COP15: The Issues

What’s on the table at Copenhagen? Read at Good.is

Energy Storing Kinetic Monument

Store energy during peak production times. Extra power is used by a winch to elevate a monument in an urban setting.
Release green electricity on demand. As the monument is lowered, the energy is captured by a turbine.

Create awareness for energy issues. The physicality of the monument allows the onlooker to put abstract notions of electricity use and kilowatt hours into a tangible object. The monument also adds a dynamic element to its setting by gently rising and lowering with the electricity supply and demand.

Specifications: (scalable to other situations)
3m x 3m x 15m concrete obelisk
324,000 kg
Storage capacity:
8.83 kWh
Equivalent to:
15 street lights (50 watts) for 12 hours

Post-Oil Wells of Opportunity

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This generation has the great honor to transition from the Fossil Fuel Age to renewable resources. During this development, it would be fruitful to reuse oil and gas wells as geothermal energy plants.

Adaptive reuse of society's legacy from previous economic regimes can lead to low-cost and highly sustainable future. No one knows exactly how many oil and natural gas wells there are in the world, but the value is in the tens of millions.

The geothermal activity varies from well to well depending upon factors such as well depth, the thickness of the Earth's crust in that area, and local subterranean temperature. Many of these wells were drilled deep into the earths crust, even as far as 11 km deep.

While a well with a temperature of 200°C can power a city, even wells which produce 37°C can power a neighborhood. Several smaller wells in close proximity can also be combined into one system.

An oil or gas well does not have to be empty to harness geothermal energy: even operating wells can use the heat of rising water or petroleum for geothermal power. In the case of depleted wells, often hot water can be brought to the surface. If a well is hot dry rock, Enhanced Geothermal Systems can be used.

Texas is leading the way towards capturing geothermal power from active and empty oil wells ("Stripper fields" is the Texas lingo for depleted oil and gas wells) of which the state has over 1,000,000. Building off abundant existing oil and gas infrastructure, several transformation studies have been completed with promising results. They have shown that existing oil and gas wells posses temperatures within the range for electrical power production [pdf].

"There are 5,000 megawatts of geothermal power in hot water coming up from abandoned oil wells in West Texas," says Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association, a trade consortium. "All that energy is just being wasted." [link]

Geothermal energy provides clean, renewable baseload electricity available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, unlike the inherent uncertainty with wind or solar energy. Geothermal heat as low as 37°C can be used to make electricity in a binary power plant. This method of power generation is very environmentally-friends as binary plants use a self-contained cycle. Nothing from the process is emitted, including "greenhouse gases".

To take advantage of the Fossile Fuel Age's legacy resources, oil and gas wells throughout the world should be evaluated for their geothermal potential. However, I would like to offer a further consideration.

Cities in the temperate regions of the earth not only have a high demand for electricity, but also heat. Geothermal wells cogenerate electricity and heat. In order to effectively use the heat resource, which has a low transmission distance, future communities could be stragetically located on post-oil well sites. Heat accounts for a large percentage of building upkeep costs. It has already been shown that cascading heat from natural resources and industry in places like Denmark and Iceland works.

The energy (and exergy) from the well would then be used several times. Heat would cascade from power generation, to heavy industry, to greenhouses, and finally to dwellings, which only require 40*C.

The vision is for a city which blooms around the geothermal hotspot as desert life is centered around an oasis.

Energy Collecting Mixed-Use Building

7 weeks to go until our entry for the SASBE2009 competition is due. This is a personal brainstorm for a large building which utilizes many renewable infrastructure technologies.

The building is designed to capture as much sun as possible for passive solar gain, growing food, and improved living conditions.

The north facing side will be utilized by functions which do not require direct sun, such as rainwater storage, food storage, and retail.

The structure's first level will be a series of archways allowing for open transportation and easy connectivity. In the northern portion of the building, a hole is cut through to create a public square and allow more light to fall into the living and working spaces.

Culture vs. Structure in Environmental Problems

While discussing the origins of environmental damage, our MSc class was asked an interesting question. Do we think culture (norms & values) or structure (market & political systems) is the root of mankind's anthropocentric view of nature and the environment?

But what is your opinion? Try to answer the following question:

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After some discussion, most agreed that the root of the problem is multi-casual, or at least there is not such a big difference between a society's culture and structure. But when talking about money decisions and where to invest, tackling the problem at the knees seems like it can be difficult. So if you answered 'education' you might think culture plays a bigger role, and if answered 'subsidies' then... you get the idea.