Friday 7 May, 12.30pm to 2.30pm
Philip Carter Family Auditorium, Christchurch Art Gallery
What’s new in renewables, and where are existing renewable innovations leading?
Accessing the power of the wind
Geoff Henderson - Chief Executive, Windflow Technology Ltd
Biomass as a source of fuel
Paul Coughlan – Commercial Manager, Natures Flame
Harnessing the energy of biogas
Dr. Leonid Itskovich – Energy Manager, Christchurch City Council
Accessing the power of the sun
Arthur Williamson – Professor Emeritus, Canterbury University
Other alternative renewable energy sources
Arthur Williamson – Professor Emeritus, Canterbury University
Is a totally renewable energy future a realistic goal?
Panel discussion
Register now!
The best use of our energy
Finding the key to energy awareness takes very little energy at all, according to Emeritus Professor Arthur Williamson of the University of Canterbury’s Chemical and Process Engineering Department.
In fact, the most useful energy people can spend is on thinking about what they want for the future.
Professor Williamson is presenting a seminar on renewable energy use at the Energy Awareness Week forums [3-8 May 2010].
According to Professor Williamson, the key to better energy use is understanding what trade-offs we are prepared to make, and to think of new ways of fulfilling what we want that are more energy efficient. One of the most important trade-offs is between efficiency and convenience, although the two are not mutually exclusive.
"Take the modern supermarket. It is a large warehouse, and the only part that is really efficient is the checkout. They have a huge parking lot and there is one whole vehicle per delivery. The question that needs to be asked is 'Convenient for whom?' "
Fifty years ago, his mother typically used "online shopping" (a landline telephone, that is) to order her groceries. They were delivered to her and all her neighbours by a grocer in a van.
This concept of one vehicle/many purposes could be one key to a new way of life that is both more convenient and more energy efficient. Professor Williamson says there are myriad win-win solutions if we think differently about how we operate.
Hidden below the surface convenience is significant waste and cost. According to Professor Williamson, the end of the world – our lifestyle - "as we know it" is nigh, and we are in the transition period away from fossil fuels. We must move quickly, he says.
For instance, if the half life of a vehicle fleet is 10-12 years, then even if every new vehicle we replace is electric, it will take more than 20 years to replace the fleet, and although engineering is progressing, there is still a lot of work required on infrastructure and other innovations. The price of petrol is rising inexorably and although biofuels are a possible transition option for petrol and diesel cars, there is a significant trade off on making land available to grow alcohol and oil -producing crops. It would take almost New Zealand’s entire arable land area – 12 million hectares - to produce the fuel needed to power existing petrol and diesel cars.
Energy technology will have to change completely in the next 40-50 years. This needs to be supported by other paradigms, like the economic mindset in which all major decision-making occurs, which Professor Williamson calls myopic, reactive and tunnel-visioned. A far-sighted, proactive and wide view is needed urgently.
"We are caught between the rock of fossil fuel exhaustion and the hard place of atmospheric pollution," he says. "My concern is that we are not making changes as quickly or systematically as we should."
