Struggle against Global Climate Change Power and Development Itis Pacinotti 4BM – VENEZIA – ITALY Helsinki 23-27/04/2007

What is the role of science? The Energy Issue: Sources availability Respect of environment Science has to suggest possible answers, showing advantages and drawbacks for the different options, basing its proposals on quantitative data.

Ton Equivalent Unit of Oil (TEO) An important unit of measure to evaluate energy requirements 1 Teo= kWh

Energy demand About 10 mil TEO are burnt every year in the world

Energy Sources

Costs of energy

World primary energy demand by fuel

Efficiency and Saving On one side renewable sources allow the production of clean energy; On the other hand it is possible to avoid a large share of the current consumption of fossil fuel simply consuming less.

Emissions

Co-generation A thermoelectric power station produces electric energy units and heat energy units every 100 units of fuel. Such heat units are lost in the environment through the power station cooling plants. Why not exploiting this energy for heating houses during the cold season?

Efficiency Co-generating means producing more than one secondary sources of energy at the same time (electric power and heat), starting from the same primary source – typically fossil fuel. In this way the heat lost in the thermoelectric generation is not wasted, but is employed for heating

Teleheating On a large scale, a system of accurately isolated pipelines conveys waste hot water from the thermoelectric power station to the nearest town, where it is employed in the houses for heating and hot water. This system is quite expensive, because of the length of pipelines and the cost of the main, which must be perfectly isolated.