improving energy efficiency

How can we improve the energy efficiency of various sectors?

Introduction: Electricity is used in many sectors by society. Trying to improve the energy efficiency used by certain sectors can ensure that energy is used to its maximum output and cut the wastage of electricity. The sectors that are the most energy inefficient are the infrastructure and buildings, transportation, and industrial sectors. Therefore, these are the sector that requires our focus to significantly decrease carbon emission rates.

2.1: Infrastructure and buildings sector

Introduction: For the sector of infrastructure and buildings, energy-efficient building designs are the most apparent solution that comes to mind given that the source of energy wastage would be a building in this case. Energy-efficient building designing is the construction of buildings in a planned way that allows the building to get the most work out of the energy supplied to it by taking steps to reduce the energy loss of heat through the building envelope. The building envelope refers to the physical gap between the interior and the exterior of the buildings enclosing a structure. Generally, the purpose of the building envelopes is to protect the interior space from the external environmental effects of the exterior of the building like wind, temperature, humidity, ultraviolet radiation, precipitation, etc.

Body: The net-zero concept, which is the idea of trying to completely negate the amount of greenhouse gases produced by human activity, is relatively new to the field of environmental science. Construction designers and professionals can actually play a role in making buildings more energy-efficient by building more net-zero design buildings. Here are some ways that energy efficiency can be enhanced through the inclusion of some aspects.

Body: The first way we can improve energy efficiency in buildings and infrastructure is by creating airtight envelopes. The envelopes of a building include the windows, roofs, doors, and exterior walls. By utilizing airtight envelopes, the building exterior shell of the wall is sealed off to minimize unintended air leakage. When air infiltrates or exfiltrates through cracks, gaps, or poorly sealed areas in the building envelope, it leads to heat transfer, resulting in the increased need for heating or cooling, increasing energy consumption. Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems use nearly 40% of a commercial building’s energy supply. Thus by reducing the need for HVAC systems, we can cut down on this number that contributes quite immensely to energy inefficiency.

Body: The second way is by applying insulation. Insulation is placed in residential buildings or houses to reduce the heat loss from heating the inside of the infrastructure or keep the cool remaining inside the house when cooled. Naturally, heat flows from a warmer to a cooler region, and the temperatures would eventually converge to an equilibrium temperature. Since insulations are bad conductors, they do not gain heat to conduct it to the other side of the wall. Different types of insulation measures are required for different parts of the infrastructure. Buildings for example may have cavity walls which consist of two “skins” separated by a hollow space in between. This space in between already has insulation, but the effect can be further strengthened by adding foam.

Body: The third way is by installing smart devices. The efficiency of energy can be further can be additionally increased by installing smart devices such as smart thermostats. Smart thermostats effectively reduce HVAC emissions as they learn from user behavior, occupancy patterns, and external weather data to automatically adjust temperature settings for wise usage of electricity. Suffice to say, by avoiding unnecessary heating or cooling, smart thermostats minimize energy consumption and the associated emissions.

Body: Next, by installing smart devices like smart thermostats, the efficiency of energy can be further increased. Smart thermostats effectively reduce HVAC emissions as they learn from user behavior, occupancy patterns, and external weather data to automatically adjust temperature settings for wise usage of electricity. Thus, by avoiding unnecessary heating or cooling, smart thermostats minimize energy consumption and the associated emissions.

Body: Lastly, construction professionals can install solar panels on the roofs of buildings. A common feature of net-zero buildings is their ability to incorporate clean energy in their infrastructure, mostly solar energy. By adding solar panels to the roof of a building, emission-less energy can be used to support general energy demands and is an alternative to conventional energy.

2.2: Transportation sector

Introduction: In 2021, the industrial sector accounted for 33% of total U.S. energy consumption based on a 2021 study published by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Without any significant changes, the sector will remain to be in high use of energy. The solutions to cutting down energy usage and the combustion of fossil fuels include imposing mandatory fuel efficiency standards and electrification of vehicles.

Body: One of the most effective ways we can improve energy efficiency in the transportation sector is by accelerating the widespread use of electric vehicles (EVs). An EV is essentially a car powered by electricity. However, hold your horses because this category is bigger than you think. There are many types of EVs such as plug-in hybrids, fuel-cell electric vehicles, and hybrids. But because we are talking about a completely clean option for electric vehicles, we will be talking about battery electric vehicles (BEV) in this blog.

Body: In such EVs, there will be no tailpipe emissions yielded, which refers to the “long tailpipe theory” that claims that electric cars still do pollute the environment by moving the pollution to the power station. However, this claim by skeptics is only true to a certain extent since pretty much all power stations are greener than internal combustion engines in terms of energy and carbon efficiency.

Body: Electric vehicles are substantially more efficient compared to internal combustion engines, as most people know. Electric motors convert over 85% of electrical energy to mechanical energy for usage, while gas combustion engines have a way lower yield of only 17 to 21% of energy converted from the burning of fuel. Needless to say, this shows why by transitioning into widespread adoption of EVs, emission rates and energy efficiency of this sector can be substantially lowered.

Body: So far, we have only been talking about electric vehicles in terms of cars. But as a matter of fact, such electric motors would do more good by applying them to buses, lorries, trucks, and other transit systems that carry tons of people within. The state of California has committed to a 100% electric transit bus fleet for the next decade after the Los Angeles Metro invested in an entire fleet of zero-emissions electric buses, as of year-end 2022. It is likely that by 2040, every bus in California would be a green one. As for trucks, they are the big contributors to climate pollution, way more than cars. Trucks can be used for several purposes, and one of the more common ones would be for transporting goods. Trucks make use of diesel which generates massive amounts of climate and air pollution. Diesel fuel contains higher carbon contents and emits more carbon dioxide per unit of energy compared to gasoline which is used in the majority of cars. Therefore, by switching diesel to electric-operated ones, we help close the bridge to obtaining more clean energy transportation by transitioning yet another mode of transportation towards clean energy.

Body: The use of fuel-efficiency standards are also a great way in helping to open up the market for greater adoption of the EV's. They are rules that require vehicle manufacturers to reduce the amount of pollution that their vehicles give out. These standards would help control the total average emissions by all the cars sold by each manufacturer, which incentivizes the transition to more efficient vehicles in order not to go over this boundary placed.

Body: Manufacturers would then be liable for any fines and penalties should they fail to meet the requirements set. Over time, these standards would gradually improve to reach the sale of only zero-emission vehicles. So essentially, the goal is to limit carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles of entire nations in order to cut down emissions by a large amount. A vehicle’s fuel economy (which is the fuel consumption of an individual vehicle), is measured by miles per gallon, which stands for the number of miles that a car can go on a gallon of fuel. A gallon of fuel is approximately 3.8 litres of fuel. Known as the national program, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) came together to issue the standards for light-duty vehicles (vehicles that weigh less than 8500 pounds which consist of cars, vans, SUVs, pickup trucks for cargo) from 2012 to 2025 in the United States. The national program envisions significant improvements in efficiency, growing from 30.1 miles per gallon to 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025, which is an increase of 81%. Many well-developed countries are already using fuel-efficiency standards as part of governing and taking a step closer to achieving significantly less carbon emissions and allowing greater energy efficiency in their vehicles. Moreover, in order to truly cut down our contribution towards climate change, the whole world has to act, since some countries would certainly not be enough to mitigate climate change significantly enough.

Body: Unfortunately for the industrial sector, little can be done to mitigate carbon emissions through energy efficiency significantly enough to make a change in emission rates from the sector. However, a new MIT study has a plausible solution to reducing carbon emissions in large amounts, especially for this sector. This method is known as carbon capture and storage (CCS) which has the capability to remove 90-99% of the CO2 emissions from an industrial facility. That might just be the key to decarbonizing this sector and will be further explained under the carbon capture and storage (CCS) section.

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