There is little doubt that energy related issues are dominating much of the sustainable future discussion today. On one side of that equation a large number of people think that more awareness, education and discussion is the way forward. Alternatively, others consider legislation as a driver toward action and bringing about the changes that would create a sustainable energy future. Which is it?
While it appears that energy related issues have suddenly arrived front and center on the world stage, the truth is that they have been on the stage for a long time. What has changed more quickly is the recognition that to enable a sustainable energy future will require some smooth footwork, clever thinking and prudent planning.
Climate change aside, there are significant and important reasons to be thinking about energy more than ever. Non-renewable resources are decreasing as consumption grows, cost of exploration and production can be prohibitive or uneconomical and transport of energy may be unreliable, impossible or simply not a viable option. Add in the views of climate change and the need to embark upon changes multiplies, grows and becomes more oriented to the near future, rather than the distant future.
But what is the best and most effective method for building capacity towards a sustainable future for energy? I am not sure we have all the answers yet, and, depending upon who one listens to, we are either closer or further from the realisation. Either way, the need to act is a requirement and the need to involve people in the future changes is an important step.
One option would be to initiate government action and simply quantify, qualify and regulate the change. This would have the effect of imposing the solution, create an environment where capacity might not be able to measure up to the legislation and simply disorient the energy market with higher costs at a time when creative solutions appear to be the answer.
The second alternative involves education and this approach would engage people into the energy debate, helping them to understand the issues of production, sustainability and the economic correlation of choices. Some people say a solution likely lies in the middle somewhere, although one could easily argue that we don’t know enough about energy sustainability to create either option effectively and knowledgeably.
It is hard to argue against involving people into the energy debate. They can participate through elements of the energy equation susch as efficiency whereby their choices on products, services and solutions become more or less ‘green.’ It appears, to me at least, that we have not connected the dots for people about the total costs of ownership – of energy – and how those evolve.
Producing solar energy at the north pole is not likely to be as lucrative as producing solar energy near Spain or Florida or Manila, for example. Dams are not often present in deserts and moving oil and gas in pipelines under water can be costly. There is a geographical basis for considering energy supply and demand, and there are locations where certain types of energy are more in abundance than others. All of these factors impact economics. Would you prefer these options legislated or revealed through education? What we don’t know can be costly.
But we need to stop beating around the bush and meet the energy supply and demand question directly. Perhaps looking at the equation as being polar opposite is not the way to go. Instead, we need to begin thinking of these options on a continuum, one that can adapt and workable dependent upon requirements, regional issues and while pursuing national and international strategies.
All too often we use the ruler of climate change as the sole goal for inacting energy change. There are some very positive reasons for pursuing wind, solar, geothermal and other sources of reneable energy – in addition to – oil, coal and gas, for example. Renewable energies are like Google advertising. Everyone can advert and get a little back. Similarly, everyone can produce some energy, feed it into a grid and then get some back too.
We need more people understanding how they can get some back, and that involves educating them to costs of production, consumption, exploration and development.
Once this equation is understand and balanced, then sustainability can flourish and energy exploration, production and consumption can coexist within a framework that supports people, jobs, government, business and employment, but also grows to include more research and further sustainable development.
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Jeff Thurston is editor of V1 Energy magazine and V1 Magazine for Vector1 Media. He is based in Berlin.
Models are tools that help researchers to understand energy related processes while also providing policy makers with useful information for decision making. There are different kinds of models and they can be used for different purposes. Some models attempt to gauge the relationship of energy production-consumption to the prevailing price of energy. In other cases, models can be used to generate information about the rate of energy consumption against development for specific regions or groups of regions.
Environmental models might assess potential energy development together with environmental paramters, thereby serving to mitigate impacts, for example. Models can be simple, running quickly and for short periods of time, or they can be used over longer periods of time and incorporate higher levels of complexity with more variables. Digital economy and infrastructure enables greater levels of modelling. Interestingly, in areas where less digital data is possible can result in less modelling, and that impacts the kinds of models that can be used.
Modelling has grown in popularity. That growth is supported through increased knowledge about modeling processes but also attributable to higher levels of computerization, enabling digital infrastructure and policy issues demanding higher levels of accountability. In pactice models are used to understand processes better, and that has major benefits to the energy industry where more information translates into less risk. The implications of accurate modelling are real and can have significant impacts – reducing environmental impacts and to reducing safety risks, for example. But models are used for energy production, consumption and operations.
The United Kingdom recently published information about Energy Systems which is available through the UK Energy Research Centre. When considering energy that agency considers E4 modeling (energy-economic-engineering-environment). The purpose of this approach is toward integrating four factors into the development of overall energy research – a systems approach. This principle closely aligns with urban planning, for example, where multi-dimensional approaches are similarly used within a system structure. The idea here is to develop suitable (and sustainable) energy directions with a view to each of these factors. Clearly, if the production exceeds engineering capabilities then risk results, for example. Alternatively, it does not make much economic sense to impact a landscape that results in expensive consequences to remediate and reclaim. There is a balance to be established, but to achieve such balance, in some locations, or under specific conditions, may require modelling.The models would evaluate several factors so that the appropriate decision can be made.
Models are driven by data. It goes with out saying that models which seek to provide answers based upon little data are less reliable than those models that include more data. Geological information, seismic, sonar, wind and solar data are all useful for driving models. To enable appropriate tidal power energy development requires an understanidng of the tidal and wave conditions of the region where development is being considered. The European Marine Energy Centre has been involved in modelling tidal and wave energy for a considerable period of time.
While most energy related modelling was previously focused upon production of energy alone, today such models are more broadly based and can be found across independent company’s and throughout the energy sector covering business to production to energy transport, for example. The spread of energy related modelling has increased, driven in part by advances in energy technologies that produce data used to quantify processes, but also because of demands originating from policy factors.
Since the data created and used in energy modelling is digital, then advances in IT infrastructure have enabled the development of more complex modelling while growing a never ending thirst for more data as demands and expectations prior to decision making grow.The movement of this digital information is important since it connects the producers and users of modelling information in closer collaboration with decision makers. Accordingly, where telecommunications infrastructure supports digital data delivery – and modelling – then higher levels of modelling and the complexity of the modeling increases, particularly where real-time events are occuring and being modelled. We often refer to these as ‘mission critical’ systems and processes and they usually entail higher levels of authentification and security.
In most cases, modelling is uncoupled from live systems. That is, the data is collected, managed and processed for modelling. But the change in modelling over time has meant increasing amounts of real-time modeling. This also leads to a requirement for computing software and processing mechanisms that can integrate data suitable for modelling purposes, often pre-processing the information or processing it in an intermediary fashion prior to connecting to larger processing systems, often located on specialised servers and hardware.
Significant change has taken place in terms of the types of models, their complexity and who can use them. It is not out of the ordinary for competing agencies to be developing models based on similar portions of data derived through a common source. At the same time, these parties may be supplementing that information with individual developed and proprietary information created and collected through their own resources.
At the same time, the rise in tools for use to develop models has resulted in efficiencies that enable more people to operate them. Consequently, it would not be unusual for opposing forces to base their interpretations and goals on different approaches using similar tools.
So what’s the catch? Clearly, investment in data for modeling is important. Today’s tools can yield highly important, often critical results, that might not otherwise be apparent or available. Modelling enables enterprises with the ability to compete more effectively and completely while reducing risk and vulnerability.
Can a model be wrong? Yes, but usually weaker modelling is connected with the wrong types of information being used, or too little data driving the particular model for which specific answers are being sought. It is wise to use models as information sources, and to assign value to them based upon performance over time. But it is worth noting that energy models are increasingly connecting toward governance and consumers. This may be attributable to the fact that energy conservation and efficiency is most closely aligned to energy use and people making better decisions about how they use energy.
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Jeff Thurston is editor of V1 Energy and V1 Magazine in Europe, Middle East and Africa for Vector1 Media.
Planning and developing energy for the future will demand greater emphasis on education. Innovation will continue to be major driver as new energy sources, increases in efficiency and different approaches for managing energy are pursued and developed. Research will also contribute toward the development of new approaches as energy exploration, discovery and implementation begin to take root in forms. The training and education needs for a 21st century energy sector will be diverse and expanded, venturing into places that we have not been traditionally associated with energy.
The writing is on the wall and most of us can decipher that energy is emerging as a primary sector with changing economic times and social patterns for consumers. While it is anticipated that energy use is going to continue to grow as the population expands, the sources of energy and how consumers will be managing their personal energy consumption is changing. It is difficult to see large, if any, drop in overall energy demand. A more likely scenario is expected to pursue alternative forms of energy in addition to oil, coal and gas. Wind, solar, bioenergy as well as wave and tidal sources are growing in use. Many people expect nuclear energy will also be a major contributor to overall worldwide energy supply.
Research is not new to the energy industry. Large financial investments have always been present in exploration, chemical and infrastructure areas. But interest and demand is growing on the consumption side of the equation as organisations begin to see that more energy efficient infrastructure, processes and goods can contribute significant energy savings. To achieve these goals requires investments in education.
Innovation and research are tightly linked to education. There is no mystery that some of the most productive products and services in the world are developed through a well-educated and highly motivated workforce that understands how energy is found, developed and created, as well as how it is consumed.
Bioenergy, for example, is dependent upon a workforce that understands how climate factors link to the growth and development of suitable energy crops and cropping systems, then how energy can be extracted from these biological resources, used to produce energy and transported for consumption. In practice this requires a trained and educated workforce that is multi-discplinary and capable of understanidng system processes that re-cycle and re-occur over and over again.
The entire carbon trade debate rests on the idea that landscape areas and the processes originating from them, can be managed and understood through the linkage of economic models to energy producing sources over space and time. As has been menioned previously in this column, the scale at which these processes arise and how these models are integrated into the wider trading systems upon which they rest, can and will likely mean that a workforce in one part of the world must balance operations and processes against other geographical areas around the globe. Suddenly these trading spaces have moved from localised spreadsheets to international tally’s of a more holistic nature.
From the agricultural field to the tiidal buoy crossing international boundaries, the demands for more brainpower and understanding are in high demand and growing. The computing tools that connect people, for exmaple, are no longer sourced and sharing information within and between organisations from the top, but more closely to the bottom where consumers and businesses inter-connect. Customers and consumers are now empowered with the tools to communicate and socialize across all dimensions of an organisation.
It is an exciting time to be in the energy industry because it is being reshaped and adjusted upon new models of operation. Although investors may remain wary in the financial markets, the technology sides of energy are continuing to explore, expand and are growing new knowledge and awareness as these new dynamics take root.
These changes can be found from the designers of new buildings and infrastructure for energy purposes to understanidng how changing populations are using energy and even producing it. Change will continue and new energy models will continue to develop. The focus is upon energy today and new talent with creative knowledge will support the changes ahead.
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Jeff Thurston is editor of Europe, MIddle East and Africa for V1 Energy and V1 Magazine. This column alternates weekly.
Additional Reading:
Energy Efficiency Lesson Plans by Teachers
Energy Star for Higher Education
Kids Corner for Energy Education
U.S. Department of Energy Education Initiatives
Eco-Design is important for it’s contribution to energy efficiency and the environment. Energy efficiency can be viewed through the lifecycle of a product, but ut can also be viewed through the design of energy related services. These services also operate through a lifecycle for the term of the needed functions.
The term eco-design applies to the procurement, manufacture, use and disposal of products and these are generally assumed to be consumer goods in most cases. But computer generated services and technologies are increasingly providing products too. Wherever energy is produced, obtained, used and consumed may also be associated with design elements. For this reason energy-design encompasses all forms of energy use andis related to the environment and efficiency.
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Oil and gas have been lumped together as like energy sources for a long period of time. While they’re both non renewable fossil fuels, and natural gas often accompanies liquid petroleum in wells, there are enough gas-only sources and uses that they should be considered as independent entities. When you look at availability, low emissions and cheaper price of natural gas, it should be considered as the preferred fossil fuel.
When addressing energy independence and national security, natural gas is a very attractive alternative to oil. Gas is abundant domestically, while more than 60 percent of the oil we consume needs to be imported, and largely from unstable and even hostile regimes. The domestic supply of natural gas continues to increase with new discoveries and new techniques such as horizontal drilling.
Gas burns much more cleanly than oil or coal. According to the Department of Energy, fossil fuels supply 85 percent of the primary energy consumed in the United States and are responsible for 98 percent of emissions of carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide emissions of oil is 44 percent, coal is 36 percent and natural gas is 20 percent. While natural gas is far from the zero-emissions goals of renewable energies, it’s abundance and cleaner burning profile makes
Compressed natural gas is an attractive alternative to gasoline as an energy source for vehicles. In fact, there’s a growing push for tax credits for cars that run on compressed natural gas, including a bill that recently passed in Colorado. Natural gas vehicles can also be fueled directly in the home via the home gas supply line, saving trips to fueling stations and fueling can be accomplished easily overnight when the vehicle isn’t in use.
The abundance of natural gas also makes it a cheaper energy source than oil, and the decoupling of the two could further achieve more favorable price margins. Currently, natural gas is 10 to 15 times cheaper than crude oil. Further globalization of the natural gas market could help drive the price of gas down further, making it much more attractive in the future.
Based on all of these above factors, it’s time to further separate gas from oil. Perhaps we need a national campaign to tout the energy advantages of natural gas a cleaner, safer and cheaper alternative.
The continuing development of new energy technologies, policies and changing construction technology will result in changes for building and home data generation. While energy efficiency within these structures is likely to increase at a rapid rate, a large volume of data and digital information will also be generated. This data will orginate from numerous places, both within a building, the community and through external agencies. It will be useful at different scales for different purposes. As the amount of information grows, the need to process it will also grow. That may take different approaches.
Traditionally, building and home monitoring for energy use has been fairly coarse with much of the information generated from temperature sensors to increase and decrease heating or cooling levels and to turn lights on and off. New construction materials are more efficient in mitigating the changes of climate, increasing cooling and or maintaining the level of temperature within a structure. A shift in operational sensing to monitoring, management and safety approaches will necessarily mean more sensors and energy management approach that considers the entire structure and it’s immediate surrounding.
A myriad of sensor technologies are now available for monitoring temperature, wind, lighting, noise, intruders and building use. Collectively these devices produce a wealth of information about home performance. Much of that information may not have practical use for long term data storage, however, some of it will. Consider the re-sale of a home and a potential buyer, who, for example, may be interested to learn more about the structural performance before deciding to purchase a property. This has immediate importance, particularly where building codes, taxes and legal requirements are involved due to changing legislation.
As data records grow, a need will exist to store this information some place. But prior to that, the information may need to be processed for use (and understanding) prior to storing the information. Thus a need for processing and data storage will exist and building owners will need to decide upon a strategy for dealing with this problem.
Luckily a growth in energy management IT is taking place at this time and there are options for processing these kinds of information. Indeed, the entire concept of ‘Smart Technology’ is being promoted to do just that – process, distribute and store energy information.
In many cases this information can be stored offsite and hiring someone to perform this task will be necessary to achieve the connection, store the information and to ensure that it is backed up appropriately.
Over time we are likely to see greater demands for neighbourhood and regional data as new policies develop and new strategies for building, operating and maintaining neighbourhoods take foot.
These changes are both exciting and challenging. They will undoubtedly lead toward homes and buildings being integrated more closely into long term management strategies regionally, but they will also require that we understand the value of the property that we purchase today, will maintain its value along with suitable records that document its efficiency and performance, thus cost of operation.
There’s an increasing interest in mapping renewable energy resources, given the boost that such projects have received with additional federal funding. The idea of renewable energy solves many problems at once by reducing both our economic dependence on foreign energy and the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming our planet. The investment in hydro, geothermal, wind, solar and wave energy will require careful consideration about where to best site these investments.
Mapping tools coupled with remote, and on-the-ground, sensors provide the data necessary to site new power plants and design new utility routes. There are many factors to consider when determining the best locations, and conducting a geospatial analysis of the problem requires many different data sets at different scales over time, coupled with energy use information.
Mapping the Sources
GIS provides the means to visualize long-term observations of wind, sun, wave, water and agricultural production. The best sites for different renewable energy options differ widely across the world, with some regions better suited for solar generation and others better suited for wind production, etc.
Many of the observations necessary to determine renewable energy viability are provided as component of weather. Wind speeds have been recorded as a weather observation over time. Solar energy is largely dependent on cloud cover, which can best be calculated based on satellite observation of weather patterns and the amount of clouds that blanket a specific area over time. Hydropower is largely dependent on the amount of moisture and rainfall in a region. And biomass production is dependent on excellent conditions for agriculture, which is also highly weather dependent.
Renewable energy viability is also determined by the lay of the land or topology of a region. The windiest locations on Earth occur where tall coastlines or high mountains meet the ocean, and other high wind areas are at high elevation closer to the jet stream or where tall mountains funnel wind energy into smaller valleys. The best solar production occurs nearest the equator, since there’s more sunlight year round considering these areas don’t drift as far north and south with the seasons. Hydropower is best harnessed where rivers have great elevation changes, because the swifter the current the faster the turbines can be spun, resulting in greater power generation. Much geothermal power is generated from direct use systems, where hot springs indicate direct venting of the heat from the Earth’s core to the surface.
Each of these examples illustrates the location-specific conditions of renewable energy mapping related to earth processes.
Coupling to Needs
There are also geographic considerations that require closer observation of power source to demand, such as population proximity to the energy source and the existence of infrastructure to transport the power. Determining the optimal power sources is just part of the equation, because the location of the best energy sources need to be considered in proximity to demand, and the cost to transport the energy to where it’s needed.
Although water, wind, the sun and other renewables may appear free, their cost comes in collecting, harnessing, and transporting the energy. For example, to utilize energy from water, a dam must be built along with electric generators and transmission lines. And often times the most powerful renewable resources are far from populations, because the conditions for great power from our Earth are often inhospitable for human habitation.
The location of transmission lines is a politically sensitive issue, with a great deal of regulation and public input, because people don’t want transmission lines where they can see them. There are also environmental considerations, potential damage over time from vegetation, and higher costs if the transmission lines have to be routed over physical barriers such as bluffs or rivers. Routing of transmission becomes a considerable component of renewable energy siting due to these factors.
A number of different government and non-government sources are working on calibrated maps that show the best sites for renewable power generation investments. While some locations may seem obvious choices for power generation, making the most of the money available will require a detailed assessment of many geographic factors to make sure that only the optimal sites and energy sources are chosen.
Resources
National Atlas, Renewable Energy Sources in the United States
National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Renewable Resources Maps & Data
Colorado Wind Atlas – combines wind reading with power lines and land ownership data
3Tier A wind energy assessment company
With all the plans for large infrastructure spending projects as economic stimulus, why is there money for the energy grid? Some might feel that the money is best spent on roads and bridges as they see the deterioration of these elements as more directly aligned with commerce. What they’re missing is the inefficiency of our current distribution network and the significant economic gains from higher quality power generation and distribution.
According to calculations by the Department of Energy, the demand for power in the United States grows at more than one percent per year, and that’s not likely to change even in a down economy. Much of this flows on a network that was built more than 40 years ago. The American Society of Civil Engineers ranks the U.S. electric grid as a bright spot compared to other infrastructure, but there’s still a need for $1.5 trillion in investment over the next twenty years just in order to keep up with demand. Conversion to a national grid and local smart grid technology could shave considerable cost off that total by driving back growth of demand.
Savings Are Considerable
On the antiquated electric grid, ten percent of all the electricity we generate gets lost when it passes through old lines and inefficient transformers. The estimated financial hit of this loss amounts to $25 billion to $180 billion each year. By building more efficient network distribution, we cut loss, encourage conservation, eliminate previously hidden waste, and make power generation more efficient.
Energy conservation is the cheapest means to efficiency, but the grid is step one in this equation. The grid is the where the greatest energy efficiency gains can be found with the least amount of investment. And since our grid is near capacity now, we can’t expect to meet the added demands of renewable energy and electric cars without first upgrading our transmission system.
Weaving Though Regulations
In the United States a great many of the electric utilities are publicly traded companies that have invested money in power lines, but relatively little on the transmission grid. This public/private combination makes some bristle with some that feel the companies should pay for their own infrastructure. There’s also a great deal of legal and regulatory obstacles for siting and construction that have made it very difficult to build new power generation and transmission capacity.
In order to adequately and swiftly address the needs of new power transmission, and a national grid, the federal government can have great sway of cutting through local red tape. After all, a more efficient grid would bring a giant leap toward energy independence, which is tied closely to national security. What’s needed is a compromise and better regulations to streamline the creation of a national system with buy-in from states and municipalities. If we’re going to rebuild a more efficient grid, we first need to make sure that the construction and maintenance of these new structures is itself efficient.
High Cost of Failure
The cost of power failures can have a catastrophic economic effect on a city or region. A one-hour outage in Chicago in 2000 caused $20 trillion in trades delayed. A blackout in Silicon Valley totaled $75 million in losses. The Northeast blackout of 2003 cost $6 billion to the region.
Behind all of these outages is an overtaxed grid that is not adequately balanced or flexible. For instance, it can take days to get power back online after an outage due to a need to balance the system. The smart grid introduces a much more balanced grid where current flows in both directions and problem areas can be easily isolated. This smarter grid responds to demand quickly, and can handle issues of outages much more locally, without thousands of customers affected by very local events.
The move toward higher quality power and smarter transmission received a great boost when the stimulus bill allocated $11 billion for smart grid technology, including $4.5 billion for smart-technology matching grants. This is likely just a start for the amount that needs to be invested, but the payoffs can quickly offset the investment in so many ways.
References
The Urgent Need to Upgrade the Grid, Jim Jelter, MarketWatch
The Smart Grid: An Introduction, Litos Strategic Communications (under contract to D.O.E)
Smart Grid, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Smart Grid – A Powerful Tool for Conservation, Daily Breeze (2/26/09)
Future Renewable Electric energy Delivery and Management Systems Center (FREEDM)
The New Smart Grid: 21st Century Tech for the 21st Century, Bill Chameides, PopSci.com
Are there limitations to the amount of energy available, and if so, how would we know? It is a straightforward calculation for determining the limits of non-renewable energy resources – though one could argue that all of them have not been discovered, nor exploited. But our understanding about the boundaries surrounding renewable energy use are far less known, understood and realised.
The Energy Path Chosen
As the world’s population rises, the need for greater amounts of energy rises as well. With the recent downturn in the global economy we are seeing people beginning to put the breaks on consumption, to re-evaluate their needs and consider the relationship of energy use into their daily living.
The path ahead is not fully clear, but there are signals that investment in new forms of energy is growing. This is particularly true for solar, wind, biomass and geothermal types of energy. Yet, the balance between the amount of needed energy and it’s use remains highly related to the level of consumption of goods, products and services. It is also impacted by climate and environmental situations.
Sometimes we hear the phrase ‘think global, act local’ and that can have meaning and significance to the boundaries we begin to set on our daily use of energy, but also where and how that energy is produced. Energy is geographical and its transport, processing and distribution are also impacted by boundaries including, costs, availability, environment, access, quantity and quality, for example.
Sustainability and Boundaries
A discussion of energy sustainability opens the door to the wider issues of daily living and how society functions. A connectedness exists between people and the landscape and the resources available and their use. There are different approaches for determining sustainability and many of them often consider, and include, differing parameters, tools for evaluation as well as incorporating wide ranging policies and funding support.
How do you see and understand the boundary of energy in your community? If the area in which you live has larger amounts of different types of energy sources, then what are your responsibilities for helping and sharing that energy with others in need of energy?
This goes back not only to the idea of geographical boundaries for energy, physically, but the very concept and realisation that not all places can generate enough wind, solar, oil or biomass. There is a need to understand these differences in availability and how they act as boundaries and impact policies and development. It is not simply a matter of saying the entire world will move to biomass, solar or any other form of energy.
Instead, a careful evaluation of the ‘geography of energy’ against availability and other factors is a fundamental step leading toward sustainable energy planning. It also means that areas of supply must not simply be mined for their resources, then later transported, but new approaches for establishing sustainable boundaries within production areas could become part of the wider discussion.
There is a growing sense that a multi-modal energy approach holds great promise. It would involve all resource types and require greater understanding, investigation and education. Perhaps it is time we evaluate the boundaries of energy more fully.
Energy will continue to be a focus well into the future. V1 Energy is the second Vector1 Media publication dealing with issues of sustainability that will cover both renewable and non-renewable types of energy.
At Vector1 Media we began by publishing V1 Magazine, our online publication oriented around the topics of infrastructure, building information modeling (BIM), computer aided design (CAD) and geographic information systems (GIS) as they pertain to sustainability.
V1 Energy emerged as a result of our previous publishing activity which often involved the topic of energy from the infrastructure and building side of the equation. Discussions were often around the theme of energy, particularly in terms of efficiency and planning processes.
The development of new technologies and approaches has grown through increased innovation to neet the challenges of continued energy supply and efficiency. Wind, solar, wave, gasification and hybrid energy forms are supplementing oil and gas, coal and nuclear forms of energy. While so called ‘green’ technologies have captured public and political interest due to their renewable nature, non-renewable forms of energy will continue to supply the bulk of the world’s energy needs in the near future.
A transition is rapidly taking place around the world as both renewable and traditional forms of energy are being pursued with a view to continued supply and sustainability. The impacts of these changes will connect to the changes in how people live, the support systems they need and the sustainable energy strategies they seek.
We are not about to move to a totally renewable energy based economy in the near future. A transition will take place and has already begun. The challenge of sustainable energy and living remain. V1 Energy will attempt to inform, educate and raise awareness about this transition through the resources of all forms of energy. We can expect CAD. GIS and other spatial technologies will also relate to energy technologies. The combination of V1 Magazine and V1 Energy magazines will hopefully provide our readers with a well-rounded and thorough understanding of sustainability from energy through to infrastructure.
ViewPoint will change weekly with Matt Ball and I alternating with a different perspective of topical interest weekly.
We don’t have all the answers, but we do recognise that sustainable energy is a primary goal of the future. Innovation is clearly happening and we will strive to bring leadership in news, discussion, articles, opinion, technology and solutions as the energy challenges of the future meet us all.
