Saving Energy and Reducing CO2 Emissions with Electricity

Clark Gellings

• Publisher: River Publishers
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000356038
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Environmental Management
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Through different applications, electricity provides the energy required for light, heat, comfort, and mechanical work. In order to sustain society's expectation for comfort, convenience and productivity, it will remain necessary to continue to seek and find reasonable quantities of energy in forms which are accessible, affordable and have modest or zero environmental impacts. This in turn will call for an international imperative to make existing uses of electricity both efficient and practical. This book will guide the reader toward a clearer vision of that goal, with explanations of the concept of electrification, along with CO2 reductions through expanded end-use applications of electricity. Topics will include electric cars; airport, seaport, railroad and mining electrification; industrial uses of electricity in a variety of processes; residential building use of electricity; and enhancing energy efficiency and demand response.

Chapter 1

Introduction—Electricity’s Attributes

Through different applications, electricity provides light, heat, comfort, and mechanical work. As long as society’s desire for comfort, convenience and productivity is to be met, humans must find at least some reasonable quantity of energy forms which are accessible, affordable and have modest or zero environmental impacts. Without question, that will lead to electrification and a decrease in, and possible elimination of, the use of fossil fuels.

• It is only with electricity that we can fully leverage the use of renewable energy resources—resources which have zero carbon emissions.

• It is only by using electricity that we can effectively use nuclear power, biopower (electricity from sustainable biomass), hydro and kinetic (run-of-river, tidal and wave), and massive-scale geothermal energy resources which have zero carbon emissions.

• Only electricity has the advantage of providing access to the entire electromagnetic spectrum providing opportunities to use infrared, X-rays, ultraviolet rays, radio frequencies, microwaves, ultrasound, high-frequency AC for artificial illumination, Lorenz forces to turn motors, and other electrical phenomena which leverage energy input by up to several magnitudes.

• Only electricity can be precisely controlled and directed with near unlimited quantity with precision.

• Only electricity enables our digital economy and the communications and entertainment we have come to enjoy and depend on.

• Electricity is a refined energy form which can meet the world’s energy needs in a sustainable manner. No other energy form has the range of attributes which electricity has.

Electricity is a uniquely valuable form of energy, offering unmatched precision and control in application as well as versatility and efficiency. Electricity also has the potential to provide superior environmental benefits when compared with other energy options. And electricity provides a clean, comfortable supply of energy. Because of these unique attributes, new electric appliances and devices typically require less total resources than comparable natural gas or oil-fired systems. Electric devices also provide greater performance and quality from an energy service perspective.

Electricity’s utility is diverse. Certain energy forms can meet one need more efficiently than electricity, but these forms are extremely limited in their range of application. Only one energy form—electricity—can meet all of a customer’s energy needs (comfort, convenience, appearance and productivity) as well as facilitate the achievement of other needs (medical diagnostics, money from automatic teller machines, personal computers, etc.). Electricity is unique in its ability to deliver packages of concentrated, precisely controlled energy and information efficiently to any point.

In addition, electricity can help alleviate many of the concerns facing the world (e.g., global warming, energy security, the use of limited resources, and the spiraling costs for obtaining them). In fact, electricity is uniquely suited for this critical task:

• It is available from various sources including low- or zero-carbon-emitting sources (nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, coal with carbon capture and sequestration) at a competitive cost.

• Its versatility allows it to be readily converted into easily and efficiently usable forms.

• Its efficiency at the point of end use is superior. Electricity’s efficiency at the point of end use is substantially higher than fossil fuels due to the ability to leverage various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

Electricity offers society more than just improved energy efficiency. It also has greater “form value” than any other energy source: form value affords technical innovation with enormous potential for economic efficiency. Form value encompasses three dimensions: technical, economic, and resource uses.

During the 1880s, Thomas Alva Edison, the famous inventor, with a flamboyant reputation, was the industry’s primary proponent of electrification. Edison promoted the idea that this technology provided opportunities for developing products that customers wanted and needed. Skeptics questioned whether Edison’s research was valid. When one decried electric lamps as a “fraud upon the public,” Edison responded by rigging a 3,000-ton steamship, the Columbia, with 115 Edison lamps. He then sent the ship on a journey around the tip of South America to San Francisco. Two and one-half months later, the ship arrived in San Francisco with half the lamps still working. The skeptics retreated, the press trumpeted Edison’s achievement, and the viability of this new technology was established (Munson, 1985).

Early electrification was first applied to the electric telegraph, electro-plating, and arc lamp lighting systems. With limited yet important uses, electricity extended its possibilities through the discoveries made by scientists and technicians, as well as by inventor-entrepreneurs.

For industrial consumers in the late 1800s, electricity had a major competitive advantage in relation to steam: its transmissibility. In this form, energy could be transmitted and could supply an area that was separate from generation. By combining innovations of products and of technical processes, electricity was also an effective factor of organizational and commercial innovations (CIGRÉ, 2010).

Nikola Tesla, the discoverer of alternating-current (AC) transmission and many other electrical concepts and apparatus, was a visionary in looking at future applications of electricity. Among the concepts he envisioned in 1916 were (Tesla, 1916):

• Ship propulsion

• Agricultural applications for safeguarding forests against fires; the destruction of microbes, insects, and rodents

• Ship navigation including dispersing fog with electric force and illuminating oceans

• Load management

• Refrigeration

• Fountains enabled by electrical pumping

• Electric cooking

• Electric signs

• Instruments for building convenience

• Wireless transmission of information

• Telegraphic presentation of pictures

• Electrical typewriters prompted by voice command

• Electrotherapy

• Bathing with electricity

• Crime prevention

• Electric guns

ELECTRICITY POWERS GROWTH

A concept first introduced by Sam Schurr (Schurr, 1986) offers insight into the enormous value of electricity in our society. Schurr established a linkage between the growth of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the consumption of electricity. The hypothesis Schurr declared was that the U.S. economy is highly dependent on highly reliable and affordable digital-grade electricity. Electricity powers homes and businesses and facilitates productivity. Electricity intensity—measured by the amount of electricity consumed per dollar of real GDP—has become a gauge of the nation’s economic health.

Electricity demand remains sensitive to changes in economic growth. Growth in electricity use was in relative “lock step” with growth in the GDP from the end of World War II into the early 2000s. The tie between electricity use and the economy was the product of many factors, including the development of electric technologies, economic activity, and the relatively stable price of electricity.

ELECTRICITY POWERS DIGITAL DEVICES

Electricity is the basis for telecommunication, the Internet, and the operation of all digital devices. One of the earliest commercial applications of electricity was, in fact, the electric telegraph first demonstrated in 1837.

The importance of electrical power continues to grow as society becomes ever more reliant on digital circuitry for everything from e-commerce to industrial process controllers to the onboard circuitry in toasters and televisions. With the shift to a digital society, business activities have become increasingly sensitive to disturbances in the power supply. Such disturbances not only include power outages (the complete absence of voltage, whether for a fraction of a second or several hours), but also power quality phenomena (all other deviations from perfect power, including voltage sags, surges, transients, and harmonics).

Figure 1-1. U.S. Economic Growth is Linked to Electricity Growth (Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration [EIA])

Three sectors of the U.S. economy are particularly sensitive to power disturbances:

• The digital economy (DE). This sector includes firms that rely heavily on data storage and retrieval, data processing, or research and development operations. Specific industries include telecommunications, data storage and retrieval services (including collocation facilities or Internet hotels), biotechnology, electronics manufacturing, and the financial industry.

• Continuous process manufacturing (CPM). This sector includes manufacturing facilities that continuously feed raw materials, often at high temperatures, through an industrial process. Specific industries include paper; chemicals; petroleum; rubber and plastic; stone, clay, and glass; and primary metals.

• Fabrication and essential services (F&ES). This sector includes all other manufacturing industries, plus utilities and transportation facilities such as railroads and mass transit, water and wastewater treatment, and gas utilities and pipelines.

These three sectors account for roughly two million business establishments in the U.S. Although this is only 15% of all U.S. business establishments, these same three sectors account for approximately 40% of U.S. gross domestic product. Moreover, disruptions in each of these sectors—but especially DE and F&ES—have an almost immediate effect on other sectors that depend on the services they provide.

ELECTRICITY: GATEWAY TO THE ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM

Electricity, or more precisely electromagnetic energy, is the only energy form which can provide a “gateway” to the electromagnetic spectrum. The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic waves have three physical properties: the frequency of the alternating cycle of the wave itself; the wavelength and the quantity of photon energy. As the frequency increases, the wavelength decreases. Photon energy increases proportionately to frequency.

The electromagnetic spectrum extends from below those used for electric power distribution (50 or 60 hertz (Hz)) to those used for AM/FM radio, television, microwave ovens, radar, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays.

Direct Current (DC)—While not actually part of the electromagnetic spectrum, direct current is a form of electricity which can stimulate electromagnetic waves. It is generated by chemical means in batteries by photovoltaic cells, fuel cells, and other generators. DC can also be derived from AC by use of rectifiers. DC is widely used in digital devices such as personal computers, d...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• 1 Introduction – Electricity’s Attributes
• 2 The Concept of Electrification
• 3 CO2 Reductions Through Expanded End-Use Applications of Electricity
• 4 Electric On-Road Transportation
• 5 Electrifying Off-Road Motive Power
• 6 Beneficial Industrial Uses of Electricity: Industrial Introduction and Process Industries
• 7 Beneficial Industrial Uses of Electricity: Metals Production
• 8 Beneficial Industrial Uses of Electricity: Materials Fabrication
• 9 Beneficial Commercial Building Uses of Electricity
• 10 Beneficial Residential Building Uses of Electricity
• 11 Enhancing Energy Efficiency
• 12 Demand Response
• Index