Energy

Energy can be saved through sharing appliances (for instance by using a beamer to watch film and television). Energy plays an important part in automation.

In the developed world energy abundance is being achieved through consumption of cheap, high-energy fossil fuel sources such as coal, oil and gas. This provided the energy required to drive the Industrial Revolution and improve the living standards of millions of people. However, rapid exploitation of such non-renewable energy sources has had adverse effects on the environment, including global warming, air and water pollution, and ocean acidification. There exists an inequitable access to global energy resources, and increasing political and social stresses resulting from an economic dependence on oil-producing regions.

Future energy systems need to provide energy abundance while being sustainable and non-polluting. Energy production should be distributed, diverse, intelligent and highly integrated into technological, industrial and domestic systems. Technologies will be evaluated on their ability to efficiently and cleanly provide abundant energy and open-source designs are preferred in order to provide equitable access.

The planning stage

Energy in the broadest sense is intrinsically linked to all systems and will be the common thread connecting housing, agriculture, water and waste treatment, industry, and transport. Hence, energy production, monitoring, efficiency, and use, need to be carefully considered during the design stage of the city. The ideal scenario for a “stand-alone” community such as the RBE10k city is to produce as much energy as possible from waste products (human waste, food waste, waste heat), i.e. “energy recycling” and the renewable sources available at the location (e.g. solar, wind, hydro).

Evaluating needs

Energy abundance will be created by intelligent and efficient generation, monitoring and use. As much as possible, the city will operate as a closed cycle incorporating the “cradle-to-cradle” ideology where all “waste” is considered as a “food” for either a biological or technological cycle. For example, food waste is converted to compost for agriculture, or human waste is converted to methane for cooking or electricity production. The energy needs of 10 000 people need to be estimated considering the following areas.

• Housing
  • Electricity, heating
• Industry
• Transport
  • Electricity, liquid fuels, hydrogen…
• Agriculture
• Water and waste treatment

Energy production

It is likely that there exists no single energy production technology that will meet all the needs and requirements of the community. Various sustainable technologies will need to be implemented. In the first case the choice of technologies will be limited by the budget of the project and availability (level of development, patents/licensing). Well-developed and benchmarked technology (e.g. solar and wind) could be used in conjunction with emerging technologies (e.g. fuel cells, combined heat and power). All systems will need to be evaluated with respect to the following issues:

• Provides base-load or variable generation?
• Reliability
• Impact of manufacture (energy use, environmental problems)
• Lifetime
• Economic
  • Single purchase cost
  • Ongoing costs such as maintenance and consumables (e.g. hydrogen for fuel cells)
• Open-source design available?

The following energy production technologies will be evaluated for their feasibility. Follow the links to see more information about the advantages and disadvantages of each. Once all the information is collected, a brief comparison table will be included.

• Solar (photovoltaic)
• Solar updraft tower
• Wind
• Hydroelectric
• Combined heat and power
• Fuel cells
• Fuel production
  • Methane generation from waste
  • Bioethanol and biodiesel

Energy efficiency and monitoring

During the design process it is important to consider energy efficiency and use within all components of the city. Continued upgrading and optimisation of the energy systems could be achieved via monitoring and “intelligent integration” with other systems (e.g. waste heat, heating, lighting, telecommunications)

Energy generation

Solar updraft tower

Cost per Watt of capacity = 4 EUR

Cost per watt of capacity (200 MW): 4 EUR, (50 MW): 6,04

50 MW (Spain, 1800) cost per Watt: 20 EUR

200 MW (Spain, 1800) cost per Watt: 12 EUR

Life span = 80 years.

+ Low maintenance cost.

+ Uses greenhouses that can be used for agriculture.

+ Produces energy at night at a reduced rate

+ Produces energy when overcast

+ May be able to desalize water by using condensation

-Takes in a relatively large amount of space.

Solar power tower

+Desalinizes water.

+Contains a furnace (that can be used for melting iron for instance).

-Solar has a variable output.

PV panels

Cost per Watt = 7 EUR (Spain, 1800) - 13 EUR (Netherlands, 900)

Lifespan: 30 years or longer

10-20 year warranties

My be significantly longer than 30 years

+ Decentralized

+ No maintenance

- Variable output

Energy use

• Beamer

100-300 Watts. Can provide for +- 100 people. Per person: 2 Watt.

• Small led television

57 Watt. Per person: 14-57 Watt.

• Xbox

185 Watts

• Wii

18 Watts

• Desktop (with peripherals):

60-250 Watts

• Laptop:

40 Watts

• Netbook:

16 Watts

• Tablet (Ipad2)

1-3 Watts

• Iphone

Less than tablet

• Amplifier

40 Watts and up

• DVD player

10 Watts and up

• Nanolight (100W equivalent, 30,000 hours)

12 Watts

• Led lamp (50-60W equivalent, 50,000 hours)

6 Watts

• Washing machine

0,81kwh/wash 1600 W average 9 year average 500 EUR (If 10 people share one machine: 36 years = 200 EUR per person)

• Dishwasher

175 Kwh

• Refrigerator

>12 Watt (374 L, no freezer, 700 EUR)

12 V refrigerator 4,7 Watt 50L (700 USD)

Monetary cost

Solar updraft tower

Collector diameter +- 750 meter = 400,000 m2 = 100 acre (60 soccer pitches)

Land price US +- 1,000 - 10,000 USD per acre

Argentina < 8,000 USD per acre

100,000 - 1,000,000 for land

Cost of maintenance 40 years: +- 1,000,000 USD

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100 W capacity per settler when the sun is shining. This means using anything other than a tablet / smartphone is advised against. Watching television by yourself or with a handful of people should also not be a habit.

A 1 MW solar plant will produce +- 0.25 MW average over a 24 hour day.