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Why Study Energy?

Part I of an energy and research discussion for my parents

Abundant energy has shaped the modern world. It has enabled wonderful innovations such as rapid and affordable travel, vaccines produced on an industrial scale, fertilizer for our crops, an elevated standard of living for billions of people, and the Information Age just to name a few. Fossil fuel makes up the majority of the abundant, easily accessible energy we have consumed to get here. While our standards of living have been elevated, the aggressive burning of fossil fuels has positioned us on a path for severe climate change [1].

Current technologies exist that can significantly reduce our global energy use while delivering what energy is still needed via clean, carbon free sources. And, yes, this can be done while bringing power to the one billion people currently living in energy poverty.

A Brief History of Energy Use

Energy use has skyrocketed over the past two centuries. Over this same period, the composition of fuels and power sources we use changed significantly. Prior to the 1850s, wood was the main fuel source. For the first half of the 1900s, coal dominated. But coal was quickly outpaced by petroleum with the rise of the automobile. The 1970s saw the introduction of natural gas and nuclear power on a large scale.

From EIA “History of energy consumption in the United States, 1775-2009”

At the start of the 1970s, petroleum was set to continue its exponential climb. Instead, the global energy market was struck by the oil crisis of 1973. The U.S. Federal Government enacted sweeping programs to beat down energy use while keeping the economy humming along. This was the introduction of energy efficiency as a staple of the U.S. energy strategy [2].

Two versions of energy intensity: the cyan “Energy Intensity Index” as developed by the U.S. Office for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the green ratio of energy use to GPD “E/GDP” – Reference [3]

It is difficult to disentangle the effects of a growing population, an expanding economy, and an economy transitioning away from heavy industry in a single chart. The above chart shows us that the “Energy Intensity” or energy used to create economic value has been decreasing in the U.S. for many years. However, in the 1970s, after enacting aggressive efficiency policies, Energy Intensity fell faster than before.

Another way of viewing energy use is considering the amount of energy used per capita. Historically, the the total energy use per person in the U.S. increased every year until the 1970s. Since then, use per person has been steady or slightly declining.

It is worth noting that the U.S. has outsourced a significant portion of its heavy industry as it transitions towards a service based economy. Regardless, energy use per capita and energy intensity are both helpful indicators of the efficacy of coordinated energy efficiency policy at the national level.

A re-invigoration of coordinated energy efficiency policies would help further decrease Energy Intensity and reduce the energy which we need to supply with carbon free sources.

Carbon Free Energy

Nuclear energy and large scale hydroelectric power have been staples of the U.S. electric system for many decades (see first figure). Solar and wind power are relatively new to the U.S. energy portfolio. These four technologies, plus biofuels, make up two different categories of carbon free energy.

  • Predictable power sources who’s power output can be increased or decreased as needed (nuclear, hydro, biofuels)
  • Intermittent sources who’s output is controlled by weather, not customer needs (solar and wind).

The above chart from the EIA shows carbon free energy production by source and is part of their annual energy review. Solar and wind energy have begun a rapid rise since the turn of the millennium.

The rapid increase in solar and wind energy is on a collision course with the way electric utilities traditionally operate their grid. Intermittent solar and wind challenge operators to deliver continuous, reliable power despite their fluctuations. Batteries and other storage technologies are being researched, developed, and continuously improved to help smooth out these difficulties.

Currently, in places with lots of installed solar power, electricity is stored in batteries when it is sunny and discharged back into the grid when large clouds pass over, reducing solar panel output, or during the night. Many new wind power installations also include batteries to help smooth out fluctuations.

To enable a large scale energy transition away from carbon intense sources towards carbon free sources, we need to figure out the right mix of intermittent renewable energy, other clean sources, and storage technologies to create a reliable grid. This is the central focus of my current research working with Ken Calderia at Carnegie Science.

  • [1] IPCC Working Group 3: Fifth Assessment Report “Summary for Policy Makers” https://science2017.globalchange.gov/downloads/CSSR_Ch1_Our_Globally_Changing_Climate.pdf
  • [2] U.S. Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, “Energy Intensity Indicators”, Accessed 14 October 2019, https://www.energy.gov/eere/analysis/energy-intensity-indicators
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Screeching Tires

I approached the intersection of Selby Lane and El Camino Real cautiously, like many times before. The intersection has a marked crosswalk, but no stop light. I dismounted my bike and waited for the continuous stream of cars to break. The cars in the first two lanes were slowing down for me. I made eye contact with them and started to walk across the six lane road. There were no cars in the third lane. I continued.

Selby Lane and El Camino Real – from google maps

Another pedestrian was crossing El Camino from the other side where cars in all three lanes had already stopped. Screeching tires snapped my attention back to the third lane. A big white truck had swerved from the second lane into the third lane and was skidding straight at me.

My muscles tensed as I sprang towards the median while dragging my bike. The truck continued to skid as I made it to the median. Finally, half way into the crosswalk, the truck came to rest. The driver looked down at me from his lifted white truck, shook his head at me, and drove off.

My heart was racing as I stood on the little safe median. One person shouted from their car, “you should call the police!” What would a phone call even do? I’m not sure. I wasn’t in the right state of mind to grab the license plate number and I wasn’t physically injured. Could the driver be charged with unsafe or reckless driving?

Did he swerved out of the second lane to avoid a collision with the stopped cars? Or maybe he switched lanes to avoid stopping without knowing there were us pedestrians crossing a marked crosswalk.

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NREL OpenMod Workshop

Last week the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the United States’ epicenter of solar and wind research, hosted the first openmod workshop in North America. The workshop was a congregation of academics, scientists, researchers, and open software and data enthusiasts gathering to discuss the state of open source energy modeling.

We discussed a broad range of models. On one end, there were extremely detailed models. Models that are excellent for understanding how the electric grid will respond to changing weather patterns that alter renewable energy availability in the coming hours or days. Models like ours at Carnegie Science, which focus on 50 year to century scale energy transitions, were the other end.

Beyond interest in models, some groups focused on model inputs and making data available. The Catalyst Cooperative is gathering data from disparate sources into an open communal databases for everyone to use. This effort is part of their Public Utility Data Liberation (PUDL) project.

In line with the communal data theme, I presented a 7 minute lightening round talk on the electricity demand project Dave Farnham (@farnham_h2o) and I have been working on. This is a project focused on making publicly available electricity demand data usable by everyone and was the subject of a previous post.

Altering data can be contentious. And, it should be if there is no well defined method to identify data to be replaced and deciding how to replace it. Because of this, I initially thought there would be some opposition to our work. After all, a 7 minute talk is not enough time to allay everyone’s fears.

There was support for our approach once the workshop participants saw the magnitude of the anomalous deviations we target. One participant was the exception who needed much more detail than what was possible in my 7 minute talk. We invested the additional time and effort discussing the details. And, it paid off. In the end, this participant expressed his support for our method.

In the coming weeks I hope to post a link to a recording of the talk, which is not currently available. For now, please see the linked slides if you are interested.

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Electricity Demand

Creating electricity to power our industries, schools, hospitals, and modern lifestyles consumes 40% of all primary energy in the U.S. At Carnegie Science, we are studying what paths the electricity system could take to become net zero in carbon emissions in the future.

It would be incredible to have a clean 100% renewable wind and solar based electricity system. However, there are real challenges in meeting energy demand at all hours because the sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow. These hurdles can be overcome with smart choices in energy storage and by wise planning based on studying the variability of wind and solar resources.

At Carnegie Science, we have built a computer model of a simplified energy system to study net zero emissions systems. Any energy system our model designs must be able to supply electricity to meet the desired consumption of the U.S. for every hour of every day in the future. To begin to understand what is required, we use historical hourly electricity demand as one of the model inputs.

One of my colleagues, David Farnham (@farnham_h2o), and I are working on preparing these historical electricity demand data for our model. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) graciously collects hourly information from the utilities across the U.S. and publishes that data for analysis and use by the public.

However, we are all at the mercy of the reporting practices of each utility. If utilities report outrageous numbers, the EIA publishes outrageous numbers. And, when these numbers are used in an energy model, they can lead to wild results.

David and I have been developing algorithms to identify these anomalous values. After identifying anomalies, we replace them with a best estimate of what the true value probably was. A great example of some strange values can be seen in the below graphic, which shows the hourly electricity demand for the PacifiCorp West service territory over 10 December days in 2016.

Electricity demand during 10 December days in 2016 in the PacifiCorp West service territory of the U.S. Data pulled from EIA database Sept. 3, 2019.

Even without any background knowledge of what electricity demand should look like, the problem region jumps out immediately. The demand increases by a factor of 7 for 24 hours compared to the surrounding data. There is also a sudden one hour drop in demand which we also flag as anomalous. Our brain is phenomenal at pattern recognition and at identifying regions which do not conform with their surroundings.

Imagine designing an energy system which had to provide electricity for those 24 anomalous hours. You would build a system 7 time larger than what is needed for the rest of the year. Utility rate payers would be up in arms.

We could visually check all 56 reporting regions in the U.S. for all four years of hourly data: 56 regions * 4 years * 8760 hours per year = 1,962,240 data points! Instead, we devise algorithms to scan the data for us.

A good algorithm is reusable. We are putting in extra effort now to design the best algorithms possible for the task with an aim of reusability. In 6 months, when there is a new 6 month chunk of data, we will simply run our code to clean it up and share the results with colleagues. David and I plan to publish our techniques and make the clean data available for everyone.

In two weeks, I am going to be sharing our techniques at an upcoming Open Energy Modeling workshop at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. I hope that the intense effort we put into this work leads to a data product that other research teams can also use for their modeling.

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Bicycle Sunday

The Bay Area peninsula is supposedly home to some incredible road cycling. The two rides I have been on thus far have not disappointed. My first ride was up King’s Mountain Road up to Skyline Boulevard and back down to Woodside. My second ride was along Canada Road with a short steep stint up Crestview Drive.

Both rides were punishing because I have not spent much time in the saddle recently. They were also beautiful, void of aggressive, angry drivers, and full of happy cyclists willing to share directions and suggestions.

Half way through the ride today, I learned it is Bicycle Sunday. I fell in love immediately as my friend described it and pointed out one of the signs. From the San Mateo Parks Department: “On Sundays, a 3.8-mile segment of Cañada Road … is closed … allowing for non-motorized activities including jogging, bicycling, hiking, roller-skating, and walking.” This is wonderful.

There were more cyclists than I could count along Canada Road today. They were not just your typical group from the local bike shop, they were of all ages and abilities. There were parents jogging while their 5 year old kids cycled. There were rollerbladers. And, yes, a few turbo triathletes in their aerobars. This type of road closure should exist every where so we can all enjoy long stretches of non-motorized fun.

It takes more than beautiful terrain and nice pavement to create a destination for cyclists. The attitude of the local community adds more than most of us realize. I have seen the differences first hand by living in varied cities like Aspen, CO and Madison, WI where the communities build up the cycling experience. And other cities like Colorado Springs where you sometimes fear for you life on the road.

I realized today how much the San Mateo community loves its cycling and outdoor time. Thank you to the Parks Department and everyone else on the road today for a great ride.

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Triage

Triage has always been a medical term for me. It referred to prioritizing aid to wounded on the battlefield or the sick and injured in other medical emergencies. Today, my wife used the word triage to describe her mental mindset as she and the school she works for get ready to kick off the 2019 school year. Caroline has to set up a new class room, prepare a syllabus and coursework, complete CPR and earthquake safety training, attend new teacher orientation and professional development courses, and much more. This usage of triage made so much sense

In hindsight, I can think of no better word than triage to describe battling through the PhD process in experimental high energy physics at CERN. Graduate students regularly have requests for studies and analyses coming at them from multiple directions along with operations, maintenance, and development work for the detectors that must be juggled along with writing papers and pushing them through the review process. Inevitably tasks are left incomplete, some progress to an admirable 80% finished, and others are forgotten and never started. I’m sure my experience is similar to those in other fields and across all walks of life.

Triage is something I want in my academic life. Some people thrive on being continuously over-committed and rely on impending deadlines to prioritize work. This method worked for graduate school and I hope to not return to this style academically. I do not desire a triage of obligations, but instead a triage of ideas.

I want to have more interesting ideas to pursue than time to pursue them allowing me to prioritize and choose the best of the best for attention. If we were clairvoyant and could see how interesting and beneficial pursuing an idea would be before embarking down a path of study, every thing would be simpler. In contrast, most of us are left starting projects to test the waters. And later, with more insight, we sometimes find ourself weighing the costs and benefits of scraping a few weeks of work to abandon a less than amazing idea, or a good idea which is not fun to research. This is something I need to practice, stepping back, reflecting on a project, and choosing a next thoughtful step. I hope that being able to walk away from some projects will allow me to focus on triaging ideas versus triaging obligations.

Abandoning invested resources is never easy whether it is time, effort, emotions, money, or a combination. However, research should be fun, interesting, and useful. If any of those criteria are missing for you, it probably is not worth your time. There are thousands of questions that would be useful to humanity if answered, which I do not find interesting. Luckily, there are dozens of questions which are useful, interesting, and, as of now, look like they will be fun. This is why I am in energy research at the confluence of renewable and sustainable energies, computational modeling, and data analysis.

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Creativity

Creativity is a buzz word we hear all the time. Like most people, I too want to be more creative in my work and daily life. This is one of the motivating factors in building my first website. I want an outlet which extends beyond devising solutions to numerical and programming problems in my research. My current advisor, Ken Caldeira, often says he is really good at thinking up many different ideas. He acknowledges that most of them are not gold. But, by having many ideas, he creates more of those rare gems which lead to fascinating research and exciting exploration.

By exercising my creativity outside of the specific research I pursue, I hope to quite simply stimulate my flow of ideas and willingness to share them throughout my life. There must be thousands of “creativity” self-help books available. Maybe I should read the intro of one or two of them. For now, I will stick with doing instead of reading. I have always learned and enjoyed myself more by doing rather than reading about doing.

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Getting Started

Hello everyone! This is my first blog post ever. I am starting this site to document some of the interesting places I visit, ideas I come across, and, hopefully, some original reflections. I have always tended towards sharing less on the internet and in conversations in real life. I hope that I can use this place to document and share ideas more openly than I have in the past and without worrying about twitter followers or likes.

I am not sure what all I plan to discuss here. I imagine it will involve a bit of my renewable energy and energy systems research, some cycling and hiking thoughts, and random programming information I run across.

Let the experiment begin!