Category Archives: sustainability

Energy diversity

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Probably most people never give a thought to where the power comes from to switch on the light or their TV.  Engineers are primarily responsible for ensuring that the right number of power stations are available to supply exactly the right amount of electricity to match demand.  If supply exceeds demand then energy needs to stored, for instance at the Dinorwig storage scheme [ http://www.fhc.co.uk/dinorwig.htm ]; however if demand exceeds supply then someone’s lights will dim or go out until an additional power station can be switched on or the output increased from one that is running.  The latter is a relatively quick process but switching on a power station takes longer than half time in a televised football match when everyone switches on the kettle or makes some toast.

You can see how national demand in the UK varies in real-time at the National Grid website [ http://www.nationalgrid.com/uk/Electricity/Data/Realtime/Demand/demand24.htm ].  There is a similar “national electricity meter”  for Spain  [ https://demanda.ree.es/demandaEng.html ], which also shows the blend of energy sources being used.

Blending sources such as fossil fuels, hydro, nuclear, solar, tidal and wind is the key to a cost-effective sustainable energy supply with the diversity to adapt to unexpected circumstances.

Sustainable democracy

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The concept of a continuously growing economy does not seem compatible with the creation of a sustainable society.  It is not possible to carry on producing more and more in a world that has finite resources, see my post on an ‘Open-world Mind-set’ on 4th January 2013.

Eventually, engineers and scientists will solve the problems of providing a sustainable and high quality of life to the global population.  However, one likely consequence is a world economy that does not grow, at least not as currently measured.  Modern Western-style democracy is based ‘on the ability of competing parties to offer voters a better material future (more stuff) year by year’ [Andrew Marr, A History of the World, MacMillan, 2012].  What is going to happen when voters acknowledge this vision is unrealizable?

Perhaps it is happening already in the US and Europe.  The turnout in elections is low – between 30 and 40% in local elections in the UK last week.  The PR industry is playing a bigger role in politics and selling a brand rather than policies.  Economic growth has all but stopped, and is proving difficult to re-start.

I suspect that sustainable engineering is going to be easy to achieve compared to eliminating the dependence of our democracies on growth.  Let’s hope the patient does not die before being cured of the addiction!

Old is beautiful

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An often forgotten but key element of sustainability is the concept of repairing objects.  We are encouraged to recycle but this usually means putting your paper, plastics and aluminium in the appropriate bin so that they can be processed in a huge recycling plant.  Our modern consumer society does not encourage us to repair items because manufacturers want us to buy new ones so that they can make more money.  As reported by Edwin Heathcote in the Financial Times on 30/31 March, 2013 [ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/903545ea-9612-11e2-b8dd-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2QzPabqi1 ], in 1932 during the last Great Depression, Bernard London published a pamphlet entitled ‘Ending the Depression through Planned Obsolescence’ in which he encouraged built-in obsolescence has a way of accelerating the economy out of its recession.  However, this is not an acceptable approach today because, as was predicted by Vance Packard in 1960, it has lead to ‘wasteful, debt-ridden, permanently discontented individuals’ and we live in world of finite resources (see my posts entitled ‘Unavoidable Junk’ on January 14th, 2013, and Open-world Mind-set’ on January 4th, 2013).

We have learn to love old but serviceable belongings.  They are good enough and will suffice.  If they break then we should have them repaired, preferably locally in order to stimulate our economy rather than replacing them with something made abroad.  This will require engineers to think more about repairs when designing artefacts and consumers to learn to regard the patina of age and use as something of beauty.

Good enough

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Last week I stayed at the Goodenough Club in London while teaching part of a workshop on ‘Engaging Engineering Students in the Classroom’.  The Club provides accommodation for university staff and students visiting London and is attached to Goodenough College, which was founded by Sir Frederick Goodenough in 1930 to provide a collegiate residence and educational trust for international students.  It is located in a leafy square near Coram’s Field and is a tranquil environment to stay in the centre of London.

The name of the College and Club stimulated me to think about the concept of Good Enough or something that is satisfactory or sufficient without excelling.  The concept of sufficiency is one that needs to be closely connected to sustainability because to achieve sustainability we need to remove any tendency towards excess, since excess simply leads to a waste of the Earth’s finite resources [see my post on an ‘Open-world Mind-set’, 4th January, 2013].  As a society we are not very good at sufficiency or good enough.  Businesses and politicians sell us the idea that growth in the quantity and value of our material possessions is a desirable indicator of success so that we tend see self-sufficiency as a somewhat idiosyncratic approach to life.

Never ending growth of material possessions is not viable on a planet with finite resources so if there are to be any resources left for grandchildren then we had better get used to good enough.