De-polarising energy
Single issue politics is a regular fact of life these days. And with that, the simplification of complex issues. Trump, Covid, Brexit, climate change – the competition is so great for our attention, that ideas, solutions and disagreements are reduced to 20 second sound bites, 280 characters, a 3 paragraph blog. The result is polarisation and extremes.
I believe the same thing is happening with the energy debate around different technologies. Each industry groups fights their corners at the expense of another, such as “energy efficiency first”. Energy efficiency is extremely important – but it is not a competition. Every technology has a role to play and will be better in some situations and not in others. For example, I live in a Grade 2 thatched cottage. I would love to apply more energy efficiency in the form of insulation – but I can’t because of listed building planning conditions. This means I cannot access the UK government’s Green Homes Grant either because I first have to insulate: Catch 22.
What we need is a holistic approach to energy performance, and what is most important is the outcome: reduced, net zero (and beyond), carbon emissions. How this is achieved should not be prescriptive and should be appropriate to each situation. Take vehicles; for a long time, they have had an output measure – CO2 emissions per mile/kilometre. This has allowed designers and engineers to innovate in order to steadily reduce the carbon emissions of cars, lorries and trucks.
Just imagine if we did the same for buildings and used metering data to measure the actual energy performance of a building in terms of its CO2 emissions. This is what smartEn (Smart Energy Europe) is proposing in their Position Paper: Towards a Quantification of the Demand-side Flexibility of Buildings. It would encourage property developers, landlords and private owners to use the most appropriate technologies to deliver the best outcomes without necessarily reverting to standards which inevitably lag technology development. It would also make it a lot easier for consumers to understand too.
This is one of our guiding philosophies at Traxis Energy – the de-polarisation of energy. We are outcome focused, not prescriptive. And our bespoke Energy Programme, focuses on the strength of the technologies within our members to deliver whole products, for consumers and the planet.
Author: Simon Anderson