2.3 Energy utilization, storage and distribution
Essential Idea
Resource management and sustainable production carefully consider three key issues—consumption of raw materials, consumption of energy, and production of waste—in relation to managing resources and reserves effectively and making production more sustainable.
Nature and Aims of Design
Nature of Design
Efficient energy use is an important consideration for designers in today’s society. Energy conservation and efficient energy use are pivotal in our impact on the environment. A designer’s goal is to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products or services using newer technologies or creative implementation of systems to reduce usage. For example, driving less is an example of energy conservation, while driving the same amount but with a higher mileage car is energy efficient. (1.11, 1.16, 2.10)
Aim
As we develop new electronic products, electrical energy power sources remain an ever-important issue. The ability to concentrate electrical energy into ever-decreasing volume and weight is the challenge for designers of electronic products.
Guidance
As DP Design student, you will need to:
Understand how the concept of Embodied Energy is used to analyze and inform design decisions
Understand that the type of power distribution and storage will influence design decisions
Concepts and Principles
Embodied Energy
Embodied Energy is the sum of all energy need to produce and maintain a product or service. Designers can use an analysis of embodied energy to understand how their design choice impact the amount of energy use in their design. LCA are a commonly used tool to do this. In architecture and construction, measuring embodied energy plays an important role in evaluating energy-saving design decisions.
Components of Embodied Energy
Materials: Energy used to extract and produce materials used in the product or building
Transport: Energy used to transport the materials to the factory or the building site
Assembly: Energy used to construct the building or create the product
Recurring: Energy used to maintain parts of the building, or to use the product
Recycling: Energy used to recycle the components or parts of the build at the end-of-life.
Strategies for reducing embodied energy
Use less material
Make choices in design and process that minimize scrap material
Select low-embodied-energy materials
Select low-energy construction systems
Use naturally available materials or organic renewables
Use durable materials and components
Use materials with more reusable and recyclable potential
Distributing Energy: National and International Grid Systems
The energy grid is the system for distributing energy. It includes energy generation (power stations), powerlines over which electricity travels, and connections to homes, businesses and factories. Electricity is often produced far from where it is being used. The modern grid allows for multiple producers (generators using nuclear, coal, wind, to produce energy) to feed electricity into a system where it can be efficiently distributed to consumers.
Energy grids can exist within a country (domestic) but also between countries or across regions. It is important to understand that power consumption fluctuates throughout the day and the year, requiring producers to carefully monitor production to ensure they meet demand.
Why do designers need to know about the grid? National and international grids are not designed for small-scale energy producers to feed electricity into--they are only efficient at a large scale. Small-scale produces, like a homeowner with a solar array cannot feed any excess energy they generate back into the grid.
A Smart Grid, however, uses information technology to provide a real-time picture of energy production and consumption. Moreover, Smart Grid technologies allow for small scale and sustainable energy producers to provide power. Smart grids make use of sensors and software to manage electricity distribution and consumption. A home dishwasher, for example, could be set to operate in the evening when power costs are lower, thus saving money.
The Smart Grid, explained
How smart grids might help our world economy: Erik Pihl at TEDxGöteborg
Local combined heat and power (CHP)
Local combined heat and power is a technology that uses a single fuel source to produce both heat and electricity. This type of system means a consumer does not have to purchase energy from a local utility in addition to burning a fuel on-site to generate heat.
CHP systems have the advantages of reduced costs because heating and energy production are combined into one system and reduced emissions because of the combined system.
In some contexts, the excess heat generated by a factor is distributed back to the local community to heat homes in the winter.
Systems for individual energy generation
These are systems for the small-scale production of energy. These types of systems are typically used for single households with the goal of a zero- or low-carbon footprint (see below). They are also implemented in situations where it is expensive or impossible to connect to the power-grid.
Recently, individual energy generation has started to play an increasing role in smart grids (see above). Homeowners install solar panels or wind turbines on their property and sell any excess energy back into the grid. In this way, it is possible to recoup the cost of the system through the sale of excess energy.
Benefits
supplement to grid-power system
lower environmental impact (see below)
Typically use renewable energy such as solar or wind
can be scaled to meet the needs of a single user
possible to live "off-grid" (no connection to power distribution infrastructure)
Considerations
high initial cost
may require owner to carry out maintenance
Quantification and mitigation of carbon emissions
Almost every process involved in the life cycle of a produce generates CO2. As climate change has increased, focus has shifted towards minimizing carbon emissions. Central to this is accounting for the sources of carbon--quantification. This is often referred to a product's carbon footprint.
As designers, we have a moral and environmental responsibility to design in a manner which mitigates or eliminates the environmental impact of our design. Quantifying the carbon footprint of our designs is an important step towards
quantify; verb; to measure the quantity of something
mitigate; verb; to reduce or "make less worse"
LCA is one method for measuring the carbon emissions and the overall environmental impact of a product.
_______
Carbon offsetting is the practice of compensating for the carbon that is produced. Examples could include planting trees to compensate for the carbon produced in the manufacture of a product. The practice is considered controversial by some (Guardian article).
_______
Calculate your personal carbon footprint using an online tool
_______
Carbon Footprint and Trade infographic
Source: ECLAC (UN)
Batteries and Capacitors
Batteries allow devices and machines to be portable. The batteries in mobile phones allow them to be portable and be used for long periods of time without being recharged.
Batteries convert chemical energy into electrical energy.
Batteries contain heavy metals, which when disposed of improperly can cause pollution, soil, air, and water contamination, as well as health problems.
Designers should consider several things when selecting a powersource;
Power demands for the design
Physical size of the battery
standard battery sizes
rechargability
environmental impact of disposal of the battery.
Difference between batteries and capacitors
How batteries work, TEDed