Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 APS April Meeting
Volume 52, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2007; Jacksonville, Florida
Session B5: Energy Forum I: Fossil Fuels, Challenges and the Environment |
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Sponsoring Units: FPS Chair: Lawrence M. Krauss, Case Western Reserve University Room: Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Grand 6 |
Saturday, April 14, 2007 10:45AM - 11:21AM |
B5.00001: Advanced Energy Efficiency and Distributed Renewables Invited Speaker: The US now wrings twice the GDP from each unit of energy that it did in 1975. Reduced energy intensity since then now provides more than twice as much service as burning oil does. Yet still more efficient end-use of energy -- explained more fully in a companion workshop offered at 1245 -- is the largest, fastest, cheapest, most benign, least understood, and least harnessed energy resource available. For example, existing technologies could save half of 2000 US oil and gas and three-fourths of US electricity, at lower cost than producing and delivering that energy from existing facilities. Saving half the oil through efficiency and replacing the other half with saved natural gas and advanced biofuels would cost an average of only \$15/barrel and could eliminate US oil use by the 2040s, led by business for profit. Efficiency techniques and ways to combine and apply them continue to improve faster than they're applied, so the ``efficiency resource'' is becoming ever larger and cheaper. As for electricity, ``micropower'' (distributed renewables plus low-carbon cogeneration) is growing so quickly that by 2005 it provided a sixth of the world's electricity and a third of its new electricity, and was adding annually 4x the capacity and 11x the capacity added by nuclear power, which it surpassed in capacity in 2002 and in output in 2006. Together, micropower and ``negawatts'' (saved electricity) now provide upwards half the world's new electrical services, due to their far lower cost and lower financial risk than the central thermal power stations that still dominate policy discussions. For oil and electricity, each of which adds about two-fifths of the world's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, efficiency plus competitive alternative supplies can stabilize the earth's climate at a profit, as well as solving the oil and (largely) the nuclear proliferation problems. Conversely, costlier and slower options, notably nuclear power, would displace less carbon emission per dollar and per year, thus worsening climate change compared with best-buys-first investments. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2007 11:21AM - 11:57AM |
B5.00002: Fossil Energy: Drivers and Challenges. Invited Speaker: Concerns about rapid economic growth, energy security, and global climate change have created a new landscape for fossil energy exploration, production, and utilization. Since 85{\%} of primary energy supply comes from fossil fuels, and 85{\%} of greenhouse gas emissions come from fossil fuel consumption, new and difficult technical and political challenges confront commercial, governmental, and public stakeholders. As such, concerns over climate change are explicitly weighed against security of international and domestic energy supplies, with economic premiums paid for either or both. Efficiency improvements, fuel conservation, and deployment of nuclear and renewable supplies will help both concerns, but are unlikely to offset growth in the coming decades. As such, new technologies and undertakings must both provide high quality fossil energy with minimal environmental impacts. The largest and most difficult of these undertakings is carbon management, wherein CO2 emissions are sequestered indefinitely at substantial incremental cost. Geological formations provide both high confidence and high capacity for CO2 storage, but present scientific and technical challenges. Oil and gas supply can be partially sustained and replaced through exploitation of unconventional fossil fuels such as tar-sands, methane hydrates, coal-to-liquids, and oil shales. These fuels provide enormous reserves that can be exploited at current costs, but generally require substantial energy to process. In most cases, the energy return on investment (EROI) is dropping, and unconventional fuels are generally more carbon intensive than conventional, presenting additional carbon management challenges. Ultimately, a large and sustained science and technology program akin to the Apollo project will be needed to address these concerns. Unfortunately, real funding in energy research has dropped dramatically (75{\%}) in the past three decades, and novel designs in fission and fusion are not likely to provide any substantial offset in the next 30 years when they are most needed internationally. [Preview Abstract] |
Saturday, April 14, 2007 11:57AM - 12:33PM |
B5.00003: Energy efficient Buildings, A Neglected Solution to the Energy Crisis Invited Speaker: Many institutions, such as policymakers in Washington, have concentrated on the energy problem from the supply side. It makes more sense to have a balanced approach that also emphasizes means to limit consumption by improving the efficiency of energy use. Residential and commercial buildings constitute the largest energy consumption sector of the U.S. Buildings use almost 40 percent of our total energy, and are larger than the transportation sector by far. Buildings also consume two-thirds of our total electricity. The issue of efficient buildings is particularly acute in the developing world where there is a massive construction effort underway. Proper actions in the urban and regional environment here and abroad can yield substantial immediate as well as long term results. Major advances in energy efficiency in the built environment require a broad approach to building research and development. No one ``silver bullet'' will make a major impact by itself. Rather, substantial improvements in energy efficiency require the development of advanced technologies and an integrated approach to planning, design, optimization, and operation. [Preview Abstract] |
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