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Sustaining Natural Resources: Energy Supply

(Chapter: 18)
Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Chapter 18: Energy Efficiency and

Renewable Energy

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Key Concepts
Energy efficiency

Renewable energy resources

• Solar (heat, electricity)

• Water (hydroelectricity, tidal)
• Wind
• Biomass
• Geothermal

Use of hydrogen as a fuel

Micropower

Economics and politics of renewable energy

Saving Energy and Money

About 43% of money Americans spend on energy is unnecessarily wasted

Sources of waste

• Inefficient use of gasoline in car engines

• Air leaks cause heat loss from buildings

Easy and cost-effective solutions

• Caulking home windows and doors

• Adding insulation
• Energy Transition:

World is in early stages of a transition

• Move from fossil fuels to energy efficiency and renewable energy

Energy transition can be made by

• Improving efficiency and reducing waste

• Decreasing dependence on fossil fuels
• Relying on a mix of renewable energy sources
• Developing smart grids
• Shifting to electric vehicles

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Improvements in energy efficiency and

Reducing Energy Waste reductions in energy waste

•Could save at least one-third of the energy used in the world

•Up to 43% of energy used in the United States

Many technologies exist for increasing energy

efficiency of industry, vehicles, appliances, and
buildings

Energy efficiency

•How much useful work we get from each unit energy

Energy conservation

•Reducing or eliminating unnecessary energy waste

We Waste a Lot of Energy

and Money

• Some sources of waste

– Poorly insulated buildings
– Reliance on cars for getting around
– Huge data centers filled with
electronic servers
• Use only 10% of energy they
consume
– Motor vehicles with internal
combustion engines
– Nuclear, coal, and natural gas power
plants

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What Is Net Energy Efficiency?

To improve net energy efficiency:
1. Minimize the number of conversion steps
2. Maximize the efficiency of each step

Improving Energy Cogeneration

Efficiency in Industries and • Combined heat and power
Utilities • Two forms of energy from same fuel source
Replace energy-wasting electric motors

Recycle materials

Use energy-efficient LED lighting

Meter energy use

Shut down unused computers and lights

Transportation:

Hidden costs in gasoline

• Government subsidies and tax breaks for oil companies
• All hidden costs add up to $12 per gallon
Build or expand mass transit and high-speed rail

Carry more freight by rail instead of trucks

Encourage biking by building bike lanes

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Switching to Energy-Efficient Vehicles

• Gasoline-electric hybrid car
• Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle
• All-electric vehicles
– Battery powered
– Hydrogen fuel cell powered
• Car bodies made of light, composite materials

How Can We Save

Energy in Transportation?
• Fuel Efficiency
- Promote stronger minimum standards, offer tax breaks

Source: Data from the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, 2012

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All-Electric Car

Problem is the distance

one can drive on a
single charge
Tesla Model S runs for
about 400 kilometres.
But it’s very expensive.
© JOHANNES EISELE/Getty Images

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Hybrid-Electric Internal Combustion

Increases fuel efficiency by only using
the gasoline engine for acceleration or
hill climbing

Relies on rechargeable electric motor

for all other functions

The Chevy Volt even recharges itself, using the

gasoline engine.

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Buildings That Save Energy and Money

• Green architecture
• Living or green roofs
– Specially formulated soil
and vegetation
• Superinsulation
– No need for heating
system
• U.S. Green Building
Council’s Leadership in
Energy and Environmental
Design (LEED)
– Standards

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Saving Energy and Money in Existing Buildings

• Ways to reduce energy use

– Get a home energy audit
– Insulate the building and
plug leaks
– Use energy-efficient
windows
– Stop other heating and
cooling losses
– Heat interior spaces
more efficiently
– Heat water more
efficiently
– Use energy-efficient
appliances, computers,
and lighting

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How Can We Save Energy in Buildings?

Building Design: Superinsulated Housing

Courtesy of
www.StrawBale.com

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Main Types of Renewable Energy

Solar
Flowing water
Wind
Biomass
Geothermal
Hydrogen fuel

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Relying More on Renewable Energy

• Reasons renewable energy use is not more prevalent are as follows:
– Inaccurate perceptions that solar and wind energy are unreliable and
intermittent.
– Government subsidies and tax breaks lower for renewable energy than for
fossil fuels.
– Prices for nonrenewable energy do not include harmful environmental
impacts.
– Energy shift takes many decades.
Solar Energy
• Passive and active solar heating systems can heat water and buildings effectively.
• Cost of using sunlight to produce electricity is falling rapidly.

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Passive and Active Solar Heating

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Cooling Buildings Naturally

Methods to keep a building cool

• Open windows when cooler outside

• Use fans
• Superinsulation and high-efficiency windows
• Shade trees, overhangs, or window awnings
• Light-colored roof
• Geothermal heat pumps bring cool air from underground

Solar thermal systems

• Collect sunlight to boil water and produce steam to generate

electricity
• Used in deserts and open areas with ample sunlight
• Require large volumes of cooling water for condensing steam and
cleaning mirrors

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Solar Photovoltaic Electricity

Photovoltaic (PV) cells use a semiconductor

to absorb light and directly generate DC electrical
current.

R&D advances in thinner, cheaper, and

flexible materials for PV.

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Using Solar Cells to Produce Electricity

• Photovoltaic (PV) cells
– Convert solar energy to electric energy
• Design of solar cells
– Sunlight hits cells and produces flow of
electrons
– Systems can be connected to existing
electrical grids or to batteries
• Solar cells made of paper-thin, rigid, or
flexible sheets
– Enabled by nanotechnology and other
emerging technologies
• Rural use of solar
– Rooftop solar panels power LED lamps
– Solar-powered microgrids

• Problem with current solar cells

– Low energy efficiency
• Scientists and engineers are
developing more efficient cells
• Solar cells have become world’s fastest
growing way to produce electricity

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Solar Photovoltaic Electricity

Continued

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Wind is one of the fastest growing, least expensive, and

cleanest ways to produce electricity
Wind Energy
Wind is an indirect form of solar energy
• Uneven heating and earth’s rotation cause winds to blow

Kinetic energy captured by wind turbines

• Turbines grouped together in wind farms
• On land and at sea

Tall, long-blade turbines can extract more energy from the

wind

Rapidly growing power source

• The United States, China, and Germany

Future is offshore wind farms

Wind power has potential to produce 40 times the world’s

current electricity used

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Using Wind to Produce Electricity

• Wind is abundant, widely distributed,
and inexhaustible
– Mostly carbon-free and
pollution-free

• High net energy yield

• Largest potential areas are usually
rural
– Smart grid needed to connect

• Backup power source may be needed

– Alternative: large number of
wind farms in different areas
connected to smart grid

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Producing Electricity from Wind:

Growth of Wind Energy

Newly installed
capacity (during 2014)
• China 45%
• United States 9%
• Canada 3.6% (6th ranked)

Untapped available
resource (2009)
• Canada: 40x current
electricity needs

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Distribution of installed windmill capacity across

Canada in 2015

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Making Wind Turbines Safer for Birds and

Bats
Wind turbines kill over 300,000 bats
and over 800,000 birds per year.
– Much less than other human-
related causes

New wind farms decrease deaths by

– Avoiding migration corridors
– Slowing turbine blade speed
– Not providing places for
perching and nesting

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What Is Geothermal Energy?

Geothermal heat
pumps
Current Usage
Geothermal exchange 22 countries (mostly
Dry and wet steam developing nations)
Hot water Only 1% of global
electricity
Molten rock (magma)
Hot dry-rock zones and
warm-rock reservoirs

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Geothermal Energy
• Geothermal energy can supply many
areas with heat and electricity
– Generally low environmental impact
– Limited number of sites where it can
be produced economically

• Geothermal energy
– Heat stored in soil, underground
rocks, and fluids in the earth’s
mantle

• Geothermal heat pump system

– Uses temperature difference
between the earth’s surface and
underground
– Fluid carried through a closed loop
– Can heat a building in winter and
cool it in summer

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Biomass Energy
• Solid biomass
– Potentially renewable resource
– Requires large areas of land
– Exceeding replenishment rate produces a
net gain in emissions of greenhouse gases
• Liquid biofuels
– Can lessen dependence on oil
– Biofuel crops can degrade soil and
biodiversity and increase emissions
• Biomass
– Plant materials and agricultural waste that
can be burned for fuel
• Biomass plantations
– Fast growing trees and shrubs for repeated
harvest
– Wood pellet production degrades forests
• Burning wood and other forms of biomass
produces CO2 and pollutants

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Using Liquid Biofuels to Power Vehicles

Ethanol • Ethyl alcohol produced from plants

Biodiesel • Produced from vegetable oils

• Crops can be grown throughout the world

Advantages • No net increase in CO2 emissions under certain circumstances
• Easy to store and transport

Brazil makes ethanol from • Medium net energy

sugarcane residue

2017: 30% of the corn • Corn-based ethanol has a low net energy
produced in the United States • Producing and burning corn-based ethanol adds 20% more greenhouse gases
than burning gasoline
was used to make ethanol

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Using Liquid Biofuels to Power Vehicles

Growing corn requires much

water
Ethanol distilleries produce
large volumes of wastewater
Cellulosic ethanol
– Alternative made of
inedible cellulose
– Can be made from
grasses that do not
require fertilizer or
replanting (perennials)
Algae can produce biofuel

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Biodiesel
Diesel fuel made from biomass

Has low carbon emissions and

no sulphur

But it has lower caloric value

than conventional diesel

Can also “gel” at low

temperatures, harming engines

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Biogas

Bacteria convert
biomass into
gaseous biofuels

Inefficient,
unreliable, and
generates CO2

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Hydropower
Sources of hydropower
Water flowing over dams
Tidal flows
Ocean waves

Downsides
Environmental concerns
Limited availability of suitable
sites
Hydropower
Uses kinetic energy of moving
water
Indirect form of solar energy
World’s leading renewable
energy source
Top three producers
China, Brazil, and the United
States
Hydropower supplies half the
electricity used on the West Coast

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Producing Electricity from Falling and

Flowing Water
Produce electricity from Coastal bays and estuaries
flowing water

France, Nova Scotia, and South

Tidal energy dams Korea

Few suitable sites

High costs
Challenges Equipment damage from storms
and saltwater corrosion

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Producing Electricity From the Water

Cycle

Water flow from high to low

elevations in rivers Electricity supplied by
and streams can be used to turn a hydroelectric power (2012)
turbine and generate electricity.
• 19% globally
• 97% in Norway
• 52% in New Zealand
• 60% in Canada
• 17% in China
• 7% in the United States

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Producing Electricity From the Water Cycle:

Large- or Small-Scale?

Streamflow can be controlled and more power

generated by the use of a dam or reservoir.

High dam across a large river to

create a reservoir
Large-scale hydropower Issues with flooding, ecological
impact on fish

Low or no dam used in a small

Small-scale (run-of-river) stream
hydropower Lower impact, but less reliable
flow/output

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Hydrogen
Hydrogen

• Simplest and most abundant chemical element

• Clean energy source
• Provided it is not produced with the use of fossil fuels
• Has a negative net energy

Fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water vapor

Advantages of hydrogen as a fuel

• Eliminates most outdoor air pollution from burning fossil fuels

• Would greatly slow climate change and ocean acidification

Some challenges

• Hydrogen chemically locked in water and organic compounds

• Negative net energy
• Serious limitation
• Fuel cells are costly
• CO 2 emissions depend on method of hydrogen production

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Hydrogen Storage

We don’t yet know how best to store H2,

unlike current fuels.
• Compressed gas
• Low energy density + safety concerns
• Liquid hydrogen
• Low temperature required uses money and
energy

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Hydrogen Storage continued

Chemically bound to metal

Metal hydrides compounds

Adsorption on carbon Activated charcoal or graphite

Trapping in nanostructured Clathrate hydrates or glass

molecules microspheres

All of these illustrate a problem: Hydrogen costs energy to

make AND to store.

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Shifting to a New Energy Economy

• Important actions to enable
energy shift (cont’d.)
– Decrease and eliminate
government subsidies for
fossil fuel industries
– Establish a national feed-in-
tariff system
– Mandate that a certain
percentage of electricity
generated by utility
companies be from
renewable resources
– Increase government fuel
efficiency standards

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What Is Micropower? Decentralization

Dispersed, small-scale
generation

Smart metering for

transmission and
distribution

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Advantages of Micropower
Small modular units

Fast factory production

Fast installation (hours to days)

Can add or remove modules as needed

High energy efficiency (60%-80%)

Low or no CO2 emissions

Low air pollution emissions

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More Advantages of Micropower

Reliable

Easy to repair

Much less vulnerable to power outages

Increase national security by dispersal of

targets
Useful anywhere

Especially useful in rural areas in developing

countries with no power
Can use locally available renewable energy
resources
Easily financed (costs included in mortgage
and commercial load)

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Decentralized Micropower

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Sustainable Energy Strategy

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Big Ideas

Actions that will make our
economies more sustainable
Reduce use of fossil fuels,
especially coal
Greatly increase energy
efficiency
Reduce energy waste
Use a mix of renewable energy
resources
• Especially the sun and wind
Making this energy shift:
important economic and
environmental benefits
Requirements for making the
transition to a more sustainable
energy future
Including the harmful
environmental and health costs
of all energy resources in their
market prices
Taxing carbon emissions
Greatly increasing government
subsidies and research and
development for improving
energy efficiency and
developing renewable energy
resources

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Conclusion
Quickest, cleanest, and usually cheapest way to provide
Increasing energy efficiency more energy

and saving energy Reduces pollution and environmental degradation

Slows climate change and ocean acidification

Many potential sources of renewable energy.

All require investment, both financially and conceptually.

We need to rethink our relationship with energy, its

generation, and its distribution.

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