Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Electrification: its impact on
energy (and climate)
The explosion of electrification over the twentieth century was a welcome
trend; electricity can provide an extraordinary array of services. It is now
far more than getting light, warmth, refrigeration or motion at the flick of
a switch. The Internet has now connected up the world, revolutionizing
communications. Further electrification of our energy systems ought to
be something to welcome.
However, in terms of climate and resources, our increasing electricity
usage has a cost. Could further electrification of our lives be environ-
mentally beneficial? Yes, if the electricity is produced by low-carbon
means - which, in the world we currently live in, essentially means using
renewable or nuclear energy sources. It is important to ask what impact
electricity, itself the physical product of the energy system, is having on
that same energy system.
Adaptation to climate change
One example of this is air conditioning. An inevitable result of global
warming will be the increased use, for those who can afford it, of air
conditioning. For some southern states of the US and of the European
Union, electricity consumption now peaks in the summer, not win-
ter. There is a vicious circle developing here. Energy use creates some
65-80 percent (depending on how industrialized a country is) of the
greenhouse gases creating global warming. Responding to a symptom
of climate change by upping our use of its causes will clearly worsen the
problem.
Yet electrification will play a vital part in mitigating climate change.
In terms of transport, it has the potential to decarbonize a considerable
amount of car travel (see p.230) via battery-operated electric cars and
plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. It is electricity or rather micro-chips and
electronics that can provide new ways of interacting with people, such as
tele-working or tele-conferencing, cutting down on the carbon footprint
of international travel.
And, as we will investigate in this chapter, increasingly “intelligent” and
interactive approaches to our electricity supply could make a significant
global difference to emissions, through smart grids (see p.104) designed
