Community Energy Literature Review

  A brief article by Marr (2021) lists a number of areas in which artificial intelligence (AI) is of actual or potential use in mitigating climate change. His topics include improving energy efficiency, optimizing clean energy development, avoiding waste, making transport more efficient, providing tools to help understand carbon footprints, monitoring the environment and creating new low-carbon materials. Marr draws on a report from Capgemini (2020) which claims that within their study the most effective “AI-enabled use cases have helped organizations reduce GHG emissions by 13% and improve power efficiency by 11% in the last two years” and “have also helped reduce waste and deadweight assets by improving their utilization by 12%.” Capgemini estimates that applications of AI “have the potential to help organizations fulfil 11–45% of the ‘Economic Emission Intensity’ targets of the Paris Agreement, depending on the scale of AI adoption across sectors” by 2030. However although man...

  AI has been described as potentially important in helping to meet some of the objectives listed in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (SDGs, 2015). Palomares et al. (2021) set out to describe progress and prospects in artificial intelligence technologies with regard to the SDGs. Six categories are chosen for their analysis: life, economic and technological development, social development, equality, resources and natural environment. They aim to identify the opportunities and challenges for AI in helping to fulfil the SDGs, and to provide a roadmap for maximising this assistance in the next decade; they also highlight the difficulties and potential threats associated with AI. The writers note the hostility often felt towards AI, and attempt to present its potential benefits with regard to the SDGs. They offer a definition of AI, note its main elements, and list its main areas, such as knowledge representation, natural language processing, compu...

  What is a carbon footprint? According to Wiedmann and Minx (2008), “There is no consensus on how to measure or quantify a carbon footprint. The spectrum of definitions ranges from direct CO2 emissions to full life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions and not even the units of measurement are clear.” The authors test the concept with a series of questions, asking whether greenhouse gases other than CO2, such as methane, can be components of a carbon footprint, and even those which, like nitrous oxide, contain no carbon. They question whether the carbon footprint of a “product, process or person” should be confined to direct emissions, or whether it should “reflect all life-cycle impacts of goods and services used”. After illustrating a range of definitions found in publications in 2006-7 the writers propose their own: "The carbon footprint is a measure of the exclusive total amount of carbon dioxide emissions that is directly and indirectly caused by an activity or is accumulated ove...

A method and its limitations The three preceding posts have been about minimum safe levels of air change, types of indoor air pollutants, and ways of estimating air change rates. The last reference was to a method based on monitoring the decay of indoor CO2 levels in a room or building [1]. This method and its results will be examined here in more detail. The concept is straightforward: CO2 is produced by the occupants of a space over a suitable time, and then they leave. Normal ventilation is maintained, and a monitor records the subsequent levels of CO2 in the space and in the incoming air. These data allow calculation of the air changes per hour (ACH). The exact value of the initial level of CO2 is unimportant. Under a constant level of ventilation, the rate of removal of CO2 will be proportional to its concentration in the space. This defines an exponential decay, tending to equilibrium when CO2 concentration in the space matches that in the incoming air. Monitoring...

CO2 monitors of useful accuracy are available at modest price, and the information they provide about air quality in the home can be used in different ways. A first question in response to a home CO2 reading might be about its health implications. This issue is addressed by Usha Satish et al. in their 2012 paper Is CO2 an Indoor Pollutant? Direct Effects of Low-to-Moderate CO2 Concentrations on Human Decision-Making Performance [1] The writers point out that it has been thought that adverse effects attributed to raised CO2 levels in the home are actually due to other pollutants commonly associated with CO2. They describe how their experiment was designed to eliminate this possibility and so isolate the effects of CO2. Before presenting their own findings, they summarise previous research on levels of CO2 much higher than those likely to be encountered in the home: “ CO2 concentrations > 20,000 ppm cause deepened breathing; 40,000 ppm increases respiration m...

A serious game about air quality, carbon and health. Earlier posts have taken as their subjects Gamification and Motivation and Gamification and domestic energy consumption . This post looks at a particular game, ClairCity Skyline s and its context, as described in ClairCity Project: citizen-led scenarios to improve air quality in European cities. by Enda Hayes et al. (2018), Air Pollution XXVI pp. 233 – 241. Open access: https://www.witpress.com/elibrary/wit-transactions-on-ecology-and-the-environment/230/36761 The ClairCity Project is concerned with air pollution particularly in major cities; Bristol, Amsterdam, Ljubljana, Sosnowiec, Aveiro and Liguria (Genova) are piloting it. The project aims to create a “major shift in public understanding towards the causes of poor air quality, inviting citizens to give their opinions on air pollution and carbon reduction policies to shape the cities of the future.” The game ClairCity Skylines is one of the me...

Community Energy workers are typically interested in motivating members of the public to take action in areas such as energy conservation and the adoption of renewable energy supplies.  Gamification has been considered as a method of informing and motivating its users in a variety of fields, and a brief description of a recent paper reviewing gamification in general follows. Readers may conclude that gamification could be usefully applied to Community Energy, as a method of increasing public engagement, and further posts on this topic are planned. The rise of motivational information systems: A review of gamification research by Jonna Koivistoa and Juho Hamaria, Gamification Group, Faculty of Information Technology and Communications, Tampere University International Journal of Information Management 45, 2019 (Open access) The abstract defines the topic: “Gamification refers to designing information systems to afford similar experiences and motivations as g...

DECC 2050 Energy Calculator and some related papers The 2050 calculator allows users to examine the effect on energy transition of a wide range of parameters, such as home insulation and average temperature, growth in industry, commercial demand for heating and cooling, shift to zero emission transport, domestic freight, and international shipping. The calculator, together with links to its source code and information on its assumptions, is available at http://2050-calculator-tool.decc.gov.uk/#/home Aspects of the UK’s transition to low carbon energy are discussed in the following open access papers, along with comments on the DECC 2050 calculator.  The UK low carbon energy transition: prospects and challenges TJ Foxon, PJG Pearson - Carbon Governance, Climate Change …, 2014 [PDF] cf.ac.uk Under the 2008 Climate Change Act, the UK has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. This implies a radical transformation of systems for meetin...