Collective Microgrid by Mayra Lopez

MASTER IN CITY AND TECHNOLOGY Design for the Responsive City

2015/16

Collective Microgrid

BARCELONA

MASTER IN CITY AND TECHNOLOGY Thesis Project Title: Collective Microgrid

Research Studio: Design for the Responsive City

Faculty: Areti Markopoulou / Bruno Moser Faculty Assistant: Marco Ingrassia

Ilkim Er Mayra Lรณpez Seda Tugutlu Sherine Zein

INDEX 01 Introduction 02 Context: Mumbai and the Chawls 03 Energy

03 | 1 Production Methods 03 | 2 Scenarios

04 Masterplan

04 | 1 04 | 2 04 | 3 04 | 4 04 | 5

05 Conclusions

Design Strategies Energy Cores Citizen Participation Housing Development Phases for Masterplan

# 01

INTRODUCTION The current situation

INDIA IN CONTEXT For more than 40 years, humanity has exceeded the planet’s biocapacity. This is making it more difficult to meet the needs of a growing human population. Our demand for renewable ecological resources and the goods and services they provide is now equivalent to more than 1.5 earths. Carbon has been the dominant component of humanity’s ecological footprint for more than half a century. The primary cause has been the burning of fossil fuels - coal, oil and natural gas. Cities are responsible for more than 70 percent of our planet’s energy-related carbon emissions, and more than half of total amount of waste generated per year. Today cities are running out of landfills, conventional linear waste disposal is not a sustainable option. The growth of consumer societies all over the world has seen a large increase in solid waste produced per capita, and the waste mix has also become more complex. Poor waste management contributes to climate change and air pollution, and directly affects many ecosystems and species. How can we propose a

transition to a sustainable future? Energy derived from the sun, the wind, the Earth’s heat, water and the sea has the potential yo meet the world’s electricity needs many times over, even allowing fluctuations in supply and demand. Sharing and exchanging clean energy through grids and trade, helps to make the best use of sustainable energy resources in different areas. These principles can be applied in countries like India where the demand for electricity has been increasing significantly in recent years boosted by its rapid economic growth. Yet nearly one fourth of the population lacks access to electricity.The energy consumption in India is the fourth largest after China, USA and Russia. It is also the largest oil importer since 2011. Coal is the major energy source for India, accounting for about 44% of energy demand.

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Can India modernize its manufacturing economy and supply electricity to its growing population without relying heavily on coal - and quite possibly destroying the global climate?

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# 02

Mumbai and the Chawls Context of the BDD Chawls in Worli

BDD CHAWLS WORLI The chawls of Mumbai are a housing typology that was born during the British Empire rule, developed by the British Development Department. The housing scheme was meant to host temporary workers that came from rural areas to work in the cotton mills of the city. Therefore, the units provided were small (3 x 3.5 m) meant to host one person. Through time, however, the workers in the mills started migrating to the city with their families and the space meant for one, started to be occupied by more than 4 people at a time. Although the mills were closed, the chawls still survive and the tenancy of the units has been passed down from generation to generation. This has generated a solid neighborhood and strong unified community. There are several chawls clusters in Mumbai that are now valuable land for redevelopment because of the physical state of the buildings. The largest of these clusters, located in Worli is the particular objective of the project. It has 23.9 hectares and is composed by 121 buildings, each with 4 stories and 180 rooms. In total, there are 38,429 residents in the chawls, not only in the buildings built by the government, but also in squatter settlements that have been built along the borders of the chawlsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; area. MHADA (Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority) the regional institution who owns the land in which the chawls exist today, has opened an architectural contest for proposals to redevelop 4 of the chawls existing in Mumbai. The idea behind the redevelopment is to replace the existing crumbling buildings and give more private housing area to the current residents. Since this housing is meant to be free, developers take full advantage of the high Floor Space Index to raise density and recover investment by selling other units. This generates high occupation in ground floor and height. What is sacrificed through this scheme? Is it possible to propose a new scheme for the chawls where the community is not destroyed?

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Location of BDD Chawls of Worli - Photo: Google Earth

CHAWLS VS. NEW DEVELOPMENT The vacant spaces left by the old mills have been developed with high rise buildings. The contrast between the two typologies is not only seen in height, and income of the inhabitants but also in the life they create in the ground floor with the rest of the city. Typical faรงade of the chawls - Photo: Mayra Lรณpez

The redevelopment of the Worli Chawls comes as an opportunity to give residents better conditions in terms of infrastructure. In the case

Photo: Mayra Lรณpez

The current scenario of the Worli Chawls is based on outdated infrastructure. Water is only provided for 2.5 hours a day which

of energy, waste and water the quality, distribution and capacity of

forces people to have individual water tanks in their units to

the systems can be improved and give people an option for better

provide their households with water throughout the day.

Photo: Mayra Lรณpez

management.

The opportunity of urban redevelopment in a privileged location in megacity like Mumbai directs the project towards a non-convenient solution. Taking into account that water and energy provision and waste management in Mumbai is a big concern for both the national government and the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s community, a large scale project must include solutions for these issues. When conceiving a productive neighborhood in Mumbai, energy systems can be thought as metabolic processes that can enhance the capacities of the cities and solve many issues at the same time. On this process, a research about different energy production systems and their characteristics was very relevant to the conception of a general masterplan intervention in Worli. Aside of taking into account if energy systems come from renewable or non-renewable resources, the capacity and scale of the system were important parameters that were used as inputs to decide on an energy scenario suitable for the area of intervention. After mapping and

analysing all the systems, four were chosen and thus generate an energy-based masterplan. However, before conceiving the urban form of the neighborhood, we took into consideration all the inputs an outputs of the chosen systems, These allowed us to think about the reach and limit of each system. Also, about the backstage process of the differente systems, which at the end generated a closed loop of energy that uses the inputs and outputs of the systems to create a complex metabolic closed cycle, where losses are kept to the minimum. The aim of this process is to rethink the production of energy. Nowadays, these processes are invisible to urban dwellers because they occur outside the city and function in a large scale. What if these systems co-exist with citizens and allow them to participate in the production of energy? This scenario would empowe citizens by giving them independence from the systme, allow them to generate income, save money and be productive and proactive in the city they live in.

# 03 Energy What if the Worli Chawls become an energy production hub?

1. ENERGY PRODUCTION METHODS

1500

Vestas VIS4

Nuclear Plant

1125

Geotermic Plant

Concentrated PV & Thermal

750 Thermal Solar Panel

Transparent PV Solar Panel Algae

Thermo Electric

0 human

Wells Turbine

Biomass Plant

Methane

Bergey Turbine building

neighborhood

Solar Tower

Vertical Axes Wind Turbine urban

Hydro Station Geotermic Plant

Concentrated PV & Thermal

750 Thermal Solar Panel

Hydro Kinetic

PV Panel

375

Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Hydro Station

CAPACITY

Hydrogen Fuel Cell

Vestas VIS4

Hydro Kinetic

PV Panel Transparent PV Solar Panel

375

Air-borne

Algae

Thermo Electric

Air-Aeros 0

region

human

Wells Turbine

Biomass Plant

Methane

Bergey Turbine building

neighborhood

Solar Tower

Vertical Axes Wind Turbine urban

Air-borne Air-Aeros

region

SCALE

wind water solar waste 20

others

Biomass Energy Production Cycle

Algae Energy Production Cycle

Sola P.V Panel Energy Production Cycle

Hydrogen Energy Production Cycle

ENERGY LOOP

energy production systems

CENTRALIZED neighborhood scale infrastructure

biomass

DISTRIBUTED domestic scale infrastructure

P.V

algae

2. ENERGY SCENARIOS After deciding the adequate energy production systems for a neighborhood scale, the next step it to determine the percentage that each of them wil have in the total system. For this, various scenarios were proposed to assess the spatial and financial outcomes. At the end, the most efficient was chosen in terms of inputs, outputs and final production amount. Since the total amount of energy produced inside the neighborhood will be greater than the demand, the system can also provide for the surrounding districts. This means that the residents of the chawls in Worli will have the possibility to have an income by selling energy to the main electricity grid of the city.

energy production kwh/ y algae

4474560 28077000

solar pv biomass

22507250

water crop waste

bdd energy production

79972810

kwh/y

bdd energy consumption

29367000

kwh/y

over production

50605810

kwh/y

bdd waste production energy crops1 economic value

24914000

hydrogen

7398

tonnes/y

25000

tonnes/y

4048465

$/y

# 04

Energy-based Masterplan How to develop an energy-based masterplan?

1. DESIGN STRATEGIES HOW IS THE FUTURE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE IN CITIES? The cores of metabolism in the project will act as attractor points both for infrastructure and activities. To accomplish this, the centralized system plant like biomass or hydrogen will be merged with different facilites in order to enable people to visualize the processes of energy production as they carry out daily activities like going to school or shopping for groceries. These cores will also have a unique role in the urban planning scheme of the masterplan, since they will provide inputs and outputs to housing, hence units will be develop around them in order to integrate the whole system.

1 2 3

CORES Using unbuilt spaces to implement energy centralized infrastructure as starting attractor points of the project development and production PARTICIPATIVE HOUSING Empower citizens by including their actions in an energy productive ecosystem

GROWTH THROUGH TIME Development of masterplan through phases that allow residents to shift to new housing in the same neighborhood

2. CORES OF METABOLISM HOW IS THE FUTURE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE IN CITIES? The cores of metabolism in the project will act as attractor points both for infrastructure and activities. To accomplish this, the centralized system plant like biomass or hydrogen will be merged with different facilites in order to enable people to visualize the processes of energy production as they carry out daily activities like going to school or shopping for groceries.

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These cores will also have a unique role in the urban planning scheme of the masterplan, since they will provide inputs and outputs to housing, hence units will be develop around them in order to integrate the whole system.

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3. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION HOW CAN CITIZENS CONTRIBUTE TO AN ENERGY PRODUCTIVE NEIGHBORHOOD? The cores of metabolism in the project will act as attractor points both for infrastructure and activities. To accomplish this, the centralized system plant like biomass or hydrogen will be merged with different facilites in order to enable people to visualize the processes of energy production as they carry out daily activities like going to school or shopping for groceries. These cores will also have a unique role in the urban planning scheme of the masterplan, since they will provide inputs and outputs to housing, hence units will be develop around them in order to integrate the whole system.

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4. HOUSING DEVELOPMENT We have designed several typologies not only according to the space needed per households but also depending on the type of energy production they would like to contribute with. Different types of production will also bring variety in the condition of spaces in the typologies. This way, citizens will be able to participate to the energy production in their daily lives by choice.

4. PHASES FOR MASTERPLAN

The masterplan proposed will deveop through several phases. Our strategy will start with existing empty spaces of the BDD chawls to primarily build the energy cores which will generate income to sustain the redevelopment plan. The housing building strategy will also expand through phases as the housing buildings will be built before the complete demolition of the district, therefore allowing the inhabitants to immediately move to there housing units.

Energy Produc tion Methods

biomass hydrogen solar PV algae Citizen Collabration

84% Energy Produc tion Amou nt

77.881.000 kwh/y Economic Value

4.840.832 $/y

Conclusion

# 05

CONCLUSIONS

After our visit to Mumbai, we were able to identify the main problems of the city that are mostly due to the lack of basic infrastructures such as waste, water and energy. We have determined our site, the BDD chawls, being one of the areas part of the architectural contest of MHADA, as a potential center for redevelopment not only for bigger housing units but also for new infrastructures that could help solve problems of the city while improving housing units. The Collective Microgrid project is an alternative to redevelopment plans

that is based on giving to private developers a portion of the lot, in order to generate the incomes to pay the redevelopment by building energy cores that would involve citizen participation into their own districtsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; innovation and redevelopment. This project will generate incomes from waste, produce energy and pay with these incomes the redevelopment plan. The Collective Microgrid is an open strategy for new self-sufficient and productive districts in Mumbai and the entire world.

References

# 06 REFERENCES

District Census Handbook, Mumbai, Directorate of Census Operations, 2011. Draft Development Plan For Mumbai, Economic Digest, 2015 Mumbai, Council Chairman asks governement to prepare a policy on BDD Chawls, mid day, 2015. CM Devendra Fadnavis assures developemtn of Worli BDD chawls by MHADA, Kunhal Chonkar. Mumbai transformation support unit, 2009 Chawls: Analaysis of a middle class housing type in Mumbai, India, 2010. Mumbai: Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s global city, 2014 Metabolism of Mumbai- expectations, impasse and need for a new begining, 2013. The case of Mumbai, India, 2003 Dharavi redevelopment project, 2010. Population Change and Migration in Mumbai Metropolitan Region: Implications for Planning Governance, 2013. World Urbanization Prospects, United Nations, 2014