Session 8 is on Energy and World Change and is perhaps one of the most important aspects when we are discussing technology of world change. Especially when so many technologies are only applicable when there are supplies of electrical energy and energy simply denotes every aspects of life, from the way we walk to the food we eat, all of them have a part to do with energy. Even human, as a living entity with mass is just a huge blot of energy that can think and act, according to E=mc square. Take this online joke for an example.
Google : I have everything!
Facebook : I know everybody!
Internet : Keep talking, you two are nothing without me.
Electricity : Ya right, keep talking....
The scenario simply depicted how important energy is to us. I always feel that whoever that commands over energy commands over the world. Simply look at how rich the oil guzzlers are. However, our craving for energy had lashed back at us pretty badly and we really need to race against our imminent doom to abandon all oil dependent technologies and switch to responsible energy production. Ultimately, if everyone uses energy at a more expensive rate, no one will lose out. Businesses will not be making losses, the market will naturally adjust itself cost-wise to take the increase cost into account. Businesses will only be making losses if they are responsible enough to take the real cost of energy production into account while the rest of the world are not and continue guzzling oil.
There was a presentation on energy storage, I gave it the lowest i ever, I might joke that it for that specific person being quite cynical against other classmates and always and almost always gave the lowest but I do feel that he fails to present the real issues of energy storage. Firstly, demand side management do not always mean monitoring and affecting our demand by example switching off our fridge when not in need. What I have read elsewhere about demand side management is to monitor the demand and try to match the supply or production of energy. It works like Toyota just-in-time production system which aims to eliminate oversupply. I believe it isn't difficult at all, in fact, our houses all come with meter which estimate our gas and electrical usage already. I think he failed to inform us that the real concerns with better and more efficient energy storage medium is its ability to eliminate the inconsistency issues of solar, wind and many other renewable sources that nay-sayers of renewable energy always mentioned. In the book ZOOM, it mentioned how US wind farms are only utilised less than half of the time because there might not be household within its vicinity tapping into its eletricity. It's simply not efficient to depend on a scenario of double coincidence of supply and demand because it always dont happen. Energy storage enable us to store excesses and use them for further uses.
I feel that major considerations to bring renewable energy a step forward is to look at one of the major consumption of energy, which is air-conditioner. As a young boy, I always do not understand why we need to supply energy to make our fridge cold and our room cold, isn't heat energy? why removing energy requires energy? I still firmly believe that a future where cooling is done without the need of energy and instead provide net energy is possible. The first small step we can take is to acknowledge that our buildings are like a mega greenhouse where windows trap infrared radiation which results in heat. We need to create way to cool our building down naturally or can even apply solar windows or solar panels (proven that solar panels absorb the radiation and make our building cooler) We have a long way to go but I believe a sustainable future is in sight =)
