Every day, there is a headline about the explosion of data center growth and associated electric loads that will rapidly deplete reserve capacity on the electric grid. The Energy Rant featured several posts to describe the magnitude of the issue and concern among regulators, utilities, and government officials, most recently from the Mid-America Regulatory Conference and Syncing Power Generation with Soaring Loads. Since load management and reliable and affordable electricity are near and dear to me and because Michaels has been successfully engaging with developers of monster data centers, I pounced on the opportunity to attend the inaugural Data Center…
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Energy efficiency program administrators can be quite conservative regarding change and innovation. I love hearing, “Bring us new ideas that have been successful in three or four other programs.” There you are! The pinch is on. Energy efficiency codes and standards have raised the bar consistently such that incremental savings from one code change to the next are exceedingly scarce. The gravy-train days of incremental widget-efficiency improvements, including lighting efficacy and heating and cooling equipment efficiencies, are quickly closing. Vehicles A nice parallel to diminishing returns on efficiency is vehicle mileage. The following chart shows fuel energy consumed per thousand…
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Two weeks ago, I described an array of district heating and cooling plants that serve medical, college, industrial, and even city-scale loads. Last week, I explained options to decarbonize district heating and cooling plants. Those options include converting systems from steam to hot water as equipment reaches the end of its useful life, heat recovery chillers, and, most importantly, energy efficiency in facilities and processes served. But before getting started on efficiency, I must add that there are also many barriers to shutting down a district steam plant and transitioning to distributed heating and cooling plants. First, there are loads other than space…
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I took advantage of the cold weather this week to demonstrate ice formation again. Caution: video ahead. When I take to Google and ask, "What is the freezing point of water?" it apparently depends on my location 🙄. You probably know that the boiling point of water changes with barometric pressure, but the freezing point also changes with pressure – but over a much greater range of pressure, as shown below. A change in the melting point of ice of two degrees Fahrenheit requires 2000 pounds per square inch (psi). The range of atmospheric pressure everywhere on the planet only varies…
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Here are my last words, for now, on artificial intelligence: I do not claim to understand the computations or systems behind AI whatsoever. However, I do understand human behavior very well, so when I saw a headline last week, JPMorgan CEO: AI Will Eventually Lead to 3.5-Day Workweek, my response was, never, not going to happen. I mean, people will not be compensated with 40 hours of pay for 28 hours of work. That is fantasy. I remember dispelling such fiction as a grade schooler because the same concept was floated back in the 1970s. Only the mode of automation…
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Last week in Thermal Storage for Grid-Interactive Efficient Buildings (GEBs), I introduced the importance of phase changes from solid to liquid to vapor, and the reverse, to our modern world. Benefits include heating, cooling, and refrigeration for all types of uses, including space conditioning, food storage and transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and of course, thermal storage. The simplest everyday thermal storage material is ice. Grocery and convenience companies have enormous ice-making facilities for guess what: thermal storage and your lowly Igloo or swanky Yeti coolers. I have a Coleman Lil Oscar cooler that I’ve used since Ha School. Now that is…
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