Embodied Energy
Embodied energy – The total energy required to produce a product.
Embodied energy can occur throughout the whole product life cycle - from raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction, decomposition and others. It also includes human and secondary sources.
Energy utilization – The method with which energy is used.
Distribution of Energy
An electrical grid is an interconnected network for delivering electricity from suppliers to consumers. It consists of generating stations that produce electrical power, high-voltage transmission lines that carry power from distant sources to demand centers, and distribution lines that connect individual customer.
Electrical supply distribution – can be national or international, international grids can allow electricity generate in one country be used in another
Energy Distribution - The method with which energy is transported from a source to where it is used.
Local Combined Heat and Power (CHP)
CHP is defined to be a system that simultaneously generates heat and electricity from either the combustion of fuel, or a solar heat collector. It is an efficient and clean approach to generating electric power and useful thermal energy from a single fuel source.
CHP plants that generate heat and power for a local community - the plant is close enough to the community so that the heat generated can be dispersed through the community efficiently.
Advantages include:
- Reduced energy costs (vs. heat and electrical generation systems that are separated)
- Reduced emissions, reduced negative impact on the environment
- Also known as co-generation
- Financial benefit - Instead of purchasing electricity from the local utility company and burning fuel (oil, gas etc) in an on-site furnace or boiler to produce thermal energy.
Systems for Individual Energy Generation
Individual energy generation is the ability of an individual to use devices to create small amounts of energy to run low-energy products.
A more elaborate definition would be: the small-scale generation of heat and electric power by individuals, small businesses and communities to meet their own needs, as alternatives or supplements to traditional centralized grid-connected power.
Such examples include:
- Solar power
- Wind turbines
- Biogas rainwater harvesting
- Compost toilets
- Greywater treatments
Implications It can supplement traditional centralized grid-connected power, and thus has a lower impact on the environment and has lower long term costs for the consumer. However, there is high initial capital cost. It is also known as micro-generation.
Quantification and Mitigation of Carbon Emissions
The quantification of carbon emissions is essentially defining numerically the carbon emissions generated by a particular product.
Quantification is measuring:
- Recording carbon emissions
- Discovering how much is being produced
- Discovering where it is produced
- To track one's carbon footprint
Mitigation is reducing:
- Humans intervention in the reduction of carbon emissions
- Contributing to global warming
- Accords signed to agree to reduction of carbon emissions (Paris Agreement)
Batteries and Capacitors
Energy Storage –The method with which energy is stored for later use.
- Batteries are devices consisting of two or more electrochemical cells that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy
- Capacitor is an electronic component that temporally stores electrical energy.
- Capacity is the amount of electric charge it can deliver (measured in amp-hours)
- Batteries have a huge impact on the portability of electronic products –
- Through the development of new technologies, batteries have become more efficient and smaller.
Ext. on Batteries: Types of Batteries
Recycling batteries keeps them out of the landfill, where adverse effects like leakage / water and soil pollution / air pollution.
