"Rejected Energy" and Heat Mapping the EU
USAmerica generates around 100 quadrillion BTUs per year, more or less, and has plateaued at that level since 2000. However, about 67% of the energy produced is characterized as “rejected energy,” energy that does no useful work, according to the annual energy report of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (https://flowcharts.llnl.gov).
We waste about 2/3rds of the energy we produce, each and every year.
A lot of that is waste heat which could be used for process heat in industrial processes and heating (and cooling) especially if we had district heating systems. The EU does have district heating systems and is now beginning to maximize their use in order to reduce their own “rejected energy” and the climate effects it produces. In fact, "This is how Copenhagen plans to go carbon-neutral by 2025” (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/05/the-copenhagen-effect-how-europe-can-become-heat-efficient/) starting with Nordhavn, a district “designed to be the world’s foremost smart energy laboratory at full scale" demonstrating "how electricity and heating, energy-efficient buildings and electric transport can be integrated into an intelligent, flexible and optimized energy system."
They say, "We need to link district heating systems and expand thermal grids at scale. The next step in Europe is to make smart thermal grids that can harvest heat wasted from current and future sources such as power plants and data centres. Europe is wasting enough heat to almost cover the current heat demands in all its buildings. The Heat Roadmap Europe (HRE) project (https://heatroadmap.eu) and World Economic Forum’s Future of Europe, Energy initiative sparked the idea of creating a smart thermal grid in all EU countries. As a result, the Pan-European Thermal Atlas (Peta) (https://heatroadmap.eu/peta4/) now pairs areas with heat demand and heat excess sources. In other words, it is preparing and planning the heat grid.”
They say, "We need to link district heating systems and expand thermal grids at scale. The next step in Europe is to make smart thermal grids that can harvest heat wasted from current and future sources such as power plants and data centres. Europe is wasting enough heat to almost cover the current heat demands in all its buildings. The Heat Roadmap Europe (HRE) project (https://heatroadmap.eu) and World Economic Forum’s Future of Europe, Energy initiative sparked the idea of creating a smart thermal grid in all EU countries. As a result, the Pan-European Thermal Atlas (Peta) (https://heatroadmap.eu/peta4/) now pairs areas with heat demand and heat excess sources. In other words, it is preparing and planning the heat grid.”
Let me make this clear, the EU is mapping waste heat sources throughout their participating nations and developing plans to transform that waste heat into useful work. I doubt there’s anyone in USAmerica who is even thinking along those lines at that scale. Yet.
You can learn more about these ideas at the 7th International Conference on Smart Energy Systems (https://smartenergysystems.eu) on 21-22 September 2021 at Aalborg University and Energy Cluster in Denmark.
"After being forced by circumstances into holding the conference strictly virtually in 2020, we look forward to yet again welcoming our conference participants in a hybrid setting with the possibility to attend either online or in person – this time in Copenhagen.
"The conference establishes a venue for presenting and discussing scientific findings and industrial experiences related to the subject of Smart Energy Systems based on renewable energy, 4th Generation District Heating Technologies and Systems (4GDH), electrification of heating and transport sectors, electrofuels and energy efficiency.
"This 7th conference in the series cements it as a main venue for presentations and fruitful debates on subjects that are pertinent to the development and implementation of smart energy systems to fulfil national and international objectives.”
"The conference establishes a venue for presenting and discussing scientific findings and industrial experiences related to the subject of Smart Energy Systems based on renewable energy, 4th Generation District Heating Technologies and Systems (4GDH), electrification of heating and transport sectors, electrofuels and energy efficiency.
"This 7th conference in the series cements it as a main venue for presentations and fruitful debates on subjects that are pertinent to the development and implementation of smart energy systems to fulfil national and international objectives.”
May there be USAmerican policymakers, scientists, and engineers in attendance at this conference who take good notes to bring back home.
If implemented over 20 years (the life of a roof or a program) this is ≈ 1.2 Gt/year.”
PS: "How much CO2 equivalent is offset if we whiten all eligible urban flat roofs world- wide?
Answer: 24 Gigatonnes (Gt) – 2/3 of a year’s worldwide emission – Gigatonne = billion metric tonsIf implemented over 20 years (the life of a roof or a program) this is ≈ 1.2 Gt/year.”
"We remain alert so as not to get run down, but it turns out you only have to hop a few feet to one side and the whole huge machinery rolls by, not seeing you at all."
Lew Welch
"the war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it."
Diane Di Prima
Lew Welch
"the war that matters is the war against the imagination
all other wars are subsumed in it."
Diane Di Prima
"Quite clearly, our task is predominantly metaphysical, for it is how to get all of humanity to educate itself swiftly enough to generate spontaneous behaviors that will avoid extinction."
R. Buckminster Fuller
Although, given recent and current events, there seem to be a whole hell of a lot of people who seem to be in love with the death drive.
posted by gmoke @ 6:29 PM
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