Get smart about energy: Make fossil fuels water under the bridge

Get smart about energy: Make fossil fuels water under the bridge
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By now, we should all know that global warming is slowly boiling our planet. We also understand that a long list of human activities is the main cause behind it, and that our insatiable hunger for energy is at the top of this list. Yet, our current solutions are lagging behind the raising temperatures and the resulting climate change. Renewable energy sources are only half of the solution to tackle global warming. The other half is energy efficiency. Our housing, retail and production systems waste gigantic amounts of energy, in the form of excess heat. How do we slash this waste? The answer is fairly simple: water; That is, with a smart thermal water grid.

When we think about future energy systems, we usually think only of electricity. We imagine smart power grids that integrate and deliver electricity for different purposes, like powering household appliances and commercial buildings, or charging electric vehicles. What power grids cannot do is to dramatically reduce the amount of energy that is wasted at the source of the energy application. Here is where the power grid’s twin – the smart thermal water grid – comes into play.

The idea is to take district heating to the next level. Think this: today, supermarkets produce copious amounts of excess heat to keep their freezers on 24/7, factories have stoves heating 24/7 and all sorts of industrial sites that need to cool or heat just keep releasing energy. This heat is simply released in the air, meaning that we are heating birds; and they just don´t need nor want the temperature to change. We could retain that excess heat and distribute it by redirecting it to where it is needed. Buildings, supermarkets and factories could exchange surplus heat and cooling directly with each other and cater to residential buildings. We just need the distribution system to make it happen. The beauty is that most countries already have all the energy they need for heating and cooling – they just can’t redistribute it.

A smart thermal water grid would do just that. And much more. By expanding and integrating existing district heating infrastructure, one would be able to use the excess heat coming from any wasteful source – e.g. from the production of electricity, chemical plants, the refrigeration systems of commercial and industrial sites and so on – at scale. It doesn’t stop there, because studies have shown that, once this water distribution system is in place, it becomes cheap and effective to add renewable energy sources to it. Osmotic, solar, geothermal energy can be attached, giant heat pumps can recycle the energy from floods, biofuels and incineration plants can feed in as well.

The road to superior energy efficiency is in theory a sustainability sweepstake. More efficiency means that less fuel is required to generate a given amount of energy, which in turns means lower costs for the provider and cheaper prices for the customers. At the same time, the grid creates new jobs for the design, construction and management of new energy infrastructure. Last but not least, a lower consumption would pave the way to a greater energy independence – and therefore energy security. Who would want loads of Russian gas, if we could get all the heat we need from our own surplus? Who needs tons of Middle Eastern oil, when we can integrate limitless renewable sources in our smart grids?

At this point, someone might still be wondering why we need a smart grid and what I mean by “smart” grid in the first place. The problem with most renewable sources is that they fluctuate. The sun doesn´t always shine, the wind doesn´t always blow. This is why, if we want to rely on renewables, we need intelligent systems that integrate and coordinate different sources of energy at scale, so that when one is scarce or unavailable, the other ones can automatically compensate.

In Europe, some companies are already developing parts of this vision on a big scale, and a unique project of smart energy system is currently taking off in Copenhagen. It is not by chance that Europe is taking the lead on energy efficiency, since today the heat wasted in the Old Continent is more than what is required to heat all its buildings. A pan-European smart thermal water grid would have a huge impact on the environment and on the economy of the world’s biggest marketplace.

To adopt clean and efficient energy systems worldwide, we need to support their development and implementation on a political level – in fact, international top-down decisions. District heating markets often lack regulations to ensure transparency and protect customers from unfair pricing (London is case in point). In addition, despite all talks about climate change and green energy, our governments are still supporting the consumption of fossil fuels. In 2015 the global amount of subsidies for fossil fuels reached an unbelievable $5.3tn – that is $10m every minute! The scope of research and development in efficiencies and renewables that could be achieved with such funding is simply mind-blowing.

To save this planet, political leaders must take immediate action to ensure we reuse and regenerate the energy we all need in a sustainable way. For all the talk about smart grids and electrification, water is the faster, cheaper way. Speaking about energy, the smart thermal water grid is a the most efficient and overlooked big-idea out there.

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