The Energy Dilemma

About the Energy Theme

The Energy Theme promotes sustainable energy use and the engineering of a sustainable energy supply.

Each year the UK currently consumes the equivalent of around 160 million tonnes of oil to meet its energy demands. With power stations going offline before their modern replacements are completed, and oil and gas resources become increasingly scarce, the country faces possible energy shortages and blackouts by as early as 2015.

With tens of thousands of members working in the energy sector, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers is at the heart of the debate. IMechE is committed to promoting sustainable energy use and to engineering sustainable energy supplies by focusing on four key areas:

• Reducing energy demand – changing wasteful behaviour to reduce demand
• Energy efficiency – using technology to reduce demand and eliminate waste
• Exploitation of renewable, sustainable energy sources
• Exploitation of non-sustainable resources using low carbon technologies

We believe that technological opportunities and engineering-led solutions will help solve the major issues in energy consumption and production. By highlighting the work of our members and the engineering industry we hope to educate and inspire change within businesses, policy makers and the general public.

Our Key Messages

1. Go Lean, and then Go Green

The Energy Hierarchy (see below) offers the best framework to guide energy policy and decision making, with demand-side actions to eliminate wastage and improve efficiency being the most sustainable options, and continuing to use fossil fuels in the way we do now being the least sustainable.

The Energy Hierarchy

The Energy Hierarchy links closely to the principles of sustainable development and offers an integrated, easy to use approach to the management of energy demand and supply. A common-sense sustainable energy policy should make its first priority the reduction of energy use, before seeking to meet the remaining demand by the cleanest means possible.

• Priority 1: Energy conservation – changing wasteful behaviour to reduce demand
• Priority 2: Energy efficiency – using technology to reduce demand and eliminate waste
• Priority 3: Exploitation of renewable, sustainable resources
• Priority 4: Exploitation of non-sustainable resources using low-carbon technologies
• Priority 5: Exploitation of conventional resources as we do now.

2. Energy = Heat + Transport + Power

Action is needed across the demand and supply-sides of all energy sectors – we must pay every bit as much attention to the issues of heat and transport (roughly 80% of energy use in the UK) as we have traditionally paid to electricity supply (less than 20%).

3. Mind the Peaks!

There is growing evidence that we are at or very near to “Peak Oil” and that “Peak Gas” will follow quickly behind. Global fossil-fuel energy markets will therefore increasingly be characterised by resource scarcity and high prices. This further emphasises the need to focus on alternatives (to oil) for transport and (to gas) for space and water heating.

4. Don’t Waste the Heat

Because large centralised generating plants waste so much energy in the form of waste heat (often well over 50% of the input fuel energy), significant overall system efficiencies and sustainability for power generation and heat distribution can be achieved through a more distributed, less centralised model, using low carbon sources such as biomass and “waste”.

UK energy consumption by fuel, 2006 (Source: DUKES 2007)

5. Use All the Options

Even after exploiting all the opportunities to reduce demand and provide locally-produced, distributed power, there will be a continuing significant role for centralised, grid-based electricity generation. A balanced portfolio of supply options should be preserved to enable competition and secure supplies, with an increasing share from renewables alongside a continuing role for coal, gas (both with carbon capture and storage) and nuclear.

6. Buildings Old and New

Significant opportunities exist in the built environment sector. Priorities include a major refurbishment programme to improve the energy efficiency of existing houses, the rapid implementation and enforcement of higher standards for new buildings and the provision of better advice and financial support for on-site energy supply (micro-generation) technologies.

7. Less is More!

A clear and workable integrated long term Government transport policy is required together with appropriate and adequate financial incentives. The policy should aim to encourage a better balance of transport usage (passenger and freight), favour the most environmentally friendly solutions and promote increased use of public transport.

8. Renewables, Now!

The UK has an abundance and wide range of renewable energy sources available to it. We welcome the 15% by 2020 UK target for renewable energy set recently by the EU. It is achievable, but not with existing policies. A step change in the scale of ambition, reach and delivery of Government action is urgently required.
Learn more about renewable energy sources.

Underlying principles of the Energy Theme

In delivering the headline theme statements, the Institution will establish and report facts relevant to the specific theme. It will also provide guidance and advice and lobby decision makers to adopt specific measures and policies, based on its own interpretation of those facts. To help ensure the resulting pronouncements are robust, consistent and appropriate, we will use the following guiding principles:

• We support the principles and practices of Sustainable Development, as described in the IMechE Sustainable Development Position Statement (PDF, 629Kb)
• We use the word “sustainable” in its broadest sense, embracing concepts such as energy security, cost effectiveness, environmental stewardship, ethics and stakeholder dialogue
• We support technological innovation, particularly in areas that inspire young people and provide major future business opportunities
• Engineering and technology development on their own cannot address all the issues; we recognise the potential and need for behavioural, societal, political and organisational change
• Markets and legislation are tools to be used to contribute to a sustainable future, not necessarily constraints on that future
• We accept the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern Review; that modern global warming is real and largely man-made. It can be cost-effectively addressed only if tackled urgently and aggressively
• We are a Learned Society, not a trade association or trade union. We will be open-minded, gather evidence from a wide variety of national and international sources, and make pronouncements on the basis of what we perceive to be best for society, the environment and economy at large
• We will, wherever possible, lead by example and promote engineering and engineers as able to achieve great things and thus be the key deliverers of a sustainable future.

source:www.imeche.org