The document discusses the energy dilemma facing humanity. It notes that humans uniquely have the ability to control fire, which allowed our ancestors to dominate other species. However, our present patterns of energy use from fossil fuels are unsustainable and have unintended consequences like pollution, climate change, and health impacts. The document advocates for more distributed, renewable energy systems that are owned and controlled locally using technologies scaled to communities' needs. This would help reduce energy waste and pollution while empowering people over their energy choices.

1. The Energy question:
and old/new vision about it
Josep Puig,
Dr.eng.ind.
UAB – ICTA

2. The energy dilemma
• Humans: no other living creature can start a
fire at will
– When our ancestors learned to control fire,
they took the first step towards becoming the
dominant form of life on Earth
• Controlling fire was the key to using what
we now call energy

3. The energy dilemma
• By using energy, we the humans have
transformed much of the natural world to
suit ourselves
• We need to re-examine urgently this
unique human ability, the ability to start a
fire

4. The energy dilemma
• Unintended consequences of energy use:
– Think about your burning match. What could
you do with it?
• Light a bonfire to bake your potatoes or raze a forest
• Fire up the coal in a factory boiler or set off a
disastrous explosion in a mine

5. The energy dilemma
• Other hazards of energy use:
– Smog from car exhausts and coal fire turns
urban air a dirty orange; eyes water and lungs
inflame
– Acid rain laden with sulphur and nitrogen
oxides from burning coal poisons rivers, lakes
and soil; fish die and woodlands wither
– Chernobyl and Fukushima showed that even
a single accident can affect geographical areas
thousands of km away, for decades to come

6. The energy dilemma
• Rational analysis leaves no doubt that our
present patterns of energy use are not the
solution to the problem
• Who is to make the energy choices that will
determine the sort of world we pass on to
our grandchildren? Who decides, and how?

7. Energy, what is it?
• ‘Energy is eternal delight’
William Blake, English poet and mystic, 1790
– To Blake, ‘energy’ was a manifestation of the
vitality of the world, an essentially mystical
concept

8. Energy, what is it?
• the word ‘energy’ made its first recorded
appearance, according to the Oxford
English Dictionary, meaning ‘force or
vigour of expression’, 1599
• Other meanings gradually accrued:
– 1665: ‘power actively and efficiently exerted’
– 1667: ‘ability or capacity to produce an effect’
– Described an attribute recognizable by its
consequences

9. Energy, what is it?
• During 20th Century,
– energy meant power over
– it became a way of control of communities

10. All started changing with . . .
• Un article
published on
Foreign Affairs,
1976

11. The key questions on Energy
• The key questions
– How much energy we need?
– Which technology we have to use?
– Who has to control the energy systems?

12. The energy problem
• How much energy we need?
– One person’s energy needs: Using or consuming
energy?
– Evolution of the world’s energy ‘consumption’
– World’s energy sources
– Primary Energy Consumption, Final Energy
Consumption & Electriciy Consumption
– Evolution of energy intensity
– The Soft Energy Path
– The energy planners always fail
– World’s, EU and Spain Energy intensities

13. Consuming or using energy?
• Physics tells us that ‘energy is never created,
and never destroyed’
– Energy is converted from one form to another, but
the quantity of energy always remain the same
• Humans are energy converters, as other living
beings
• The concept of energy ‘consumption’
– Associated with the consumption of non renewable
energy sources: humans as consumers

14. Consuming or using energy?
• Humans can use renewable and non
renewables energy sources, but never will
consume energy.
• Humans can consume non renewable raw
materials (fossil fuels, nuclear fuels)

15. Energy balance of human body
• The metabolic rhythm
– Our capacity to generate heat is a function of
muscular activity’s rate.
• One part of the energy generated by muscular
activity is transformed in work (force * space) and
• the remaining part of energy is dissipated as heat.
– Depends on:
• the muscular activity level,
• the environmental conditions, and
• the body’s size

16. The human body as energy
generator
• 1 Met equals to 58,2 W/m2
• The mean human skin surface is 1,8 m2
• Calorific power of one person, sitting:
– CP = 58,2 Wm-2 * 1,8 m2 = 104,76 W
– This equals to the heat emitted by
• 1 incandescent lamp of 100 W, or
• 5 MFCL of 20 W each one

17. The human body as energy
generator
• One room with 50 people equals a heater of
5 kW of power
• During a session of two hours course, the
generation of energy will be 10.5 kWh.
– CP = 50 * 58.2 (W/m2)* 1.8 (m2)= 5,230 W.
– Energy = 5,230 W * 2 h = 10,460 Wh = 10.46 kWh

18. Energia vs. PIB

21. World energy use

23. Primary Energy Consumption
• World (2007): 12.039 Mtoe
• EU (2007): 1.806 Mtoe
• Spain (2007): 146 Mtoe
• Catalonia (2007): 27 Mtoe

24. Energy data
World EU Es Cat
2009 2010 2010 2009
Primary
12.150 1.759 130 24
Energy
Final
8.353 1.153 90 15
Energy
FE/PE 0,69 0,65 0,69 0,59
Unit: milions of toe

26. Energy intensity

28. What says the IEA?

29. What says IEA about wind?
Font:
Wind Power in
context: A Clean
Revolution in the
Energy Sector
Energy Watch
Group, London,
January 9th, 2009

30. And the peak oil?

31. Font: http://www.oilposter.org/

32. The solar energy flow

33. The available energy

34. The energy problem
• Which technology we have to use?
– Energy system
• Primary energy
• Supply technology
• Final energy or secondary energy
• End use technology
• Energy services

35. Energy system:
the technology chain
Primary Supply Final End use Energy
Energy Technologies Energy Technologies Services
coal power plants electricity houses ligthing
oil refineries gas buses heating
solar mines petrol heaters mechanical
hydro oil fields lamps
wind dams
uranium

36. Energy system:
the techno-human chain
Prim. Supply Final End use Useful Energy
Lifestyle
EnenrgyTech. Energy Tech Energy Real.Use.
Choosing technology:
- F.U.T.: family decision process
- S.T.: community decision process

38. The energy problem
• Which technology we have to use?
– Heating production with boilers
– Electricity generation with power plants (steam
turbines, gas turbines, combined cycle)
– Cogeneration of heat and electricity: advantages
• Cogeneration (simple cycle)
• Cogeneration (combined cycle)
– Spain: combined cycle without cogeneration

39. Generation of heat
Not useful energy
• Boilers Useful
Thermal
Energy 22%
Fuel
Boiler
78%
Useful Energy
Wasted Energy
to the biosphere

40. Electricity generation
Useful energy: electricity
Turbo-alternator
Fuel 35%
Boiler
El. 65%
Condensador Wasted energy: heat
Wasted energy
to the biosphere

41. Cogeneration of heat and power
Wasted energy
Steam turbine 10%
Fuel alternator
Boiler
El. 90%
Heat exchanger
Th.En.
Useful energy
Wasted energy
to the biosphere

44. Energy balance of Catalunya
Year 2009 Unit: ktoe

45. Present generation

46. Efficient cogeneration

47. Renewable Energy Sources
• Solar energy
– direct
• Solar radiation
– Indirect
• Heating of air masses: wind
• Heating of water masses: hydro cycle
• biomass: photosintese (Sun+CO2+water+nutrients)
• Atraction forces
• Earth heat

48. Generation with RES

49. The energy problem
• Which technology we have to use?
– Minimum human rights: energy services to
provide ‘good living’
• Efficient lighting
• Efficient fridges and freezers
– Quantification of minimum human rights
– Comparison of electricity uses in different
countries

52. Minimum domestic energy services
MDES
Energy Services (electricity) & End Use Technologies:
• Lighting: 1,000 lumen (6 incandescent lamps, 60 W/u, 6 h/day)
• Freezing: 200 l. fridge (+5oC) + 100 l. freezer (-18oC)
• Washing: automatic washing machine (without electric heating)
200 times/year, 4 kg. each
• Electronics: watching TV, listening radio, using PC, other
• Ventilation: fresh air supply in buildings
Energy services (not electric) & End Use Technologies:
• Cooking: 3 times a day
• Heating water: cleaning and personal

53. Minimum domestic energy services
MDES - Electricity
Energy Services (electricity) & End Use Technologies:
conventional efficient
kWh/y Watts Watts/cap kWh/y Watts Watts/cap
Lighting 88,4 90,00 22,50 280,32 32 8
Food Cooling 850 97,03 24,26 140,16 16 4
Machine laundry 400 45,66 11,42 70,08 8 2
Electronics 2483,1 283,46 70,87 350,4 40 10
Ventilation 500 57,08 14,27 105,12 12 3
Other uses 1986,5 226,77 56,69 280,32 32 8
total 7008,0 800,00 200 1226,40 140 35

56. The energy problem
• Who has to control the energy
systems?
– Centralized systems
– Distributed systems

65. http://www.solarserver.com/solarmagazin/anlagejanuar2008_e.html
http://www.kombikraftwerk.de/index.php?id=25

68. The energy problem
• The answers to the 3 questions
according to Amory Lovins’s ‘Soft
Energy Path’

69. How much energy?
• Reducing the energy waste of the present
society:
– Reducing the conversions
– Adapting the sources to the end uses
– Creating efficient energy systems
For reducing and avoiding the introduction to
the biosphere of polluting products

70. Which technology?
• Using small scale technologies or community
scale technologies:
– Making possible the capture, conversion and
use of solar energy, (both direct and indirect)
for providing the energy services
– Facilitating the comprehension of energy
systems by people that uses them

71. Energy technologies
• Heating water with the Sun

72. Energy technologies
• Cooking with the Sun

73. Energy technologies
• Generating
electricity
with the Sun

74. Energy technologies
• Listening music with the Sun

75. Energy technologies
• Phoning with the Sun

76. Energy technologies
• Computing with the Sun

77. Energy technologies
• Moving with the Sun

83. Catalonia:
100% renewable

84. S. Peter, H. Lehmann,J. Puig, , M. García

85. Who is in control?
• Giving birth to decentralized energy systems
that:
– would use renewable energy sources
– would be owned by the community that
manages and uses them
– making possible the democratic control at
local level
www.smud.org
www.ews-schonau.de

90. German Energy Transition
Arguments for a renewable energy future
By Craig Morris, Martin Pehnt
An initiative of the Heinrich Böll Foundation
Released on 28 November 2012
www.energytransition.de

91. Catalonia,
100% renewable
• Practicing energy
democracy . . . .

93. Thank you
And remember . . . .
We have to re-think deeply about energy

94. There is NO ENERGY CRISIS!
The crisis is about fossil & nuclear fuels