Smart, distributed energy



The idea of a circular economy is one where materials cycle effectively, technical products provide services, their value increasingly in use rather than being consumed, and as far as energy is concerned where there is a substantial shift to renewables and energy efficiency – also a consequence of designing products for longer life and as a service, where appropriate.

The cartoon above describes a very different energy grid to the one we have today: one that utilises the information technology revolution, which allows domestic and other users of energy to better manage when they use energy (energy demand), and the fact that renewable energy sources are usually less concentrated: there are many more producers (and a more varied supply mix). The idea of many energy producers at different scales of production and perhaps with electric vehicle batteries and other forms of storage as part of the mix introduces the theme of diversity and resilience into the discussion of energy and the grids.

The investment required to reshape the grids away from centralised one-way flows to a more flexible arrangement is very large indeed (in the tens of billions of euros) and includes ideas around using very long distance connections so that concentrated solar power from deserts might be fed into the grids of Europe and in a similar way the output of offshore wind turbines and wave machines from Northern Europe.

The question of transportation fuels may also be relevant since these are almost entirely based on fossil fuels at present and change will require large investments here too.

Using the touchstone of thinking about whole systems and working at a variety of scales and celebrating diversity, it is likely that energy discussions in the future will expand to include integrated approaches – and will take in transport and buildings: redesigned cities in novel and complex ways. The circular economy is based on rather a bland and obvious statement about energy – ‘shift to renewables’, but underlying it is the connection to much more sophisticated energy and materials relationships. The old idea of ‘which energy source to plug in?’ (big box, supply side discussion) will need to be tempered by the coming of the smart grids and integrated energy and materials cascades.

Energiewende ‘energy transformation’ is well advanced in Germany