CONSERVATION SC 208 Our Energy Future April 21, 2006 John Bush

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CONSERVATIONSC 208 Our Energy FutureApril 21,
2006 John Bush
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DEFINITIONS OF CONSERVATION

• Preservation (OED)
• From waste
• Of existing conditions
• Of the environment, especially natural resources
• Deliberate, planned or thoughtful preserving,
  guarding, or protecting (Websters)
• The planned management of a natural resource to
  prevent exploitation, destruction, or neglect
• The wise utilization of a natural product so as
  to prevent waste and ensure future use of
  resources that have been depleted

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• What are we trying to conserve?
• What reasons are offered to conserve it?

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WHAT?

• Petroleum conservationPC
• Energy conservationEC
• Resource conservationRC

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WHY?WHAT ARE WE TRYING TO PRESERVE?

• To preserve the capitalist economic system (the
  global economy as presently defined) by achieving
  economic goals as they are being presently
  defined--CP
• To preserve the degree of freedom Americans have
  (subject primarily to economic constraints) with
  regard to the places they live and the lifestyles
  they adoptSP
• To preserve for future generations the resources
  they may need (waste is morally bad)GP
• To preserve the biosphere by minimizing the
  impacts of human actionEP
• To transform the capitalist economic system into
  one that more fairly distributes the costs and
  benefits of human activity --CT

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NATURAL CAPITALISM

• Paul Hawken, Amory Lovens, Hunter Lovens
• To harness the talent of business to solve the
  worlds deepest environmental and social
  problems
• People could live twice as well but use half as
  much material and energy by combining
  innovations in business practice and public
  policy

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NATURAL CAPITALISMASSUMPTIONS

• Natural capital (resources, living systems, and
  ecosystem services) is the limiting factor in
  economic development
• For a sustainable economy must deal with badly
  designed business systems, population growth, and
  wasteful consumption
• All forms of capital must be fully valued human,
  manufactured, financial, natural
• Sustainability depends on redressing global
  inequities of income and material well-being
• Democratic systems of government based on the
  needs of people rather than of business are
  required.

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RESOURCE PRODUCTIVITY

• Doing more with less (differs from economic
  efficiency)
• Only 6 of materials end up in products
• The economy operates at 10 of theoretical
  energy-use efficiency
• Waste and noise are signs of inefficiency
• Many government programs encourage inefficiency

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OPPORTUNITY

• Americans waste or cause the waste of one million
  pounds of materials/year
• US Energy consumption in 2003 98,156 Trillion
  Btu
• Transportation 27
• Residential 22
• Commercial 18
• Industrial 33
• US Energy intensity Btu/ of goods and services
  produced
• 1970 9130 Btu
• 2003 4320 Btu
• About ½ of reduction is due to efficiency
  improvements
• Rest is due to service economy and offshore
  manufacturing

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IS CONSERVATION A RATIONAL GOAL?

• Jevons Paradox as technological improvements
  increase the efficiency with which a resource is
  used the consumption of that resource may
  increase rather than decrease
• Huber and Mills the virtue of waste

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• In what parts of the US are the opportunities
  greatest?

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• What are the opportunities by sector?

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SECTORS

• Agricultural/Food system
• Industrial
• Power generation/distribution

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FOOD

• More than 15 of the energy used in the US goes
  to provide, process, and distribute food
• Food processing, packaging and distribution 40
• Refrigeration and cooking 40
• Farming 20 (about ½ is for chemicals)
• US Farms use about ten times the energy from
  fossil fuel that they return in food energy
• There are many small opportunities e.g. crop
  drying, heat recovery, reuse farm wastes that can
  aggregate if widely employed

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INDUSTRIAL SECTOR

• Economics driven conservation always operatesbut
  not usually at the systems level
• There are some commonalities but many programs
  are industry specific
• All industries react to energy cost
• Materials processing industries steel, chemicals
  , glass use energy intensive raw materials

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DOE PROGRAMS EMPHASIS

• Specific industries
• Combined heat and power systems
• Motors
• Steam systems
• Compressed air systems
• Continuous fiber composites
• Combustion
• Sensors and controls

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ELECTRIC POWER

• Generation efficiency
• Transmission
• Storage
• Distribution
• Control

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DOE PROGRAMS EMPHASES

• Superconductivity
• Energy storage
• Demand management systems
• Distributed generation
• Electric industry restructuring
• Electricity reliability