By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2010-03-10 17:19
In Case Study 6, the investment costs and environmental payoffs of newly built houses were compared. In this case study, the renovation options of a standard house (see Glossary and parameter settings in Appendix) will be compared both in terms of the environmental benefits obtainable with the investment of 1 million Euros in each case.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2010-03-10 17:13
In case studies 3-4 the environmental benefits of a Low-Energy House (LEH) were compared to a Passive House (PH) both equipped with the best available technology to suit the house type.
In this case study, the environmental comparison was complemented with an economic assessment of the decision alternatives. This case study can be thought of as a cost-benefit analysis of building a new house with different environmental and economic costs and benefits.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2010-03-10 17:10
In case studies 1-4, considerations of energy use were purely environmental. Decision-making processes, however, need to factor in economics as this may change rankings entirely: if a limited amount of money has to be spent, cheaper solutions may be implemented numerous times and thus the multiple uses of smaller changes may even outperform a single grandiose scheme. To assess the economic aspects of electricity use, a simple yet powerful exercise will be conducted in this chapter.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2010-03-10 17:06
In previous case studies, the best available fossil fuel-based heating system was compared with the best available electric heating system. A relatively outdated technology of heaters, however, may in the future prove to imply the environmentally cleaner solution. Night storage (or accumulation) heaters are electric appliances that produce and store heat overnight when electricity from the grid is cheaper due to a situation of more available provision than demand, and release it throughout the day.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Wed, 2010-03-10 15:48
Developing economic well-being and preserving a healthy environment are not opposed forces but do, on the contrary, have a primary relationship and require a similar way of thinking: maximising the efficiency of a product over its life cycle will minimise its total financial cost as well as the total environmental impact over its life cycle.
The case studies below were developed to substantiate this Life-Cycle-Thinking by delivering high-level messages supporting decision making on the sustainable energy arena.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Mon, 2010-02-22 17:19
This analysis builds on the previously released Qualitative Analysis of Power Distribution Configurations For Data Centres. It takes a quantitative look at one aspect of the previous paper: efficiency.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Mon, 2010-02-22 17:08
This paper is courtesy of The Green Grid - Get connected to Efficient IT.
Many different power distribution configurations exist today that can be used to power a data centre. Each of these configurations has its own advantages and disadvantages, which can have a major impact on all aspects of the facility.
This paper discusses the qualitative differences between seven possible configurations that can either be found in the United States or Canada today, or could be used in the future.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2010-02-16 16:20
This Application Note provides an overview of available measures for energy efficiency improvement in the food and beverage processing industry. It is based on examples from theory and practice.
This study is not intended to be an exhaustive description of every operation in the sector, but rather tries to describe the most significant process-specific energy efficiency measures and reinforce these with practical case-studies.
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By Fernando Nuno / Published on Wed, 2010-02-10 11:08
Binu ParthanBinu Parthan, Deputy Director General of our partner The Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP) declared that “REEEP believes that the project-by-project determination of additionality in the current CDM procedures for clean energy technologies does not have the intended effect. REEEP calls on those responsible to categorise all renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies as additional, i.e. to pre-determine additionality at the technology level.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Thu, 2010-01-07 06:30
'Searching for a miracle'
Last September, an interesting new analysis was published by two California-based think tanks: Searching for a miracle / "Net Energy" limits & the fate of industrial society. The report, written by Richard Heinberg, is a joint initiative by the International Forum on Globalization and the Post Carbon Institute.
As with the book Sustainable energy / Without the hot air by David Mc Kay (on which we reported earlier on this blog), the report by Heinberg has as its principal merit a comprehensive analysis of the energy problem. With global warming becoming an increasingly important topic and the all-time peak of global oil production most probably behind us (July 2008, 87.9 million barrels per day), we can no longer hide behind local solutions. The world’s energy use will need a radical change in the upcoming decades.
But contrary to David Mc Kay’s book, Heinberg’s study also takes the cost, the reliability, and the potential transition speed of possible energy resources into account, as well as their physical and technical potential. However, Heinberg looks at the energy solutions separately and does not propose scenarios in which demand and production figures are added up and matched, as Mc Kay did.
It is worth noting that both experts put emphasis on the need for energy conservation and on the advantages of electricity as an energy carrier. Another common viewpoint of both experts is that they see only a very limited potential for biomass, ethanol, and biodiesel. Both also view wind energy and Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) as very powerful options for the future.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Tue, 2009-12-22 16:04
This Application Note is aimed at describing the use of energy and the potential energy savings in the school sector, on the basis of theory and practical case studies.
Schools represent some 6% of the total energy consumption in the tertiary sector. Before going into detail on the energy consumption of a school, the first paragraphs will briefly introduce the energy use of the utility sector and the part schools play in it.
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By Sergio Ferreira / Published on Mon, 2009-12-21 18:04
This application guide is aimed at describing the use of energy and the potential energy savings in the offices sector, on the basis of theory and practical case studies.
Before going into detail on the energy consumption of an office building, the first paragraphs will briefly introduce the energy use of such buildings.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Tue, 2009-11-03 06:30
How to do more with off-the-shelf energy efficient technology
The August edition of Science Magazine dedicated an eight page long focus article on how to leap the efficiency gap. This gap consists of the imbalance between the wide range of energy efficient technology that is readily available on the market and the rather small share this technology represents in the daily practice of industry, buildings, and transport.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:29
Shortly after George Bush declared that the U.S. would not adopt the Kyoto Protocols, the City Council of Boulder, Colorado declared that the City would. Since then, a number of activities have taken place to achieve the aims of the Kyoto Protocols. A committee called the Boulder Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (BREEE) Working Group was formed of energy professionals, City officials, and concerned citizens.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:28
The aim of the Rõuge rural municipality in southern Estonia is to develop a zero-CO2 community, excluding transportation, in within five years.
100% renewable heating in public buildings has already been reached as biomass for heating is the most important renewable energy source in the district. The municipality institutions exclusively use green label electricity.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:26
The intelligent metering of energy and water consumption in local and regional public buildings and the half hourly analysis of consumption data can enable savings opportunities to be identified, including the detection of faults. From Leicester City Council’s experience with intelligent metering it has been found that in some buildings savings of up to 20-30 % can be obtained with little or no investment.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 08:25
“klima:aktiv” is the climate change program of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management. The aim of “klima:aktiv” is to reduce CO2 emissions as well as reinforce renewable energy in Austria. To achieve these goals more than 20 programs for renewable energies and energy efficiency were created – “energy efficient companies” being one of them.
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 06:42
“Energy efficiency improvements don’t cost – they pay.”
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By HDK / Published on Wed, 2009-09-09 06:41
Over the last few years a lot of test and full scale intelligent street lighting installations have been installed both in Oslo as well as other municipalities. The experience gained and the developed skill within the field has opened the way to a rapid increase of the market. The technical challenges are not all solved, but the systems can demonstrate high quality performance although there have been some challenges to overcome.
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By Bruno De Wachter / Published on Mon, 2009-09-07 05:30
David Dornfeld argues for a holistic strategy in manufacturing businesses
According to the most widely accepted definition of sustainability, a sustainable business has objectives on three different fronts: the environment, the economy, and social capital. These are often seen as conflicting goals, an idea that results in a search for compromises and tradeoffs. David Dornfeld, Department Head of the Laboratory for Manufacturing and Sustainability at the University of California (Berkeley), opposes this point of view. He states that 'a business must be analyzed holistically, that is, let’s not fiddle with just little parts'. In such a holistic approach, the economy, the environment, and social capital become integrated. Much of the foundation for Dornfeld’s ideas can be found in the Total Quality concepts of W. Edwards Deming.
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