BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk// X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Energy Efficient Cities - Speaker to be confirmed DTSTART:20100318T120000Z DTEND:20100318T140000Z UID:TALK23764@talks.cam.ac.uk CONTACT:Scott Kelly DESCRIPTION:*_Abstract_*\n\nThe Energy Efficient Cities initiative (EECi) aims to strengthen the UK's capacity to address energy demand reduction an d environmental impact in cities through cross-disciplinary research in bu ilding and transport technologies\, district power systems\, and urban pla nning. This seminar will introduce the EECi project\, current research top ics and preliminary findings from researchers working in the University's Engineering and Architecture departments.\n\n*_Speakers_*\n\nDr Alex Hagen -Zanker Post-Doctoral Research Assistant\, Department of Architecture\nAda m Booth PhD Student\, Department of Engineering\nAdam Rysanek PhD Student\ , Department of Engineering\nOrian Welling PhD Student\, Department of Eng ineering\nUven Chong PhD Student\, Department of Engineering\nMarc Stettle r PhD Student\, Department of Engineering\n\n*_Speakers' Abstracts_*\n\n*D r Alex Hagen-Zanker: “Modelling urban activities and energy consumption ”*\n\nOver 60 percent of energy consumption in the UK is for domestic an d transport purposes and 90% of the population lives in urban areas. It th erefore makes sense to target energy efficiency efforts at urban activitie s\; by developing and implementing new technologies as well as policies an d spatial planning that promote energy efficient patterns of behaviour. Fi rst and foremost\, the latter relate to transport by car - energy could be saved if we make less and shorter car trips - but it also extends to the locations and intensity of use of homes and workplaces. This presentation reports on Discrete Choice Models that capture much of the patterns of beh aviour and are used to foresee the effect of policy alternatives. It also discusses how feedbacks between technological advances and behavioural pat terns provide both challenges and opportunities.\n\n*Adam Booth “Retro-f itting social housing in the UK”*\n\nThe Department for Energy and Clima te Change (DECC) has recently released their 'Strategy for Household Energ y Management'\, in which they highlight the need to tackle fuel poverty an d improve social housing. The DECC strategy includes plans on upgrading th e building fabric of all households in the UK\, alongside installing more advanced technologies in approximately 7 million properties\, such as heat pumps or solid wall insulation. Current modelling techniques for predicti ng residential energy demand are deterministic and time-consuming\, and ar e therefore unsuitable for applying to the analysis of large housing stock s\, in which there is an inherent variation in the actual energy usage. In this talk\, Adam Booth looks at how we can model the energy demand of dom estic buildings at the urban- or national-scale\, and how we can provide b etter tools for decision-makers to see the risks and uncertainty associate d with making retrofitting interventions on the UK social housing stock.\n \n*Adam Rysanek “The Development of Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACC s) for Individual Buildings”*\n\nCommonly used within national and globa l energy policy contexts\, Marginal Abatement Cost Curves are approximate representations of the costs and decarbonisation potentials of GHG mitigat ing technologies and measures within various sectors. Although they are de rived from both engineering and economic models\, they often require simpl ification of data and physics\, particularly when assessing large stocks o f technologies or services. One example is the case MACCs for national bui lding stocks\, such as in the UK\, where the transient interaction between energy supply and demand\, as well as interactions between different tech nologies\, cannot be easily modelled. This talk will give an overview of a new project that aims to construct and investigate a general engineering- based model that can produce Marginal Abatement Cost Curves (MACCs) for in dividual buildings. By reduces the scope of the model to the building leve l\, it becomes feasible to incorporate: 1) accurate building physics\, suc h as technology interactions\, 2) energy services demand forecasts\, and 3 ) multiple periods of investment. Though the model will still require inte raction with national energy policy inputs\, the MACCs produced will be ge ared primarily towards decision makers at the building-level\, such as bui lding owners\, ESCOs\, and city councils.\n\n*Orian Welling “A compariso n of diesel and natural gas engines for city buses”*\n\nThe operating cy cles of diesel and natural gas engines provide different opportunities to reduce fuel use and emissions. The advantages and disadvantages of each wi ll be discussed as well as average speed and backwards facing vehicle mode ls used to compare the two technologies. The average speed and backwards f acing models provide energy requirements and emissions outputs from the tw o bus technologies which will be used to asses environmental impact of bus es across a city.\n\n*Uven Chong “Natural gas buses in London”*\n\nMos t of London’s buses run on diesel fuel\, which emits large amounts of pa rticulate matter and NOX. As an example of the impact of buses on transpor t emissions in London\, Transport for London reported in its 2009 Environm ental Report that 78% of transport emissions come from its bus fleet. PM a nd NOX have local health impacts\, which can reduce the life expectancy of local residents. This project evaluates the emissions changes between nat ural gas and diesel fuel. A method to spatially model the emissions per sq uare kilometre was created. From this\, atmospheric emissions interactions and health impacts will be analysed. Ultimately\, the results will be use d to inform transport policy in London.\n\n*Marc Stettler “Environmental impacts of airports”*\n\nAir travel is forecast to grow in the foreseea ble future and there is currently uncertainty as to whether airport capaci ty can be expanded within environmental constraints. Several sources at ai rports contribute to emissions of pollutants that affect the climate and a ir quality\, however there is large uncertainty when inventorying these em issions. Marc Stettler will describe a model of airport energy consumption and emissions and describe ways to overcome this uncertainty. The model w ill eventually be used to estimate emissions of airports accountng for 95% of UK air travel and the potential impact of Heathrow expansion\, prelimi nary results will be discussed.\n LOCATION:CRASSH Seminar Room 17 Mill Lane END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR