Since my recent visit to Lord Stern’s talk at LSE, I’ve been thinking about what all this climate change malarkey might mean for us Londoners. Given that cities are responsible for approximately three-quarters of the world’s energy consumption, they obviously play a major role in climate change.
I’ll admit that I try to do my best where energy efficiency is concerned, but I can’t help feeling that my worrying about whether I’ve left my TV on standby is more than offset by the office block opposite me that insists on leaving its lights on all night. Now this may be a pessimistic attitude, but it appears I’m not alone; there have long been plans in the pipeline for when all the promises and conventions based on Kyoto (and soon Copenhagen) fail, and global catastrophe looms within decades.
You may have read about the proposal to put a 600,000 square mile “mirror” between the Earth and sun, an idea which senior scientist Lowell Wood has been working on for more than a decade. There was also an initial experiment in 2002, which involved dumping 6000 pounds of iron powder into the Southern Ocean to trigger the growth of blooms of CO2-consuming plankton; a method of increasing photosynthetic material which may prove useful at a later date. These last-ditch contingency plans may seem far-fetched but the reality is that many top scientists are having to come up with more and more “Duct Tape” methods to protect the Earth. Still, even with its massive size, viewed from London the mirror would look like a small black dot on the surface of the sun, and as far as I’m aware, the Thames does not contain enough valuable nutrients to warrant covering it in iron filings.
One technology which may become more applicable to London, especially if global warming continues to the extent that some scientists have predicted, is solar power. To all those who complain about the eyesore of wind turbines, consider the residents of Seville.
Picture courtesy of Wikipedia
15km to the west of the city lies the Abengoa Solar Power Tower. This power station is the first of its kind; a field of Heliostat mirrors focus sunlight onto the receiver, a graphite block the size of a shipping container, which then converts the solar energy into thermal energy. A solar power station of this size is not currently a feasible technology for London, but proposals for a structure of this magnitude would surely anger local residents more than an offshore wind farm.
The technologies currently being considered for London seem a little simpler. At Imperial College, the Energy Futures Lab is investigating the integration of urban energy systems, in order to reduce the costs, energy and environmental impacts of cities. Current projects involve modelling the benefits of heating homes with the heat from waste water, or arranging business and residential areas to reduce the impact of commuters.
One key location where these ideas are being put into action is the new Olympic site, which will be converted into a neighbourhood for 4,000 families post-2012. Here, developers really have the opportunity to plan for the future, and make an area as environmentally-friendly as possible. Housing will be highly-efficient and powered partly by a wind turbine and biomass plant, and many shops and services will be within walking distance of residential areas. Some planning firms argue that this thinking on a whole-city scale is what’s needed if we are to make cities such as London at all energy efficient.
As for me, I’ll keep doing my washing at 30°C, and putting an extra jumper on when I get cold, but I think that until big changes start to be made, I’ll probably still feel like I’m fighting a losing battle. I just hope that we don’t have to resort to iron filings in the sea, or giant mirrors in the atmosphere.
Interesting post Emma. I’ve always thought there must be lots of novel ways that large cities could harness various forms of energy. I don’t know whether this is still an area of ongoing research (or if it has since been disregarded), but I’ve always thought there must be an efficient way of using people’s feet pounding on pavements to generate energy. Also, another novel way of harnessing solar energy (in a way which some people might find less obtrusive), is again through the use of pavements to collect solar energy – something that American researchers studied last August
I suppose the biggest problem however, is not thinking of these new approaches, but convincing both energy providers and the general public that they are worthwhile investing in – something which is hard when initial costs are so high until the technology becomes more mainstream.
Thats an awesome picture. I really don’t understand the argument about wind turbines being an eyesore. Could solar panels really be a solution to climate change for the UK? They would have to be alot more efficient to deal with out distinct lack of sunshine. Wind on the other hand, we have lots of.
Emma – A very good comment about the office block – in the United States, two-thirds of electric use comes from non-residential sources. I work in the energy business, and have found the public hasn’t quite grasped some of the essential truths on energy. (You’re closer than most and doing some good thinking and research.) We use a truly vast amount of electricity in the developed world. Perhaps because we hide its generation at central power stations, there isn’t a realization just how much we burn off each second.
Unfortunately, alternative generation methods don’t produce all that much electricity unless they are really scaled up in size, which makes cost and practicality an issue. A typical power station would need several thousand very large windmills, with huge battery banks, to replace it. There are hundreds of these stations. Nature’s energy in general is very diffuse and gathering it in is difficult. (It’s easier to warm a room with a fireplace than the other way around.) Designing up front for such things, as you describe , is the best way to go.
Of course, the cheapest, safest energy is that which we don’t use. And energy issues do get rather daunting at the personal level. The big fixes (solar mirrors, giant mutant squirrels on treadmills) do take on a certain miracle drug appeal. (FYI: for more discussion of electric use, see the comments with Episode Two of my “energy novel” Rad Decision, free online at RD Episode 2 )