary but hybrid cars will be switched to battery mode when crossing city gates. More about Dongtan & Arup.

Energy performance contracting

Business owners outsource the whole business of improving energy efficiency; thus obtaining new more efficient plant and services without themselves having to find the capital for investment, boilers, lighting etc and should save money. The contractor obtains the business and should make a profit, the environment gets fewer CO2 emissions.

Siemens Buildings Technologies is, by providing this service, generating energy savings of $1 billion in the US, has schemes for 6500 buildings worldwide and producing greenhouse gas reductions of 2.4 million tonnes pa.

Energy collected by panels of photovoltaics and stored hydrogen.

The Hopwell project in a house owned by Mike Strizki in New Jersey USA uses electricity generated by solar panels with no connection to the electrical power grid. The excess energy over that required in the summer for all purposes including air conditioning is used to generate hydrogen which is stored to regenerate electricity when solar panels not operative or partly operative, on cloudy days and winter. The project cost $500,000. Ten 1000 gallon storage tanks for hydrogen are located on a large piece of land (ref 167).

What you can do personally to save CO2.

Apart from the obvious turning down heating thermostats, switching off lights, using low consumption cars the following will have an impact and save cash also:-

1) Fit low energy light bulbs. These improve efficiency by five times the older incandescent bulbs. Electricity flows through a glass tube filled with Argon gas and mercury vapor generating electrons which bombard the phosphor coating inside the glass which then emits light. The extra cost should be paid for in a year where the bulb is used frequently and the bulb will have a longer life. [However when requiring heat with light, in cold conditions, the increased lighting efficiency comes with loss of some heat, not entirely a saving as such.]

2) Consider replacing a boiler with a condensing gas boiler for central heating, which could improve efficiency by 40 to 20% over the older gas boiler. This could pay in a few years. In the UK only condenser boilers are now permitted.

3) In cold climates, insulate your roof space, cavity fill wall and install modern double glazing.

4) Consider battery car or hybrid car diesel or petrol / electric using battery only mode for short journeys. Energy from electrical charging should be very much cheaper, and one hopes that it is increasingly from a source that generates less CO2.

5) Drive slowly where practicable, using high gear and modest acceleration. The optimum economic speed for cars is 30 - 40mph (65 kph) for Landrover freelander 2.2 TD4 HSE or Passat 1.8 TSI; for small cars it is 30 mph (48 kph) according to What Car June 08. CO2 comparison modes of travel.

6) Avoid peat for the garden. This releases methand an CO2 wheras in the bog it accu,ulates CO2 steadily.

6) Use microwave ovens where possible.

Smart metering

Smart metering allows excess energy from users (generated by the user from intermittent sources wind,solar etc ) to be fed back to the grid and credited; thus excess intermittent energy is shared not wasted and overall the consumption of electricity (and generation of CO2) would be lower (ref 177).

A further development is a smart grid where load sensing devices could be arranged to reduce consumer load slightly - eg turning down heating slightly - at times of excess load experienced by the national electricity supplier, with 'dynamic pricing' incentives. The timing of battery charging on battery cars of the future could also be adjusted to suit periods of low load demand eg when load falls at night.

Heat Pumps - low grade heat in soil, lake, air boosted at high efficiency to higher temperature.

Heat pumps could become the preferred method of house heating in the future. A liquid (e.g. freon) passes through underground pipes outside the house where the liquid gains heat by evaporation and becomes a gas; it is then pressurized by the pump, raising temperature and pressure. As a gas it then condenses- to become liquid again - and in the process heat is released in radiators in the house. After passing through a reducing valve, where pressure drops and temperature drops to below the ground temperature, the liquid returns to the underground pipes to complete the cycle. Efficiencies of 350% or higher are possible. . The source of low grade heat could be water in a river/lake or the air instead of the soil underground.

A heat pump is used in refrigerators where the cooling is inside the refrigerator and the heat released through pipes outside the refrigerator.

Underground pipes more suitable for larger or commercial buildings are often located in holes bored vertically, typically 50 to 100 feet deep, eg in restricted sites.

The reason why a heat pump is so efficient is inherent in the conversion of work energy into heat energy.

Looked at simply, the heat energy in a substance used in the process may be thought of as proportional to its ABSOLUTE temperature (deg. K - the temperature above absolute zero which is minus 273 deg. C)(assuming its state the same.) At absolute zero there is no heat retained in the substance.

Thus if one could extract heat from the ground at 5 deg. C (278 deg. K) and add energy with a heat pump to heat it to 50 deg. C (323 deg. K) the energy of the heat released in the home at 50 deg. C is proportional to 323 deg. K.

The energy added by the heat pump is proportional to the change in temperature which the heat pump causes which is 323 less 278 = 45. Thus the theoretical efficiency is 'heat released/energy from pump X 100% which is 323/45 X 100% or 717% or over 7 times. In practice it is lower.

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