Quick wins for cutting carbon

Two Quick Wins for Cutting Carbon Emissions

(And real life proof that they work)Ash Gupta, Managing Partner

The Gupta Partnership

Carbon quick wins

Wind and wave

Wind and wave

The popular focus these days for carbon reduction conferences is wind and wave power. These are exciting strategic projects, but take time to gestate and they are expensive at a time of economic austerity.

There are two other areas, however, where carbon emissions can be reduced with immediate effect. They also deliver cuts in energy cost and use as well as maintenance and – for a reason that defies me – they appear to be largely invisible.

Could it be that legacy technology investment and those who service it have a vested interest in creating barriers to adoption?

Let’s take a look at these two low-hanging fruits in the world of carbon cutting.

Light and water

Light and water

One low hanging fruit for cutting carbon is light.

Approximately 20% of the world’s energy is used to generate light.

Fact: If the USA were to adopt LED street lights for its national highway network, it could immediately close 43 coal-powered electricity generating stations.

Meanwhile cash-strapped local authorities, even in prosperous cities like London, are taking radical steps such as switching off street lighting to conserve power and save cost. The main result is added risk in our urban places for health, safety and security.

So why not take a different approach to lighting? This series of case studies will show what is possible.

Case study – Dutch dairy farm

Here’s an interesting example of what energy efficient lighting can do and the unexpected bonuses it can deliver.

Case study – Dutch dairy farm

This is a family-owned state-of-the-art dairy farm in the Netherlands.

They replaced inefficient high pressure sodium lighting running at 480W with LED high bays at 150W to cut energy needs.

They reduced energy use even further by being able to dim the LEDs from 150W to 30W.

But that’s not all. What about these extra bonuses?

Case study – Dutch dairy farm

The farmer is expecting a 15% boost in milk production as improved barn lighting encourages the cows to produce more milk*

LEDs produce no UV, so flies are not so attracted by the light.

A better light level allows the barn to be kept cleaner and animal health checks are easier.

There’s no light pollution, as LED light output is directionally controlled.

* A study performed by the Research Institute for Animal Husbandry

Case study – Dutch dairy farm

In summary

• Energy needs immediately down 70% - over 77,000kWh p.a.

• Dimmable from 150W to 30W to save even more

• CO2 emissions down 42 tonnes

• 1.5 year payback – 100% return in 18 months

• Milk yield 15% up

Case study – fruit import warehousing

Another LED case study: MMD ShippingThey handle 60% of the bananas arriving in the UK

Case study – fruit import warehousing

Power rates had jumped from 7.8p to 9.5p in a year and lighting was accounting for up to 15% of the company’s total electrical consumption.

MMD Shipping replaced its 400W high pressure sodium lights with 150W LED high bays and will see payback in less than 2 years.

Lighting is improved and so is worker safety.

LEDs last for 60,000+ hours continuous use and carry a 5-year warranty, so no more maintenance – goodbye to its disruption and the need for a scissor lift for replacing failed lights.

Case study – fruit import warehousing

LED performance actually improves in low temperature cold storage areas. They have low heat output, so the cold store locker runs more efficiently with less refrigeration demand to maintain optimum temperature.

Combining with occupancy sensors means the fixtures are typically on for only 30% of the time instead of the 24/7 burn time common with other conventional lighting solutions like metal halide or HPS.

No UV rays emitted which might speed deterioration of the fruit.

20% Enhanced Capital Allowance scheme sweetened the deal – UK companies that invest in energy-efficient equipment and machinery can write off the entire expense in year one.

Title

In summary

• Usage down from 24/7 to just over 7 hrs/day

• No more maintenance

• Payback in 1.2 years, so MMD rolled out LED lighting to its other facilities

• Power needs across 11 facilities down from 1.66million kWh to 176,000 kWh p.a.

• CO2 emissions down 806 tonnes p.a.

Case study – fruit import warehousing

Case study – exhibition centre

Another good case study: ExCeL London

One of the greenest and most energy efficient conference centres in the world.

ExCeL opted for LED lighting in its preparation for hosting some of the events during the 2012 Olympics.

Title

Summary of results

• Maintenance needs eliminated

• Lighting energy use down by 68%

• Payback in 1.8 years

• CO2 emissions down by 180 tonnes p.a.

Case study – exhibition centre

Case study – multi-storey car park

Case study: Multi-storey car park

Car parks like these need to be lit for safety reasons, but they’re guzzling power and the light from the metal halides is still bad.

Case study – multi-storey car park

Replacing 200W metal halides with 80W LED low bays produced a huge difference in light level – like night and day.

Sturdy LED lights can also take the frequent knocks from the gear on top of the news trucks that used to cause never-ending maintenance due to the fragility of the metal halides.

Title

In summary • Lighting difference like night and day

• Annual replacement of lights no longer needed

• Energy use down by 62% , even without using proximity sensors

• Payback in 1.7 years

• CO2 emissions down by 60 tonnes

Case study – multi-storey car park

Water delivery systems

My other low-hanging fruit for carbon cutting is water.

Pumping, treating and delivering water makes up no less than 12.6% of US energy consumption.* But water also has the potential to generate electricity …

*according to researchers at the University of Texas at Austin

Light and water

The best arable land is useless without irrigation. Some analysts predict that water will soon become more valuable than land.

Where water delivery systems exist and we find not only the propensity for water flow due to gravity but latent power derived from differential pressure within water deliver networks, there is an enormous untapped energy potential. This energy can offset the massive power consumption typical of most water utilities.

Light and water

If we just look at our own local water utility in Scotland, its power consumption is the highest of all organisations in the country - approximately 500,000* Megawatt hours per year, more than 1.5% of electricity consumed in Scotland in 2008.

The ability to generate substantial amounts of power, sometimes in remote locations, and then to store this energy provides a distributed energy solution, and not only for the utility’s own use.

It can also benefit fragile distant communities, sometimes far from national gridlines, whether in alpine regions or mountain catchment areas; wherever these are, electricity can be generated and carbon offsets gained.

*http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/12/14111932/4

Water delivery systems

There is a system which uses the differential pressure between the reservoir and point of delivery to generate electricity.

By introducing a turbine with software that intelligently controls the power previously dissipated into the ground as heat by pressure reducing valves, it delivers a constant flow of energy starting at 60kW.

This smart solution can be re-configured from mini-turbines that can generate power for storage for use at household scale through to industrial strength solutions for industry and commerce.

Water delivery systems

The main barrier to adoption of such technologies is the inherent conservative stance of many global utilities, especially when times are tough as they are now and investment opportunities very carefully selected.

Imagine combining such systems with the intelligent monitoring capability of systems developed by companies like i2o, so that you are not only generating power, but you can now tell where the system is leaking. Here’s an example …

Water delivery systems

Manila Water Company:

In Manila 60% of water is lost through leaks, yet 1 million people don’t have clean drinking water. (What’s the betting they don’t have power either???)

In one Malaysian installation the i2o system cut 40% of operation costs for finding and fixing leaks. At the same time this resulted in 40% less disruption to traffic due to a reduction in the need for road works.

Once upon a time …

Having spent many days now surveying waste water treatment plants (sewage works, in other words), it’s obvious to me that water delivery solutions are not as exciting and sexy for investment as wave power generators for example.

And electric light is just something we take for granted.

But I hope I have shown that both water and light can help us reduce our carbon emissions and bring extra benefits if we take the right technological approach.

Once upon a time …

I have no doubt that climate change is upon us … you may have read of recent evidence that a tropical haven once existed where the chill North Sea now lies.

Imagine you had a villa in Marrakech or Cap d’Antibes – your perfect heavenly hideaway, then picture what you might see post climate change…

The future???

The future???

I urge you not to wait 20 years for wind and wave power energy from arrays deep in the North Sea to solve our carbon problems.

We can already cut our carbon footprint, save electricity and generate power for substantially less cost using technologies and engineering techniques that are commonplace and ubiquitous. And I hope you’ve seen that they can bring some added bonuses along the way.

Thank you for watching.