AR INNOV PRES

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Down to ZeroSustainable SolutionsAcross
Scales
Fiona Cousins
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Zero energy - a question of scale
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Site and Source Energy
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Going to Zero Energy
Residential 650,000 sq ft Office 375,000 sq
ft Garage 500,000 sq ft Total Conditioned Floor
Area 1,025,000 sq ft
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Wheres the energy used?
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Wheres the energy used?
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How do we get to zero? Mechanical system options
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How do we get to zero? Envelope options
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How do we get to zero? Envelope options
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How do we get to zero? Lighting systems
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How do we get to zero? Changing design
conditions
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Different perspectives
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What does this do to site energy use?
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How do we get to zero?
TraditionalElectricityGeneration
Cogeneration
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What does this do to energy use?
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What does this do to energy use?
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What does this do to energy use?
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Renewables at the building
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Renewables at the building
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Regional Scale Renewables
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Regional Scale Renewables
Geothermal
Solar
Wind
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Regional Scale Renewables
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Regional Scale Renewables
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Regional Scale Renewables
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How significant is embodied energy?
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Buildings to Zero Energy

• Consider personal expectations
• Reduce the building energy use as far as possible
• Generate as much energy as possible on site as
  efficiently as possible
• Reuse buildings for as long as possible
• Cooperate with neigbors to share energy
  infrastructure and equipment.
• Move towards a regional, renewables power
  infrastructure.

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Questions raised?

• Is getting to zero energy at the building really
  the right idea?
• Or should we just do the best we can there and do
  the rest through politics?
• Is it OK to use as much energy as we want
  provided the power is renewable? What about
  all that infrastructure.

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Energy consumption in USA
Source Energy Information Administration
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Biomass or Waste

• Biomass is only zero carbon if
• It does not require forest cutting (CF carbon in
  a tree to carbon in corn)
• It is replaced with more biomass as it is burned
• It doesnt displace food production
• It doesnt use masses of fossil fuel for
  fertilizer, or
• Its a by-product of food production

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Past, present or future?
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US Transport Energy Efficiency
Source USDOT, USDOE National Transit Database
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Why does this matter?
Atmospheric CO2 and CH4 concentrations, 1000-prese
nt
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Transportation energy

• Increase engine efficiency
• Decrease vehicle weight
• Size
• Materials
• Reduce Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT)
• Improve convenience of other modes
• Demand management strategies
• Use alternative fuels
• Electricity
• Hydrogen

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Some potentially relevant transportation
opportunities

• Location, location, location
• Urban design
• Convenience and price of modes
• Better consideration of the needs of users
  designers need to be more engaged in the
  transportation industry
• Management issues in commercial buildings
• Telecommuting
• Delivery scheduling to reduce dwell time

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Some potentially relevant transportation
opportunities

• Some are related to operational inefficiencies
  by
• Reducing business travel through schedule
  optimization
• Substitution of videoconferencing and other
  technology
• Upgrading fleet efficiency
• Reducing idling time (evidently a significant
  portion of a internal combustion engines life is
  spent running while the vehicle isnot moving)
• Improving scheduling of inventory delivery to
  take road congestion into account
• Factoring in carbon emission consequences when
  choosing vendors and subcontractors (for
  construction of the facility, the processes that
  take place within, and supply and distribution of
  products, courier services, etc.)

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Some potentially relevant transportation
opportunities

• Some are related to reducing the undesirable
  aspects of commuting by
• Locating facilities in transit rich environments.
• Locating facilities where goods, services and
  community amenities are within walking distance.
• Subsidizing non-SOV trips.
• Eliminating subsidies for SOV trips.
• Supporting telecommuting and alternative work
  schedules (There is, however, a lot of data that
  demonstrates the total number of trips does not
  go down with telecommuting. The trips are
  shorter as people run errands during the day.

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Some potentially relevant transportation
opportunities

• Some are related to technological innovation such
  as
• Laying the technological and infrastructure
  foundation for eventual shift from fossil carbon
  to hydrocarbon based power
• Increasing the capacity and security of
  information/communications technology to
  facilitate higher quality interactions at a
  distance
• Rapid improvement in demand management and road
  pricing technologies to ensure that consumers are
  receiving the most immediate and accurate pricing
  information.

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Summary

• Do what you can at the scale(s) where you can get
  the highest returns on investment.
• Keep in mind that there are no silver bullets. 
  This struggle will be won by integration of
  improvements across a variety of systems, not by
  dramatic improvement in any single system.
• There is more that we dont know than we do know,
  so keep some attention focused on the horizon.