Ad van Wijk, Hoogleraar TU Delft en directeur Eldiger BV. Spreker bij ‘Energietransitie: kansen voor bedrijfsleven en instellingen met Amsterdam Smart City’, 26-10-2011 georganiseerd door de KennisKring Amsterdam.
Although it is a huge challenge to change our energy system into a sustainable energy system, it is on the other hand very well possible. Because there is no energy crisis, We have plenty energy available to be able to fulfill our energy needs now and for future generation. We can build a sustainable energy system using these three facts, you could say these three laws. …
Doorbell story There is always an inverter on, looking to the doorbell till someone pushes the doorbell knob and then it has to say dingdong. But all the time it consumes some energy, about 5-10 watt. However, you need to have a lot of friends or nasty kids to push the doorbell knob for one hour a year. The efficiency of this process is much less than 1% it is 1/8760 So a doorbell uses per year about 50 kWh. In Europe .. We can design such a doorbell differently ..
So on the one hand we have a very low energy efficiency, we are wasting our energy. But on the other hand we have an enormous flow of energy coming from the sun. So to solve our energy challenge we do not have to look down and dig in the ground, we have to look up. Here you see the flows of energy from the sun, EJ much 10 to the power of 18. So in less then one hour the sun gives us more energy than that we consume in the world in a year You have to know that almost all forms of renewable energy are derived from the sun, wind, biomass, hydropower, waves they are all solar energy There are only two other forms of renewable energy. Earth core heat, coming from radiactive decay in the earth Tidal energy, coming from the gravity forces, the attraction of the earth and the moon.
But now the third one, renewable energy is everywhere but dispersed. Our traditional energy system is based on the use of fossil fuels, energy sources that are somewhere in the earth in a rather large quantity and with a high density. The way that we have developed our energy system is based on these facts. It can be illustrated by the traditional energy chain. ….