Edition 16 | November 2014 | Retail price â‚Ź 5,50
Masdar The Future City in the Sand
Future Cities
What will matter in 2050? Ewald Breunesse, Sein-Way Tan and others share their view.
Interview
Hassan Farhangi Talks Cyber Security and Smart Grids
Software for calculation on electricity grids
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M AT H E M AT I C S PHYSICS ICT
Magazine Circulation 9.500 per edition Circulation distribution Partners of Energy Academy Europe Partners of Energy Valley Partners of the International NRG Battle Partners of Kivi Niria University of Groningen Hanze University of Applied Sciences TU Delft TU Eindhoven TU Twente Companies in the Energy Sector Municipalities in the Netherlands Province of Groningen Energy Events http://www.nrgmagazine.nl/agenda NRG Magazine is a quarterly publication. Kraneweg 13-7 9718 JC Groningen Tel.: +31 50 317 14 75 Fax.: +31 50 317 14 72 editor@nrgmagazine.nl www.nrgmagazine.nl www.twitter.com/thenrgbattle www.facebook.com/nrgbattle Editor in Chief Mariia Stolyga Designer Ashley de Jong-Doucette Sales Lëon Pathuis Tel: +31 50 317 14 70 sales@nrgmagazine.nl Printer Veldhuis Media Cover illustration Ashley de Jong-Doucette Contact For subscriptions to NRG Magazine or ideas for future editions of the magazine, please contact: editor@nrgmagazine.nl No part of this publication may be copied or reproduced without written permission of the publisher. The publisher and authors do not accept liability for damages of any nature whatsoever, resulting from actions and decisions based on the information in this magazine. This issue is produced with the utmost care.
EDITOR'S LETTER
W
e have undertaken a difficult task – predicting the future of cities. Although, “predicting” is a bit of an overstatement in this case. I’d rather say – we are making an educated guess about what’s waiting for us city dwellers, some 20-30 years down the road. Together with energy & tech experts from all over the world, we are carefully treading the ground of our future urban landscape. There was one thing that really struck me. Despite the obvious challenges of urbanization, the experts display an admirably solid optimism. They state almost uniformly that all the necessary technologies already exist. Whatever problems we might face as a consequence of the growing population, technology renders us very well-equipped to make our cities cleaner and more livable. Our cover story proves this. On the one hand, we are challenged to somehow accommodate 9 billion people (that’s one possible estimation of how many there will be) in physical space. We need to feed them, heat their houses, and provide them with jobs (and parking spots, for that matter).
On the other hand, there are so many practical steps that have already been taken. We can warm our apartments with waste heat from our laptops (Nerdalize, p.10). We create phone apps that guide us through parking insanity (VOLO, p.8). Oil & gas companies are assuming greater responsibility for the health and welfare of regular citizens (Shell, p.24), and municipalities are partnering with businesses to allow even more ICT in our cities (PPPs, p.28). Intelligence is the leitmotif of the decade. Smart grids are gaining momentum, although not without some scary aspects to it (Hassan Farhangi, p.34). We have even built a new, totally solar-powered city. From scratch. In the desert (Masdar City, p.18). Looking at all of this, it is indeed difficult not to be at least a little bit optimistic. José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, aptly said that if Europe doesn’t succeed in its cities, it won’t succeed at all. I think this applies for the world in general. Cities are our final frontier. And yes, we have no choice but to succeed.
M. Stolyga Mariia Stolyga Editor in Chief
Editor's Choice Interview with Hassan Farhangi, page 34-37
The Future Cities E START UP-DATES
8
The Great Parking Swap VOLO’s City Parking Solution
10
Crunching Numbers & Heating Homes
Nerdalize CloudHeaters use Computer Heat to Warm Houses
FEATURES
12
Q&A with Dr.Finance Gerard van Baar Answers your Questions about the Money Side of Business
16
Winning Ideas
Game-Changers of the NRG Battle - Europe Edition, Energie2014
COVER STORY: FUTURE CITIES
18 Masdar: There is No Other The World's City of the Future
22
A Beginner's Guide to Future Cities
Sein-Way Tan Discusses the Building Blocks of a Future City
24
Between Risk and Opportunity Shell's Role in Future Cities
28 Money for Future Cities Public - Private Partnerships are Here to Stay
ENERGY ACADEMY EUROPE
30
Starting Smart in Your Own Backyard A Look at Energy Academy Europe’s EnergySense project.
32
Utrecht's Sustainable Renaissance
Jaqueline Cramer discusses the Utrecht Sustainability Institute
FUTURE CITIES
INTERVIEW
34 A Layer of Intelligence Hassan Farhangi on Smart Grids
FUTURE CITIES
38
GLOBAL TALENTS
The Innovation Playground
Young Innovators at the NRG Battle - World Edition: Copenhagen
42 Talents in the Spotlight TTA World Turns the Spotlight on Two Young Talents
NOVEMBER 2014
Edition
M I S S! O T T AN NOT W O D U ION YO T I T E P A COM
THE BATTLE The NRG Battle Smart Energy Challenge pits teams of Europe’s greatest young talents against one another to see whose ideas will prove the most innovative. The challenge will take place alongside the Energy Convention, an international platform for leading energy experts from various disciplines, sectors, and countries across Europe. Talented teams of young innovators will be given real energy challenges from some of the biggest companies in the field, and will try to find innovative and disruptive solutions. Teams will present their results before a jury of experts, and only one team will emerge victorious.
WATECH TH BAT TLE
er 19th Novemb y a d s e n d hes: We en 16:00 Final Pitc 15:00 - niplaza Groning ti r a M al, 17:00 ringerza nced at u in the Sp o n n a Winners
Created by:
Media Partner:
Through the power of competition, the NRG Battle – Smart Energy Challenge looks to provide real solutions for business and a way for young entrepreneurs to jump-start their companies through funding and investment. This unconventional pressure-cooker of problem-solving always leads to amazing results!
THE JURY
Frits Verheij Director Smart Energy Cities at DNV GL
Joep van Leersum Executive Partner Energy & Utilities, Campaign Leader Smart Metering & Smart Grids at IBM
Prof. Ton Schoot Uiterkamp Honorary Professor of Environmental Studies, Sustainable Production and Energy at RUG
Supported by:
Find out more at smartenergy.nrgbattle.com
Prof. Dr. André Faaij Academic Director, Energy Academy Europe
Hosted by:
Foreword with Oliver Gassmann
The War of
Business Models is On
I
It has become almost mainstream to talk about the distant 2050s, when three quarters of the world's population will live in cities. During the years approaching 2050, a powerful transition needs to happen. It is not only the way we use energy or build infrastructure that must change, but the very way we think and do business . Instead of individual corporations fiercely protecting their ‘trade secrets’, there will be an increased number of open innovation partnerships, meaning that generation of ideas and their marketable implementation will be collaborative. It will not be what you produce, but how you produce it that matters. The dominant (and very comfortable) industry logic we are seeing now needs to be abandoned for the sake of businesses and cities alike. When this challenge is tackled, a new class of urban innovators will appear – the open innovators. The importance and growing power of partnerships will be especially visible in cities, where the absence of collaboration between various parties can have drastic consequences.
Oliver Gassmann
Prof. Oliver Gassmann is teaching Technology Management with a special focus on Innovation Management at University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Dr. Gassmann is renowned for his research into open innovation and its meaning for the success of the modern business. His new book The Business Model Navigator dwells upon the most revolutionary 55 business models currently in existence. He continuously stresses the importance of creating new models and abandoning the rusty old logic of doing business as we know it.
What used to be a war of products and services will transform into a war of business models. Although we cannot yet name the winner, we can be certain that partnerships will be crucial for survival and success. Those who fail to adapt to this new trend will be pushed out by their more open-minded and forward-thinking counterparts. Consider Nokia or Kodak. These once-powerful companies faded because they were not able to overcome the existing logic of business operation. We have discovered 55 basic business models in our current economy. In fact, out of 350 business model revolutions we studied, 90% are mere recombinations of these 55 core patterns. For example, a business model truly encouraging open innovation is the “layer player,” a model practiced actively by Nike. This company concentrates on its core production on its own, but for the rest relies heavily on partners in other industries. Quite a few ‘hot’ business models have risen in the energy sector, too. They will continue to grow in popularity due to the decentralization of energy production, the growing intelligence of the system, and the increased role of renewables. “Engineering” new business models is an art that, for some strange reason, is not taught in business schools. Nevertheless, we can all learn how to do this, and we should. Open innovation cannot happen as long as our mindsets are anchored to an outdated way of understanding and doing business.
NRG Magazine 7
Start Up-Dates | VOLO
The Great Parking Swap VOLO’s City Parking Solution
Transportation is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions. While many solutions have been focused on improving vehicles to make them more efficient and environmentally-friendly, policy-makers have paid less attention to reducing traffic congestion. Not addressing the issue of congestion wastes time and money, increases the risks of accidents, and contributes heavily to CO2 emissions. One of the leading causes of congestion is when cars have to circle to find parking. We were happy to sit down with Max Marty, Co-Founder and CEO of Volo and talk about his solution.
Max Marty
Co-Founder and CEO of VOLO Having previously worked as cofounder of the startup incubator Blueseed, Max is no stranger to entrepreneurship. He is a big fan of finding radical yet practical ways to solve problems.
U
rban parking suffers from a greater demand than supply – there are too few spots for too many drivers. Some cities have made attempts to solve the parking problem, but according to Max, these initiatives tend to be clunky and costly to implement. They are often elaborate systems that involve changes to infrastructure, and this requires a good deal of maintenance and manpower. San Francisco, for example, set up a highly innovative program called SFPark that combines responsive pricing with advanced parking meters and sensors. While the program is innovative and in many ways very successful, it has also cost the city a great deal of money. “We can reduce circling and congestion without facing that sort of price tag for cities,” Max suggests.
another so that you are able to arrive at a particular parking spot just as another user is leaving it. When you are looking for a place to park, and you know you will arrive there in 30 minutes, you have no way of knowing if and where you will find a spot. Any number of people may be leaving from your destination at the same time. The instinct is to circle around, waiting for parking spaces to become available. With Volo, you are able to communicate with drivers near your destination. If you know you will be arriving somewhere in 20 minutes, Volo lets you find a driver who will be leaving that same place in roughly the same amount of time. You pay the person departing a miniscule fee that guarantees you will be able to take their spot when you arrive. “The Volo app coordinates the parking interaction from start to finish, and really remakes the idea of how we navigate and how we park,” explains Max.
“We can reduce circling and congestion without facing that sort of price tag for cities.”
Volo is an intelligent peer-to-peer mobile platform for street parking. In the words of its CEO – Volo is about collaborative navigation. It works by allowing users to coordinate with one
8 NRG Magazine
Start OsComp Up-DatesSystems | VOLO
The Volo app coordinates the parking interaction from start to finish, and really remakes the idea of how we navigate and how we park.
The most common issue brought up by people who hear about the app is that of spot-squatting. What prevents people from holding a parking spot so that it cannot be taken up by non-Volo users? According to Max, Volo uses an algorithm that specifically targets an individual's personal schedule, meaning problems like spotsquatting become a non-issue. "Issues like that have already been thought about and resolved," says Max, "but the issues that should be resolved - congestion and circling - will only be helped by something like Volo".
PARKING IN THE FUTURE CITY
If Volo takes off, it will be launched in cities throughout America. For now, Max plans to bring it into university campuses with their own very localized parking issues.
START UP-DATES
Volo is designed so that it works better and better the more people are living in one particular area. The more people are moving in and out of a place, the more effective an app like Volo can be. Given that the population of cities is on the rise, an app like Volo is poised to help redefine the way we park. “I am a big fan of the continued migration to cities, and I look forward to seeing where that is going to take us,� Max says.
At the moment, Volo is running a beta version of their app in Palo Alto, a small city in California faced with a parking problem. It is the perfect market, according to Max, because its proximity to Stanford campus makes it an early adopter market. The app is used, in its initial stages, as simply a way to mark where you have parked your car. More users translates directly into more functionality. Max says that the challenge is to get people to think about using the app when they are leaving their parking spot. "That is the less natural idea, not something people are used to thinking of." Max and his co-founders were lucky to find one another, and have invested their own time and money into the start-up. They are currently connecting directly with endusers but will likely branch out to other financing sources in the near future.
NRG Magazine 9
Start Up-Dates | Nerdalize
Crunching Numbers & Heating Homes
Boaz Leupe CEO and Co-Founder of Nerdalize
10 NRG Magazine
Sometimes an idea just sparks. For Boaz Leupe, CEO and Co-Founder of Nerdalize, it happened when he and a friend were refurbishing a home. “At some point I pulled the thermostat off the wall, and the heating basically broke down. Admittedly, it wasn’t that smart.” His friend Mathijs came downstairs with a laptop under his arm and made the joke that started it all. “You know the heat that comes from this laptop? If we go online and buy 100 of these laptops, we would have nerd-heat”. Ten minutes later, the penny dropped and they realized the greater implications of that spontaneous quip.
Start Up-Dates | Nerdalize
Safety in Numbers The information we process in data centers has become the gold standard of our era, and according to Boaz, this makes security a big issue for existing data centers. “When you have a lot of gold in one place, you make sure it is secure. You start building walls, biometric scanners, placing guards outside.”
THE IDEA: FREE HEATING & AFFORDABLE CLOUD
T
he data centers of the world are bulky heat-generators, and in order to function, they need to install massive cooling structures. In fact, 50-60% of the costs that a data center faces are related to the buildings and cooling systems that accommodate their busy servers. What would happen if instead of being placed together in one central location, those servers were placed in people’s homes? The excess heat they generate would not be a burden, but would be used as residential heating.
Data has to be crunched somewhere – taking it into people’s homes and using the process for heating would not only eliminate the overhead costs of building a data center, but virtually eliminate the energy consumption normally used for cooling as well. This greatly reduces the energy and gas consumed in heating a home. As cities begin to adopt this technology, it will also find uses in grid management. During times of electricity abundance resulting from renewables, the price of compute will fall. Because there is a mix of timecritical and non-time-critical compute jobs, people will be motivated to use the servers primarily when prices are at a low and electricity is abundant. In this sense, CloudHeaters offer the potential of reducing strain on the grid and equaling out overproduction.
“They get a free heating bill, and because we’re in their home, we get a free data center.”
CLOUDHEATERS IN THE FUTURE CITY
On top of being a solid business idea, Nerdalize is also an incredibly sustainable practice. At the moment, a staggering 3% of the world’s total electricity consumption is by data centers. Two to three years ago,
Nerdalize has its sights set on expansion. After the home of their headquarters, The Netherlands, they plan to offer free heat to the forward-thinking Scandinavian countries. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway not only have a fantastic energy infrastructure and a cold climate, they are also pioneers in new energy technology. How big does Boaz expect his fleet of CloudHeaters to become? “As big as people allow me to make it,” he laughs.
Nerdalize uses an “encrypteverything” policy, and equips devices with active anti-tampering sensors that monitor for unusual behavior or tampering.
Nerdalize for the Greater Good Recently, the Nerdalize team was challenged to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Not only did they dump cold water on their heads, they also donated 10,000 hours of computing time to ALS research. Protein folding is a compute-intensive operation vital to medical research, because it looks into how protein affects the way neurons transmit messages. Nerdalize servers will be providing valuable computational power towards finding a cure for this neurodegenerative disease.
Visit www.nerdalize.com for more information.
NRG Magazine 11
START UP-DATES
The Nerdalize CloudHeater is a device with powerful computational capacity that looks, feels, and operates like an ordinary electric heater but packs a serious punch when it comes to tackling the heaviest computational challenges. Nerdalize already has its first compute clients and already 200 verified signups looking to place the CloudHeaters in their homes. It is a win-win situation, according to Boaz. “We reimburse our clients for the electricity the server uses so they get a free heating bill, and because we’re in their home, we get a free data center.”
this number was only at 1%. There has been tremendous growth in the computing market, and Nerdalize may present one solution to the world’s increasing energy burden.
A major benefit of splitting up data centers into people’s homes is that there is safety in numbers. “If we cut the data center up, we also cut the risk. We are basically running a data center divided into 100 or 1000 locations simultaneously,” Boaz explains. This means that if someone is looking to tap in to your processes, they would have to somehow maneuver themselves into hundreds of different locations. “Somewhere, someone would notice a guy lying under their radiator in their living room.”
Q & A With Dr.Finance
Dr. Finance Answering your Questions about the Money Side of Business “We're finally seeing the impact of the peer-to-peer economy through Airbnb, Uber, Taskrabbit, and numerous others. Is this only the tip of the iceberg, and can we expect similar revolutions across the economy in the years to come?” -Max Marty, Co-Founder of VOLO
12 NRG Magazine
A
irbnb and Uber only present a tip of something, but we no longer can call it an iceberg. It will be huge, promising and devastating at the same time. With unexpected winners and losers. Like Schumpeter’s description of creative destruction, newco’s we cannot yet think of, will rise to the top. But also a lot of newco’s who looked successful at first sight, will have a very short lifetime and be surpassed by other newco’s.
easy and useful experience, but also an anonymous one, less peer-to-peer. Part of the attractiveness is the easy way money transfers are dealt with. Apple also got this, now introducing Apple Pay. You can see it coming - if you have an oversight of someone’s transactions, you may also be in the best position to assess someone’s spending behavior and creditworthiness. That used to be a bank, but Apple may be in good position to take the role, if it can first effectively compete with near-banks like Pay Pal.
“It is about showing possibilities that didn’t exist before.”
It will be new and not new at the same time. At the end, it is all about getting things arranged in an easier, faster and cheaper way. It is about showing possibilities that didn’t exist before (or so you thought).
However, the peer-to-peer (p2p) aspect may disappear. People booking an Amsterdam apartment via Airbnb want a nice affordable place to stay. For the majority, however, contacting the owner isn’t a necessity and even annoying to some. Even more business travelers now are starting to use booking sites similar to Airbnb, but for many people at the ‘guest’ side it is important not only to have an
However, stepping in the financial sector will wake up some very large incumbents who have already shown that they can effectively take over p2p platforms. In his very interesting article in Forbes, titled “The Disappearance Of Peer-To-Peer Lending,” Nav Athwal is taking this position, stating that the big financial companies not only provide most of the cash to p2p lending platforms but also their board members.
In general, don’t be surprised if incumbents come up with copy-cats. Or if suddenly Chinese competitors are at your door step (think about the taxi wars in China between Alibaba and Tencent with Uber-like apps, subsidizing taxi
Q & A With Dr.Finance
drivers). Or even more simple – if newer, easier apps are showing up and offering the same service in a better way, or new services. We’ve been there before, try to remember what happened to WordPerfect and Lotus. All the while tax authorities are trying to get a grip on p2p phenomena. Money transfers are crucial in that. Ironically, if you try to imagine how you could avoid money transfers, you come back to a real p2p with one-on-one deals like HomeExchange.com. If you want to make it more universal but want to avoid money transfers, you end up with moneylike solutions as Bitcoin. An alternative is to change the tax systems fundamentally, moving away from labor and transactions, heading on to consumption. There is a lot of discussion about that already, and for many reasons. One is environmental, but an important driver is also the excesses of the current system resulting in, for instance, big offshore cash pools owned by US companies. Starting with p2p, we are wondering if peers aren’t disappearing, while seeing new banks coming up and considering a fundamental change of the tax system. This isn’t an iceberg anymore! Do you have a question for Dr. Finance? Shoot us an e-mail at editor@tta-world.com and it will appear in the upcoming edition.
FEATURES
Gerard van Baar Our expert Gerard van Baar is an independent financial consultant. His expertise is drawn from many previous positions, including his role as Managing Director Finance & Sustainability at the Holland Financial Center. In this position, he was involved in the plans for and discussions on the Green Investment Corporation. Mr. Van Baar also raised Deloitte’s European Energy & Commodity Risk Management practice.
NRG Magazine 13
NRG Facts or Fiction
FACT
Fact: Solar cells are making roads!
rgy transition, in the most literal Solar cells will pave our way to ene e lled the world’s first cycle lane mad sense! The Dutch have just insta ers met 70 far ital. The lane is so from solar cells, reports BBC Cap ks olds. It is built from concrete bloc seh hou e thre er long and can pow that ng stro so s glas a in ased enc containing solar cells – those are k, let alone a bike. With enough truc a of ht weig the d stan with can it re we might see this technology funds and imagination, in the futu ways too. The project launches1on used for building roads and high ll town close to Amsterdam. November 12 in Krommenie, a sma
You don’t n eed cables to charge you r phone Good bye tang led USB cables ! Hello wireless chargi ng! A new com pany called uBeam transmits energy throug h the air using ultrasoun d. According to Peter Diamandis, who became the co mpany’s investor, the tra nsmitter conver ts electr icity into sound and trans mits it to the phone, whi ch in turn trans forms it back into elec tr icity. This final technology is under develo pment, but ther e is one thing we can al ready be sure of – good riddance to ca bles! 23
Busy highway traffic is a terror on the environment With algae farms suspended over the highways, environmentally damaging CO2 can be filtered into oxygen. A Dutch-French design firm called Cloud Collective has come up with an elegant way to clean up the environment. In Geneva, Swizerland, an algae farm hangs above a busy highway, drinking up CO2 and churning out oxygen. This bioreactor not only acts as a natural air filter, it also creates biomass that can be used to create biodiesel, green electricity, medication, or even food.4
14 NRG Magazine
NRG Facts or Fiction
In the innovative world of renewable energy, sometimes the developments we hear about seem too strange to be true. In NRG Facts or Fiction, we look at the newest, weirdest technology to come out of energy research.
their rising d e fe 't n a c s Citie populations
le ke it possib hts will ma g future. li e D th E of L s d tie n ci sa tum in our en om Aeroponic it m in ga g ly provin that expected to b, is successful La City farming is ia is ed Th M . IT gs M in build oject at t soil, inside of CityFARM , a pr getables withou c, hydroponic ve ni ow po gr ro to ae , le rs is possib , among othe of e us is hooking e th RM h ug or t, CityFA sh In is enabled thro s. ws em st sy them. This allo production g LED lights on in and aquaponic n. in tio sh za lly ni fu ba re ur owing s and ca n sential given gr plants to server ca es is gy lo ch hi do w ho e, et ss spac CityFARM m , te si eb them to use le w l e ia at elimin e project’s offic 98%, as well as According to th nsumption by co er at w ce du 5 potentially re ides. zers and pestic chemical fertili
in the San Francisco Bay Area! Ferries are critical in the San Francisco Bay Area, serving 7 million commuters annually. Nonetheless, a ferry is probably one of the dirtiest and most inefficient kinds of transport out there. According to The Verge, a company called Wind+Wing Technologies has come up with a way of making ferries more efficient by equipping them with massive wings before sending them across the waters. The wings stretch almost 17 meters high and weigh roughly 300kgs. While they may not replace motors, they can optimize them by harnessing wind power.6 1. http://www.bbc.com/capital/specials/protection-now/environment/netherlands-unveils-world-s-first-solar-bike-lane_a-35-334.html 2. http://ubeam.com/company/ 3. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141030203403-994365-power-is-coming?trk=mp-reader-card 4. http://www.iflscience.com/environment/urban-algae-farm-gobbles-highway-air-pollution 5. http://mitcityfarm.media.mit.edu/ 6. http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/10/6130917/wind-wing-technologies-hybrid-smart-wing-change-san-francisco-ferries
NRG Magazine 15
Features| NRG Battle - Europe Edition
Winning Ideas
Game-Changers of the NRG Battle - Europe Edition, Energie2014
This year’s NRG Battle – Europe Edition was a vibrant competition. Teams of talented young thinkers were pitted against one another to come up with the most innovative solutions to challenges presented to them by some of the leading figures in the energy world, including Fujifilm, Panasonic, the Province of Groningen, and the Province of North-Brabant. Pitches were judged on their adherence to the three criteria of an innovative idea: : Novelty, Utility, and Non-obvious of character.
TEAM PROVINCE OF GRONINGEN Case Instructor
Case Instructor
Strategic Advisor for Sustainable Spatial Development at the Province of Groningen
PhD Researcher and Lecturer in Spatial Planning and Environment at the University of Groningen, studying energy landscapes.
Jan Buiten
Ferry van Kann
How do we establish an integrated energy ecosystem within the province of Groningen?
T
he Province of Groningen wants to stay leader in the energy transition and meet the goal of achieving a sustainable energy system by 2050, and for that they will need bright ideas from young talents. They challenged their team to look at the province as an organism, with a metabolism that gathers energy, stores energy, uses energy, and processes waste. How could the Province of Groningen improve its metabolism in the short term (2020), and in the long term (2050)? What the team came up is unique. They noticed that in Eemshaven there are a number of power plants that produce excess CO2, and data centers, including 16 NRG Magazine
the upcoming Google center, that generate excess heat. Heat and CO2 are both raw materials sought after by algae farmers. This is ideal, because algae is one of the most important sources of biomass in existence, 10x more efficient than other forms of biomass production. With algae, you can produce biobased raw material for the Delfzijl chemical site, biogas for the factories and power plants and biofuel for the ships that dock in the Eemshaven. This means that the Eemdelta can, in cooperation with the knowledge of the Groningen University researchers, transform itself into an important biobased complex. The team looked as well at the wind farms of the coast of the province. Those wind farms produce a large amount of energy that can be used for algae cultivation – thereby transforming the algae into energy storage. Wind farms can be set up to encourage the cultivation of marine vegetation, which can also be used as food and biomass. With wind farms providing the energy, power plants providing the CO2, and data centers providing the heat,
Groningen’s algae farms could become super-powered sources of biobased raw material The Team According to Jan and Ferry, the team worked well together from the first moment they met. “One good thing was that they were able to generate ideas together on the first day, and present those ideas to Jan Buiten on the second day, to test whether their ideas were viable,” shares Ferry. Next Steps The Province of Groningen liked what they saw in the NRG Battle – Europe Edition… so much so that they will be participating in the NRG Battle – Smart Energy Challenge this month. They will formulate their case from a different angle: how can they practically apply the algae metabolism? Who will be the important stakeholders, how will the program be financed, what would this mean for the inhabitants of the province? The team will be asked to come up with a concrete implementation plan.
Features | NRG Battle - Europe Edition
Two Winning Teams Team Fujifilm and Team Provincie Groningen were announced as the shared winners of the NRG Battle - Europe Edition Grand Prize. The two teams celebrated their victory in a shower of confetti. This year's jury was led by Manon Janssen, CEO and Managing director of Ecofys, and leading lady of TopSector Energy. She was joined by Maarten Dullaert, staff-director at Fujifilm manufacturing Europe, and Ir. B.C. (Bernard) Fortuyn, CEO Sector Energy at Siemens Nederland.
TEAM FUJIFILM Case Instructor
Elisa Huerta-Martinez
Research Scientist at Polymer Technology Group Eindhoven, currently working with Fujifilm as a researcher in their Open Innovation Unit.
Can we increase the efficiency of solar power generation? coating, they will stay super-cooled in the bright sun. The panels can be placed against existing solar panels on photovoltaic power stations to lower their temperature and increase their efficiency by up to 20%. This large-scale application can generate a return on investment in just 4 to 10 years.
What Team Fujifilm came up with was a surprisingly simple and clever solution – passive cooling panels. By painting the panels with a highly reflective
The Team Elisa Huerta-Martinez was blown over by her first experience as case manager for Fujifilm. “When I started to work with
F
Next Steps Fujifilm is considering whether or not to pursue the idea. It will have to be researched to determine whether it is as realistic as it seems. While not Fujifilm’s core business, the solution does touch on their interest in coatings and may be pursued in cooperation with third parties.
NRG Magazine 17
FEATURES
ujifilm is a veteran participant of the NRG Battle, and every time they have competed, they have come out on top. What is their key to success? Not only do they come up with concrete and practical cases, they also choose winning teams of diverse talents. The case they presented this year at the NRG Battle – Europe Edition was about increasing the efficiency of solar power generation in a way that can be integrated on a large outdoor scale as well as in households.
These passive cooling panels can also be used domestically, paired with household solar panels. They will increase the efficiency of the solar panels while improving air conditioning by lowering the temperature difference between the inside and outside of the house. This hybrid system would mean a reduction of 2 kWh/m2/day in the cost of cooling the home. At an investment of €300/m2, the ROI would only be 6 years. The solution is very easy to implement and to integrate with existing solar infrastructures and could reduce CO2 emissions by 360 kg CO2 eq./m2/yr.
the team, I found it a really amazing experience. I would do it again, without thinking twice.” Elisa assembled a team of talents from a wide variety of backgrounds, who nevertheless were connected to the topic of the case in some way. The team worked very well together, creatively approaching a difficult problem. Originally, when formulating the case, Elisa expected that the team to head in a different direction. The idea for the passive cooling panels was a surprisingly simple alternative. “I was amazed that this concept was not being developed by anyone else.”
Future Cities | Masdar
Masdar There is no other 18 NRG Magazine
Future Cities | Masdar
MASDAR CITY
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asdar City lies on the edge of Abu Dhabi. It was brought to reality by the Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar, which started work on this project in 2006. Before the oil frenzy of the 1950s, Abu Dhabi was a community of nomads and pearl traders. What is now Masdar used to be just desert sand, hot and unwelcome. Had you travelled there in the early 2000s, you would have seen nothing spectacular. Yet now the spectacle is here, a perfectly square, almost sci-fi complex, our first post-petroleum city. Here you won’t find glass and concrete towers , the signature of Abu Dhabi’s sister city Dubai. Instead, you will be welcomed by the shady and breezy environment of a city reflective of the culture and development demands of the region. This city runs on renewable energy, generated by a 10 MW photovoltaic power plant and rooftop solar panels. It is meant to become an ultimate destination for innovative tech companies, both foreign and local. Masdar is also allegedly the largest existing cluster of high-performance buildings in the world.
WISDOM OF THE PAST REINCARNATED
Ideas for the built environment of Masdar were drawn from the rich architectural traditions of the Middle East, particularly from the area of Sanaa, Yemen. Like anywhere else in the region, heat is an age-old challenge, but the locals could deal with it in a sustainable way. Ancient Yemeni cities were more than just pleasing to the eye, they were constructed to accommodate for the harsh climatic nature without any of the
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FUTURE CITIES
Steve Severance is the current Head of Program Management and Investments at Masdar City. We reached out to him to learn more about the past and future of this US$16 billion project.
Future Cities | Masdar
A Solar Flight Around the World Masdar is a devoted supporter of renewable energy. It is continuously investing in various greentech projects around the world, as well as organizing large summits for industry experts in renewable energy. This year, Masdar has also become an official partner and host city for the first attempt of a round-theworld solar flight, with Solar Impulse 2 (Si2). The airplane is set to cover a distance of 35.ooo km, flying for almost 500 hours. Si2 will take-off on March 2015 and return to Abu Dhabi in July. It will make landings every few days to change pilots and meet the fans and governmental representatives. The plane has wings larger than those of a Boeing 747 but weighs just 2.300kg, about the weight of an average family car.
Driverless Vehicles Masdar is home to a network of driverless vehicles, operated by the Dutch company 2gethere. Citizens are driven around Masdar for 18 hours a day, from 6 a.m. until midnight. Since its launch in 2010, the system has welcomed more than 1 million passengers and there has never been a single safety incident.
electricity-devouring appliances known to us today. Clad in arabesque carvings, Sanaa is a monument to the genius of ancient Arabic architects who knew how to keep the city cool just by constructing and situating the buildings in a particular way. The city was built in a square formation, atop a hill. Its streets were notably short and narrow and allowed little sunlight. Today, you can see this knowledge reincarnated in Masdar. Wind towers, high walls and courtyards – all of these natural ways of getting around the problem of constant heat inspired Masdar’s creators. “Air conditioning changed the way we live fundamentally,” shares Steve, “people forgot about architecture and planning and started using energy and technology.” The headquarters of Siemens, situated in Masdar City, is the first LEED Platinumcertified building in Abu Dhabi. Special metal awnings prevent the sun from hitting the windows directly, while allowing enough light and wind in to keep it well-lit. Its plentiful atriums are covered with canvas, creating a cool, shadowed space.
The safety of the driverless transportation system could not be approved at the Ministry of Transportation, simply because there was no manual for approving the safety of something that never existed before. “That was the real lesson for us. It takes time to involve the necessary stakeholders when you are trying to break new ground and be innovative. We learned that you can’t just suddenly do stuff - you have to get everyone ready for it.”
The global crisis was a challenge, but it made us a lot more practical. From a showcase project, we turned into a replicable model.
The 45-meter high wind tower close to Masdar Institute is another return to the knowledge of ancient Middle Eastern architects. “Wind towers were a natural way of cooling buildings before air conditioners were invented. Here at Masdar, it is scaled. It is interesting how by using wind tunnels you can create air movement in spaces where you never thought you could,” comments Steve.
LEARNING FROM MISTAKES
The vision of Masdar City has always been extremely ambitious, even against the 2007 economic downturn which hit the project soon after its kick-off. Gradually, euphoria gave way to cold rationality. Today, the management of Masdar speaks of the past crisis as a motivator and an opportunity rather than a challenge. Originally, the whole city was meant to be lifted seven meters above the ground.
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This would allow for the transportation to take place below the ground level where people live and work. Taken out of context, this was a fantastic idea. In reality, however, it would not only raise the amount of steel and concrete in the city, but also the costs of construction and maintenance. “We had to let go of this idea,” shares Steve, “It was locking us into a single transportation system. This cannot happen given how quickly urban mobility changes. So we brought the city back to the ground level, but allowed vehicles only within certain areas.”
Yet the driverless vehicles are up and running today, operated by the Dutch company 2gethere. Citizens are driven around Masdar for 18 hours a day, from 6 a.m. until midnight. Since its launch in 2010, the system has welcomed more than 1 million passengers and there has never been a single safety incident. “The global crisis was a challenge, but it made us a lot more practical. From a showcase project, we turned into a replicable model,” comments Steve, “We used to think we would be developing technologies on our own and then integrating them into Masdar City. What we really saw was that we are better off working together with global partners.” This is not surprising given that the combined annual R&D budget of Masdar’s largest partners - Siemens, General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy, is over ten billion dollars. The current priority is getting more people to live within the city perimeter. “We definitely need more people.
Future Cities | Masdar
People forgot about architecture and planning and started using energy and technology. When we started the focus was on creating the working and learning environment, but we don’t really have a living one yet,” explains Steve. The majority of Masdar’s current citizens are Master and Doctorate students of the Masdar Institute.
A WORD TO FUTURE CREATORS
Masdar has come a long way. Critics of the city have been quick to point out the project’s most obvious drawback - its lack of permanent inhabitants. There are too few ordinary humans, surrounded by too much technology. Masdar is meant to accommodate 40,000 inhabitants, and yet only a few thousand currently live there. Steve comments, “We focused heavily on the commercial aspect of the project. We were building offices instead of building more apartments. Now we realize that this is something we need, and it is our next stage.”
Steve Severance is careful when giving his advice. “Don’t take Masdar City and drop it in Germany. You have to understand your goals clearly. What are you trying to create? Who are your stakeholders?” In building a new city, it is important to strip your mind of the norms of 21st century. Start with a mind like a blank piece of paper. Think how people have lived in the chosen area, before technology. Think about how they solved
the challenges of their environment. If you understand the wisdom of the past, you can better combine old solutions with the latest building technologies. “People say that sustainability is expensive. We say that it depends on how you do it,” shares Steve, “It is expensive if you tell an architect to make an existing building LEED Platinum, all of a sudden. But it is not expensive if you focus on making a building sustainable as the first steps.” There is one thing we can be sure about. If we’re going to see more cities built from scratch, none of them is going to be exactly like the other. Wind tunnels and narrow streets matter if you are living in the Emirates, but are of little use to people in a temperate climate. Capturing rainwater and heating houses is important in many other countries, but wouldn’t be thought of in Abu Dhabi, with less than 3 cm of rain during the year. The example of Masdar City is important to us because it gives us a sound hope. In a world with no oil, we will be doing just fine.
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FUTURE CITIES
The city needs a larger and more diverse population, and this is expected to come in the future. One upside to living in Masdar is that there is no premium charge for sustainable housing – every resident enjoys living off sustainable energy.
While applying labels is easy, the reality is that there has never been anything similar created before. A project for an eco-city called Dongtan has been commissioned in China, but work on it has not yet started, and it is unknown whether it ever will. There was no prototype to follow when the groundwork of the city was laid, so every lesson had to be learned along the way. Now Masdar City is ready to be a prototype itself. The experience and knowledge of Masdar creators is a critical foundation for us to be able to realize more projects of this kind, in other regions of the world. Lowwaste and low-carbon, with sustainable transport – can we replicate the story of Masdar elsewhere?
Future Cities | Sein-Way Tan
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BUILDING FUTURE CITIES
Getting Ready for Urbanization
There are winners and losers in the urban strive of the 21st century, cities that prosper and cities that struggle. Whichever case you focus on, sustainable urbanization is more real than you imagine. Sein-Way Tan, CEO of Green World City, explains why.
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hen asked about a most sustainable city in the world, many turn their attention to the urban landscape of Scandinavia and the North of Europe, where relatively small populations enjoy a higher GDP. “Those cities are able to do a lot of things to become more green and sustainable. Generally, the wealthier the country, the more solutions it can potentially implement in its cities,” begins Sein-Way. There is a challenge to each city. While some prosper, others still struggle with basics like sanitation and electricity. However, while these so-called failures of urbanization abound, Sein-Way argues that it makes more sense to talk about urban success stories, and to focus on solutions that are being applied in cities all over the globe and are proving meaningful and important for their development. “Some cities fail because people in decision-making positions are not aware of the solutions,” he explains, “Providing governments and urban decision-makers with necessary information is one key to making future cities better. Information is the bottom line.” By giving necessary information to people in charge, Green World City is contributing to current and future urban sustainability. Sein-Way argues that true urban sustainability is only possible once city planners and municipalities care enough about three major areas of concern in human society: economic, social, and environmental. “It is our mission at Green World City to facilitate this process as
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much as possible. We are represented by CEOs from around the world, who are all engaged in sustainable projects. Failures of urbanization can be avoided by looking at the successful cities and implementing what worked best for them. As simple as that.” The megapolises of the future will sure differ from the cities we know today. According to Sein-Way, some of the most critical shifts would take place in the way we plan our cities and supply them with energy. He adds: “Globally, urbanization is happening at a very rapid pace. Already more than 50% of the world’s population lives in the cities, and in the next 20-30 years, it might be even more than 65-70%. This means creating new, bigger cities and, most probably, a tremendous use of resources.”
Sein-Way Tan
Chairman and CEO of Green World City, Founder of Future Cities Think Tank
reason to be optimistic. A sustainable city is not a fantasy, it is the future.” Embracing renewables is an increasing topic on the urban agenda, and SeinWay Tan is hopeful about the prospects. He shares, “Already 21.7% of the global electricity consumption comes from renewables. Personally, I think we can easily reach 80% by 2040.” This is possible due to the fact that many of the innovative technologies already exist. Furthermore, Sein-Way believes that we would easily reach a renewable energy economy by 2050 if only we implemented all the technological solutions available for us today. He explains, “When you talk about future inventions, it is very hypothetical. Of course we will be inventing new things, but the majority of the solutions for better
A SUSTAINABLE CITY IS NOT A FANTASY, IT IS THE FUTURE. While eco-buildings are expected to become mainstream in cities all over the world, more and more energy from renewable sources will find its way into the urban energy consumption pattern. Last but not least, major changes would happen in the domain of city transportation, including proliferation of electric vehicles and cleaner public transport. “Obviously, some cities will achieve this first and quite quickly, while others will need more time,” adds Sein-Way. “But we have a
cities are already there, like smart grids, the technologies for creating eco-buildings and smart energy-saving devices. It is all out there.” Apart from this, technology is constantly evolving, meaning that in 10-20 years from now we would be even better equipped for creating sustainable cities. He adds, “We should try and have the courage to do this. Even if you don’t believe in climate change, it still makes sense to go for a sustainable economy, because it means energy independence, healthier population and more livable cities.”
Future Cities| Sein-Way Tan
GREEN CITY CRITERIA & CHECKLIST
TM
What differentiates a sustainable city from its less-sustainable brothers and sisters? Take a look at a framework developed by Green World City, an easy-to-use set of criteria to consider when planning a city, widely referred to by organizations all over the globe.
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Sustainable Land Use With Restorative Focus Integrated sustainability requirements, eco masterplanning, and Green City rating tools and guides
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Restorative design that optimises ecological, health and commercial benefits.
Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency
Clean Air
An integrated energy policy, management regime and outcomes that optimize the percentage of renewable energy use while minimizing CO2 emmissions.
A clean air policy with enforcement regimes and outcomes covering all major greenhouse and other pollutants, including CO2, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, etc.
Water Management
Resource Recovery
Water sustainability policy, management regimes and outcomes that cover issues like waste water treatment, minimizing water consumption, etc.
An integrated waste collection, resource recovery, re-use and disposal policy, management regime, and outcomes that cover issues like waste minimization and management.
Sanitation & Health
Environmental Management
An integrated sanitation, waste and water management policy, as well as population access to improved sanitation and healthy lifestyle facilities.
Integrating development planning and environmental protection policy, and a management regime that includes both stakeholder and public participation.
Green Transportation
Green Economy & Sustainable Procurement
An integrated urban transport policy management regime and outcomes including green mass public transport, electric vehicles, traffic congestion reduction, travel reduction, and integrated sea/rail freight initiatives.
Green investment policies including: realised green investment benefit studies, green benefit economic modelling, green leases, product certification, green building certification, and green community certification.
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FUTURE CITIES
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Eco Buildings
Future Cities | Shell
Between
RISK AND There is a lot of negative sentiment regarding ongoing urbanization, with words like overpopulation and uncontrollable often thrown in the air. But does it have to be that bad? Energy companies have both an opportunity and a responsibility to fortify our cities in the face of global challenges. Ewald Breunesse is talking urbanization and Shell’s vision of future cities.
CITIES: RISK OR OPPORTUNITY?
The Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions is a unique consortium of partners – TU Delft, Wageningen UR, MIT and TNO. AMS offers a two-year MSc programme in Metropolitan Solutions leading to an engineering degree. Students will work with leading public and private partners on real-life urban challenges. AMS launches in 2017. “From our point of view, it will be about clean transportation and bringing clean energy to cities,” comments Ewald.
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Ewald Breunesse
Ewald Breunesse currently works as Manager of Energy Transition at Shell Nederland B.V. He also sits on the Board of Directors at Shell Nederland Pensioenfonds Stichting.
“We started to take more interest in cities a few years ago,” starts Ewald. This interest was first represented in the company’s publication Signals & Signposts (2011) , an update to Shell Energy Scenarios to 2050 published a few years earlier. In this new document, closer attention was paid to humanity entering an era of potentially ‘volatile transitions,’ and the question was posed for the first time – what is urban development, a risk or an opportunity? With three-quarters of the world’s inhabitants living in cities in 20501, urbanization is a double-edged sword. It can bring benefits like the acceleration of innovation and increased prosperity, but it can also wreak havoc on quality of urban life and the environment. Whether it will be one or the other will depend largely on our efforts in city planning and the integrated use of resources. “That was our starting point into studying cities closer,” explains Ewald, “Although there are a lot
Future Cities | Shell
Uncertainty Reduction in Smart Energy Systems is sponsored by Shell and focuses on bringing down uncertainty in energy domain. This program combines 11 PhD programs in Smart Energy Systems. By steering and supporting the participating researchers, Shell is keeping up its ties with academia while fostering the development of smart energy systems in cities.
EcoGenie used to be a regular Dutch house from the 1930s. Now it is a real-life tech playground where students and interns live. EcoGenie boasts all sorts of energy-integrated appliances (e.g. hot water storage, photovoltaics and even an own solar terminal). This way, the best performing solutions can be identified and later applied to more houses in The Hague.
OPPORTUNITY of negative feelings, cities are more of an opportunity than a threat. At least with regards to global energy consumption and use of resources.”
today to around 80% over the next three decades.2 In order to accommodate this increase in usage, things have to change – and they will.
Given current developments, the importance of partnerships cannot be overestimated. Energy, resources and infrastructure companies, as well as governments and municipalities, are expected to increase their collaboration in the urban landscape. These parties have to work together to make our most daring plans a reality.
Ewald explains, “From the Shell viewpoint we can see that right now electricity production and transportation are especially inefficient. Because of this, out of all the energy we use in cities today, 50-70% is wasted. ” In this regard, working on a zero-emission city is a clear directive for Shell.
FUTURE ENERGY It goes without saying that urbanization will have great implications on the way we use energy, as our use of resources will grow even faster than the population. Research shows that the proportion of global energy use in cities will rise from 66%
The Dutch Government foresees 100% electrified passenger transport by 2050.3 Looking closer at Dutch cities, one can already see a foreshadow of what is yet to come - hybrid buses running on electricity when in the city but switching to fuel outside of it. “Actually, there are many more examples,” says Ewald, “My personal feeling is that by 2050 public transportation, as well as electricity in residential areas, could be running on energy from renewable sources. I’m not talking about the industry, where so much more needs to be done, but it is totally doable in close environments and
Shell is focusing on three major aspects of urban energy efficiency: systems integration, energy storage, and buildings. The company’s focus on buildings might be regarded as unorthodox, but only at first glance. Urban design is central to making our future cities more resilient to various natural and man-made disasters. Along with transport, buildings are one of the biggest energy consumers in cities with all the energy needed for heating, lighting and appliances. “Of course, we are not the only ones experimenting with houses. But for Shell, working traditionally in oil & gas, this is something new,” shares Ewald. The company has recently fully retrofitted an old house in The Hague, only 1 km from its headquarters, with different high-tech energy-saving
50-70% of the energy we use in cities today is wasted.
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FUTURE CITIES
“Cities are like magnets. If people were allowed, they would all run to the cities, drawn by the innovation, social life and education possibilities. When this is happening, you should build your cities as well as you can, in the most extreme ways you can think of,” states Ewald, “Why not build a new city without cars, for instance? You can do that, a city with only mass transportation.”
daily transportation.” Furthermore, the system can be expected to become not only cleaner, but also more intelligent, as more robotic applications and artificial intelligence find their way into city management.
Future Cities | Shell
Los Angeles was built upon free gasoline. Stop building cities like Los Angeles.
gadgetry, transforming the building into a real living lab. The house, dubbed by its creators as EcoGenie, can well be seen as the beginning of Shell’s foray into urban design. Retrofitting old buildings is a significant contribution to reducing energy consumption in cities. “Don’t waste energy” is our norm. We have been advocating energy efficiency for decades, and there are so many more steps to take,” comments Ewald. Another important future trend worth mentioning is the transition that we, as citizens, are going to make from individual to collective use of energy facilities. At the moment, the majority of Dutch houses rely on individual heating systems. This will change because building facilities together is cheaper and results in more efficient energy use. It is this social element, after all, that distinguishes densely-populated cities from rural areas. “Individualism is part of the Dutch mentality, but this will change too.
Individualism is part of the Dutch mentality. But this will change. You cannot build an electricity grid on your own, you have to do it collectively. Think of the life span of things you build. Infrastructure lasts beyond any of our lives and some things are not worthy to be invested in individually,” explains Ewald.
THROUGH CONSTRAINTS TO SOLUTIONS New cities should focus on doing it right from the first steps they take.
The Shell oil refinery in Rotterdam is a world-class example of how an oil refinery can fit into a very limited space with no safety measure sacrificed. What would be a challenge for many was executed without a stitch by the Dutch, who are used to making best out of limited space.
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“From an energy efficiency viewpoint, you shouldn’t build cities like Los Angeles anymore, because it was built upon free gasoline. And I say – stop building cities like Los Angeles,” argues Ewald, “Although building from scratch is of course easier than retrofitting, we cannot take down and rebuild all the existing cities.” We can, however, pay more attention to fast-growing cities who are doing it right against all odds. Look at Singapore
Future Cities | Shell
for example. Trapped within its existing borders, it is a perfect case of how innovation springs from what is normally seen as a constraint. Japan, a country whose fossil fuels are close to non-existent, learned to make the best out of solar power to circumvent its own constraints, too. Drawbacks pertinent to city geography, e.g. limited land or no natural resources, can be translated into disruptive solutions and more livable cities. Ewald comments, “If there is a constraint to a city, there is always a solution. Look at the areas with constraints and you will see a solution there most of the time.”
If there is a constraint to a city, there is always a solution. Despite obvious differences between the cities and the absence of a single urbanization path for them, some of the most efficient practices of city planning and management can be outlined. For instance, compact old cities of Europe, like Amsterdam and Copenhagen, are traditional examples of prosperous communities. With some of those Shell is keeping up close ties, namely with Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague in The Netherlands, where a number of the company’s organizations and facilities are located.
Shell FuelSave Partner is a fuel management solution for commercial road transport. An on-board device analyses fuelling, vehicle and driver data, and instructs drivers to drive using less fuel. Following the instructions is easy and can potentially cut the fuel related costs by 25%.
Shell has developed close ties with some Dutch cities. For instance, in The Hague, where the company’s HQ is situated, Shell is an active member of the local community and an advisor to the Municipality, along with other big companies willing to make the city more livable.
FUTURE CITIES
If future urban development is chaotic, we will see cities where energy continues to be wasted on inefficient transport and housing, with quality of life hitting new lows and as much as half of the citizens worldwide facing a life in the slums. However, urbanization brings both opportunities and risk, and it is solely up to us to define how the future will be shaped. Should we seize the opportunity, urbanization can become a powerful catalyst for urban development and growth.
The Shell Mobility Card is one card for all transport in The Netherlands. Now you can switch between your car, trams, public bicycles, taxis or any other transport, according to your own costs and sustainability preferences. Offering citizens a choice is part of our transition to cities with less emissions from car engines. This currently exists as a B2B proposition, hence companies pay a single bill for each employee’s transport use at the end of a month.
1. Energy Scenarios to 2050: Signals & Signposts, Shell, 2011 2. New Lenses on Future Cities, Shell, 2014 3. Een duurzame brandstofvisie met LEF, 2014, Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Milieu More scenarios can be found at http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/ scenarios.html
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Future Cities | Sergio Fernández de Córdova
Money for Future Cities Public-Private Partnerships are Here to Stay C Sergio Fernández de Córdova
Sergio is Co-Founder and Chief Business Development Officer at P3GM, an advisory firm in smart city infrastructure development. Apart from that, he sits on the Business Advisory Board of the United Nations Economic Commission of Europe as an expert in PPP's for Smart Cities.
PPP's Public-Private Partnerships
ities are the key to our future. Whether we will be able to withstand the global challenges of the 21st century, the worsening environmental conditions, dwindling resources and increasing population, will be largely determined by how timely we incorporate change into our cities. However, the amount of necessary investment into cities is staggering. In the EU alone, the investment needs for renewing urban infrastructure and equipment are estimated to range between €600-800 billion per year1. Furthermore, success of cities around the world is compromised by an investment gap. According to the Urban Land Institute, public bodies set out investment aspirations that go unmet each year2. “People are looking up to the governments, expecting them to pay for everything, but this is not the way it is going to work in the future,” starts Sergio, “Governments today need to respond to their own pressing needs, like education and health. They will never focus on tomorrow, because there is not enough money for it.”
Roughly speaking, public private partnerships take place if and when municipalities join together with private firms or non-profits to provide services to their citizens. Sergio comments, “My personal definition of a PPP is a true partnership, when you are engaging municipalities and private industry to empower civic society. PPP's are here to stay, I am 100% sure of that. There is no other mechanism that is as understood by global markets as this one.”
People are looking up to the Governments, expecting them to pay for everything, but this is not the way it is going to work in the future.
As less money is coming from the governments, the traditional source, municipalities are reconsidering their finance logic. Collaborating with business and society at large is one way to bridge 28 NRG Magazine
the said gap. For the municipalities this would create not only more money, but also, importantly, a clearer understanding of their purpose towards the citizens and of their future development strategies. Arguably, those cities that can withstand the challenges of growing urban populations will be the ones that adequately address the gap between investments aspired and investments received. Partnerships between private and public sectors are one possible vehicle to make this happen.
PPP is a win-win-win situation. Within this scheme, municipalities get access to capital which is not otherwise available, in a quicker and more efficient manner; companies get some predictable returns even in times of instability and build relationships with more partners; and city community enjoys access to a city with a modernized image and better connectivity, to name but a few benefits. “PPP is really a product that appeals to everybody,” comments Sergio,
Future Cities| Sergio Fernández de Córdova
If you mix technology into infrastructure, suddenly there is a whole new investment vertical that the world community would want to put money into.
“The municipalities know how to best put money to use, but they do not know how to create investment vehicles. By using PPP, we are creating a future that municipal governments can be proud of.” A strong collaboration between public and private sectors has been highlighted as a practice common among some of the most promising and competitive European cities, including Amsterdam and Stockholm. A public-private dialogue is particularly important for integrating more ICT solutions in urban landscapes. “By 2018, our data usage will multiply by 10, and today we can already barely handle the volume that exists. The only way to do it is to build a city infrastructure which is connected by nature. Technology-driven infrastructure is critically important, and PPP has a role in creating it,” comments Sergio.
“Here is a simple example. Municipalities want to change the light bulbs in city lights. They do not think about the
Furthermore, PPP's are crucial in making cities more attractive to foreign investors. As this practice is becoming more ubiquitous, cities who fail to incorporate it are less involved in the international conversation. On the flip side, the more you are into PPP's, the stronger your place on the global map. Here, again, it is hard to overestimate the importance of technology – the more technology there is in infrastructure, the more interesting a city seems to investors. “If you mix technology into infrastructure, suddenly there is a whole new investment vertical that the world community would want to put money into, because it’s no longer just steel bridges and tunnels, but something that has an ability to exponentially grow as the society evolves. That’s what we call a smart infrastructure – a convergence of infrastructure and technology.”
FUTURE CITIES
Traditionally, PPP's have been successfully used for financing “hard infrastructure” for industrial nations, e.g. road infrastructural elements like highways and tunnels. It is about time we turned to this mechanism to create not only the said hard infrastructure, but also to put a “smart” layer on top. Particularly in the domain of innovative technologies, there is now the possibility to unleash people’s creativity and integrate more of already existing solutions. By executing PPP's, this change can be achieved without taking money from governments.
fact that they can collaborate and integrate something more innovative than traditional lights, say, sensor lights. And they totally do not think that there is a way to finance this, on top of it all,” explains Sergio. Our traditional ways of doing things do not facilitate integrating more innovative technologies, and this is where PPP are coming in handy. Sergio continues, “Innovators now have a way of interacting with the municipal infrastructure to reinvent and fast-forward the future. In the context of developing urban infrastructure there is now no other way to evolve.”
1. Private Infrastructure Finance and Investment in Europe. European Investment Bank, 2013. 2. Closing the Investment Gap in Europe’s cities. Urban Land Institute, 2009.
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Energy Academy Europe | Elwin Ter Horst
Starting Smart in your own Backyard Smart cities are about much more than connecting buildings and streets, says Elwin ter Horst, program manager at the Energy Academy’s EnergySense project. They are about people and how they interact with each other and their urban environment. EnergySense looks at energy behavior and serves as a living lab for innovative technologies.
T Elwin Ter Horst Program Manager EnergySense
he project will begin at the end of this year when the first 300 households in the north of the Netherlands are enrolled in the project. For each participating household, a survey will be completed. A smart meter and other equipment will be installed to give people an insight into their energy usage. This information is also fed into the EnergySense database. These first 300 households will act as the proof of concept. The project will then expand with the aim to have a total of 10,000 households participating by the end of 2016. Some of those households will produce their own energy, some will have smart appliances; others won’t. "The transformation to smart cities begins with people in their homes," says Elwin Ter Horst, “so that’s where EnergySense starts, too. By looking at what happens at that level.” ‘’For a smart city you first need smart homes in which appliances communicate.
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For example, a thermostat that sends a signal to the blinds to open or close, or a mobile phone telling the oven to start preheating when you’re on your way home. At the next level, we have smart communities where houses interconnect. It could be that my solar panels deliver power to my neighbour when I’m not at home or that I watch television using power stored in my neighbour’s electric vehicle. To make that possible, we don’t just need technology we also need to know more about how people interact. That’s why we analyse the energy behaviour of the participants, interview them, involve them in experiments and share and discuss our findings with them.” One of the drivers for smart cities is sustainability. But a trend towards more autonomy is also driving change. According to Ter Horst, “People want to be less dependent on the state and on big companies. They want to take control
Energy Academy Europe | Elwin Ter Horst
of their own matters and produce their own energy in their own community. The problem is that you’re not always at home when your solar panels produce energy, so you can’t use that power. At the moment it is fed into the grid and your network operator takes care of the rest. But a growing number of people would rather be able to share and sell their electricity within their community. There are technological and ICT solutions being developed to make this happen. They are the enablers for this transition, bringing people closer together.’’
possible to sell your energy to people in your community. “The present economic model is also not suited to facilitating this transition. It doesn’t allow for flexible tariffs in the retail market, so people are encouraged to use power when it’s plentiful and cheap and not during peak hours.’’
People want to take control of their own matters and produce their own energy in their own community.
But there are economic and legal barriers. Ter Horst laments that it is not yet legally
Apart from legal and economic barriers, there are also social barriers, says Ter Horst. “Consumers will have to become aware of and engaged with energy. EnergySense facilitates this. By taking part in the project, the residents of the 10,000 households will gain insight into their energy behaviour and become more engaged. For both private households and for the Northern Netherlands as a cluster, this is an incredible opportunity to become a leading region in the energy transition.”
People need to be enabled. This is where technological and social innovations come in. EnergySense offers international researchers, developers and innovators a unique opportunity to test and apply new energy products and services. Some technologies have only been tested on the laboratory scale, but EnergySense offers a unique large-scale test bed of 10,000 households. ‘’EnergySense is a co-creation; the project depends on its participants and we are looking for more households that want to take part. We’re approaching households through partner organisations of the Energy Academy Europe. These households must be located in the Energy Valley region, so in the north of the Netherlands. The project will run for a period of at least five years.”
ENERGY ACADEMY EUROPE NRG Magazine 31
Energy Academy Europe | Jacqueline Cramer
Utrecht’s Sustainable Renaissa P
rofessor Jacqueline Cramer, one of the speakers at this year’s Energy Convention, says that smart cities offer mankind the best opportunities to reduce its ecological footprint. The former minister is currently director of the Utrecht Sustainability Institute, a network organisation facilitating the transition to more sustainable urban regions.
Jacqueline Cramer
Former Minister of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, Cramer now acts as director of the Utrecht Sustainability Institute.
Find out more!
Jacqueline Cramer will be at the Energy Convention 18-19 November MartiniPlaza, Groningen. On Thursday, 18 November, she will be speaking at 15:45 about Smart Energy Concepts for Smart Cities.
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According to Jaqueline, smart cities will have to be sustainable ones if they are to help confront the twin challenges of the 21st century: global warming and the scarcity of natural resources. “You can, of course, develop smart cities without putting much emphasis on sustainability, but these two challenges are becoming more urgent. Both issues are energyrelated. That’s quite obvious for climate change, but resource efficiency has an energy component too, because of the amount of primary energy needed to extract raw materials and turn them into products. If we want to make the transition to a sustainable economy, we must get on top of these two issues. With regard to climate change, the challenge is to keep the global rise in temperature below 2°C. To improve resource efficiency, we should recirculate more of the high-grade materials we use and move from a linear to a circular economy,” explains Cramer. Cities are best suited to tackling these challenges because they are the place where many of these problems come together. Cramer elaborates, “A
Energy Academy Europe | Jacqueline Cramer
The province of Utrecht wants to renovate 50,000 houses in the next few years and make them energy-neutral.
ance majority of the world's population lives in cities. The trend to move to cities will continue, certainly in emerging economies, because that is where the jobs and opportunities are. Investing in the renovation and modernisation of cities allows change on a much grander scale than in rural areas and it therefore reduces our footprint more effectively. If we want to keep cities liveable, we will have to make a great leap forward in tackling global warming and improving resource efficiency. In doing so, we may also solve other problems. Electrification of transport, for example, will reduce pollution in cities.”
says Cramer. “Technology will develop further, of course, but there is a lot of innovative energy technology already out there. The same goes for technologies to recycle high-grade materials. ICT is playing an increasingly vital role in deploying these technological capabilities, because we need intelligent systems to achieve our goals for energy, natural resources and water. What we do with the energy of our solar panels and how we link this with electric vehicles and energy storage systems will depend more and more on ICT solutions.”
Cities also offer the best opportunities for the implementation of the necessary measures and realisation of innovative projects, says the former minister for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. “The national policy makers are too distanced from what is happening at a local level for innovation to occur. I noticed this during my time in office. As a minister in The Hague, you can encourage parties to do things, but to really make things happen, you have to get people together at a more local level.” Many of the challenges we face can be solved with current technologies,
So if the technology is already there, what are the main obstacles to developing smart cities? Cramer responds, “There are certain forces and interests that are dominant in the present system which are slowing down the transition. They might recognize the need for a transition, but they also want to ensure their company doesn’t go bust, like oil companies or traditional waste processing companies. As long as they can make good money within the present system, it is hard to make alternatives financially attractive.” Another factor is the difficulty for people and stakeholders to get accustomed to change. “When you start thinking in terms of transitions to sustainable energy systems or towards a circular economy, you need to work with parties
Despite such obstacles, the Utrecht Sustainability Institute is working hard to move things in the right direction. “The province of Utrecht wants to renovate 50,000 houses in the next few years and make them energy-neutral,” Cramer says. “We are working with local parties to do this. A lot has been achieved in the area around the Utrecht railway station with new well-insulated buildings, using solar panels and heat/cold storage. Special sensor technology has been developed for this project to measure fluctuations in groundwater temperature to better anticipate supply and demand. We are also working on a smart grid project and other projects to boost the circular economy, putting Utrecht on the map as a region for sustainable innovation.”
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ENERGY ACADEMY EUROPE
If we want to keep cities liveable, we will have to make a great leap forward in tackling global warming and improving resource efficiency.
you haven’t worked with before. That often implies different business models and a different way of organising things. That is never easy. Legislation is also a barrier, as our laws and regulations are based on the current economic model. The behaviour of all of us citizens is also a factor. We are used to certain comforts and find it difficult to think that in a different system, things would work out okay.”
Rubriek naam Interview | Hassan | Naam Farhangi bedrijf
A Layer of
Smart Intelligence Micro Grids
ncing expert, Gerard van Baar, answers your questions about the money side of business. If you have any questions ncing expert, Gerard van Baar, answers your questions about the money side of business. If you have any questions
Hassan Farhangi on Smart Grids For how long have you been working with smart grids? I have been involved in the energy sector for more than twenty years. But this particular activity [smart grid research] began in 2007. In fact, when we started, the terminology was not even coined yet. We had to use the term intelligent grid. We were aware of the problems that utilities had, but there wasn’t a coherent understanding of the collection of concepts and technologies that now formulate a smart grid. We started by trying to describe what it was, the thing we were working with.
So you are an unbiased, disinterested party? Very much so. I am as impartial as one may imagine.
When you use the word “utilities,” whom exactly do you mean? In North America, in the context of the energy sector, “utilities” are primarily electric utilities, companies and organizations that do a part of the whole thing – some are on the generation side, some are on the transmission and distribution side. But the collective terminology to describe them all is utilities.
“You need to be extremely strategic and add the intelligence to the system, layer by layer, when and if required.”
Our target was to put a layer of intelligence over the existing grid. Later on, when our neighbors to the south, the Americans, started talking about this, their Department of Energy coined the term smart grid. We, being a smaller neighbor, followed suit.
In Canada, I work with utilities that have sponsored and supported our work, such as BC Hydro, Hydro Quebec, Hydro one and Manitoba Hydro. These are the largest hydros in Canada.
Whom would you say you represent, utilities or home-owners? I wouldn’t say that I represent the utilities, and I wouldn’t dare to claim that I represent the consumers either. This sector has a large number of stakeholders, and it is not as black and white as we would like to think. We scientists are working towards a common goal of bringing efficiency into the system. 34 NRG Magazine
By the way, in Canada the word hydro was coined to describe the utilities because we have an enormous amount of hydro resources. In BC, for example, close to 98% of power generation comes from hydro resources, the cleanest kind of energy one can imagine.
In your scientific works you use the term ‘layer of intelligence.’ As power systems engineers, we know that the system is pretty good, it is running and it is stable. However, the amount of investment required is daunting. Imagine if you need to build a car, while at the same time continue to drive at 100 km/h. That is roughly the analogy. In order to do what is required, you need to be extremely strategic and add the intelligence to the system, layer by layer, when and if required. For instance, you can start with installing smart meters to measure the load. Then, you can use the data to optimize energy delivery. When that is done, you might think about accessing other sources of energy. You need to go according to a very well-defined roadmap, and gradually add layers of intelligence over the system. Who controls the smart grid? If you look at the smart grid as an abstract technology, then no one. A smart grid is a collection of concepts and technologies that need to work together for certain applications. Mind you, different countries look at the smart grid differently. For example, the Americans tend to focus on expanding the generation side of the system. In Canada, we have a different approach, our primary focus is conservation. Every country and every utility have their own set of priorities. But overall, at this point in time, utilities are in the driver’s seat. They are the ones who determine the pace of investment, at least looking at the surface of things.
Photo by Steven de Jong
Interview| Hassan Farhangi
NRG Magazine 35
INTERVIEW
Hassan Farhangi
Dr. Hassan Farhangi is a pioneering Canadian researcher in the field of smart grid development. After accepting his position with British Columbia Institute of Technology as Principal Investigator of Smart Grid Research in 2007, he became responsible for creating Canada’s first smart microgrid on its campus. In the following interview, he shares his view on some of the hottest topics in the smart grid domain, including cybersecurity and renewables integration.
Interview | Hassan Farhangi
Let’s talk about cybersecurity and smart grids. A lot of issues we discussed fade in comparison to the problems we are facing in the cybersecurity area. In the haste of addressing stability issues and trying to bring efficiency in line, I think we forgot that whatever technology we are bringing into the system may not be suitable from a security point of view. Take communication, for example. The communications system is designed to transport data from point A to point B. When we talk on the phone and there are sound problems, I can ask you to repeat what you said, but this kind of technology does not have the level of availability and reliability that is required for the utilities sector.
unauthorized person with mal-intentions enters into the system and gets into the driver’s seat? If you have a meter on your wall, that meter is an entry point into the larger system. That meter is not secure. If you allow the 14-year old kid to sit beside the meter, get into the ZigBee radio and position himself as an installer, and start changing the stuff, there would be chaos. Technically, how easy is it? How easy is it for anyone, say, even me, to compromise the system? Not easy. Up until now we have had intrusions into the system primarily through networked-devices, new devices that are going into the field, e.g. relays, communication systems, meters, PMUs, you name it. From those devices there have been intrusions. Up until now, the intrusions have been made by hobbyists who do this for fun. Some find it amusing to sit next to a substation and attempt to get control of these new devices and play with them.
“Up until now, the intrusions have been made by hobbyists who do this for fun. But the situation can get a lot more serious.”
Yet we have taken technologies from other sectors, technologies that have their roots elsewhere, into our ‘bag of tricks’. We brought them into the utilities sector not realizing that most of these technologies need to be redone, repurposed and optimized for a new application. Some of these technologies, unfortunately, have security holes associated with them. Because of that, the more we add to our existing system, the more functionality, devices and subsystems, the more vulnerable the system gets. So the intelligence of the system is its own trap? The more intelligent it becomes, the more vulnerable? Yes, exactly. The way we have discussed intelligence, our understanding of intelligence, is the visibility, command and control of the system. Command and control by whom? By an authorized person. But what happens if an
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But that’s the common intention for any hacker. Yes, but the situation can get a lot more serious if you realize that there is the potential for wellorganized, highly-structured, focused intrusions into the system from beyond the country’s borders. Those foreign entities come in and take a look inside, like they would look into your house – what kind of furniture do you have? What kind of a system do you have? Then they just leave without touching anything. It is scary. There is an American cybersecurity consultancy called Mandiant, you can see their reports online. Mandiant reported more than a few thousand intrusions into the US infrastructure, and some into power plants, by parties from the other side of the Pacific, who came in and looked at stuff. Their conclusion was that the primary interest of such attacks was data. There were a lot of IPs stolen. So, industrial espionage was the primary intent.
Just think about it. If the defenses that we have in our systems could be compromised at this level, then what would the next stage be? A coordinated attack on our power plants and on our transportation system? On our airports? They can create chaos, and that is a fact. We have to be very strategic and very careful about what we do, and realize the fact that security should not be an afterthought. You cannot install something and commission the project, and then get back to it and think – is that secure enough? By then it is too late. Security has to be part and parcel of the design of anything that goes into the smart grid.
Interview | Hassan Farhangi
Security has to be part and parcel of the design of anything that goes into the smart grid.
What would happen if we started manipulating these prices and signals? What if all the appliances are manipulated to come online and start working when they are not expected to, putting a huge load on the system and compromising it? This is so easy. Imagine if you have a huge environment, maybe a few cities in The Netherlands, and during the peak hour the utility sends the pricing signal to all of the homes, telling them to not start such devices because the grid is reaching an unstable status. If someone comes and negates that signal, it will collapse the system. By allowing wrong information to be fed into the system, you make it collapse. There is no need to break into it.
where we are heading, and we need to do this. At the same time, let’s not have the tunnel vision. If you are running at 150 km/h, you better have a 360 degree vision. There are security measures that should be incorporated into the system to make it more secure. But can we say with any degree of certainty that the system can ever be secure? No, it can never be secure, and that’s for sure. If a man makes it, another man breaks it. At the same time, we have to make sure that if there are intrusions or attacks, that we contain those attacks and we minimize their impacts. How do smart grids fit into the city of the future? Would a smart grid even be there, or would we transcend to something altogether new? If I could let my imagination run wild, I would talk for the next two hours. Realistically, what is going to be possible is that a city of a size like Groningen, or smaller cities in The Netherlands, will have a level of control over how energy is consumed. Ultimately, a smart city of the future should empower the users to be in control of their carbon footprint. In order to get there, a lot has to be done. From making the utilities work hand-in-hand with the consumers, and governments with both of them, to having full visibility over how energy is generated, stored and transported, to having other sectors integrated in this, including transportation, gas and district heating providers. But, given the fact that we live on a planet that has finite amount of resources and primary fuel, there is no choice but to go there. It is not a question of if, it is a question of when.
“If a man makes it, another man breaks it.”
Organizations with mal-intentions are hard at work. They have groups of highly intelligent engineers who are doing nothing but thinking of a way of attacking a system of this magnitude. We have to put in an equal, if not bigger, amount of resources to stay a few steps ahead of them.
The more the system allows communication, the more it allows for sabotage? Only the non-secure communications are a problem. We have no other choice but to strengthen the system. Everyone involved acknowledges the fact that this is exactly
To read the extended version of this interview, visit www.nrgmagazine.com NRG Magazine 37
INTERVIEW
Which defense options are there? Plenty. You could look at the wide variety of the attacks, and for each attack, the defense is different. Some attacks are designed to get over a firewall and try and compromise the system, try and get into the subsystem and change the configurations. So there are defenses against that. Some attacks could be supplying the system with wrong information. Imagine a smart grid as a huge finite state machine. A state machine is a machine that has legal states. The transition between each state is based on getting authorized and valid stimuli. In this kind of attack, you don’t need to get inside the system to disrupt it, you just feed it the wrong information.
We actually tested one of those cases in our campus. On our campus we have an intelligent home, a three-story home built as a Net-Zero Home. We have loaded this home with all kind of gadgets. One of the issues we were looking at, something that utilities wanted us to experiment with, were pricing signals. If you have intelligent appliances in your home, such as an intelligent dish washer, you could program it – tell it to wash something at a cost no more than 1.20 dollars. We were sending pricing signals from our servers to the dish washer and the dish washer was waiting for the pricing signal. The minute the cost of electricity was low enough, it started washing.
Global Talents | NRG Battle - World Edition
THE INNOVATION PLAYGROUND Teams of young game-changers from around the globe came together to meet, compete, and innovate in Copenhagen
The NRG Battle – World Edition was a pressure-cooker for great ideas. Talented young innovators from over ten different countries and a multitude of different areas of expertise came together for a week of intense idea-generation, problem-solving, and presenting. Between their days and late nights of collaboration, they were able to enjoy Copenhagen, a city known for its forward-thinking approach to energy.
COPENHAGEN: THE SUSTAINABLE CITY
The NRG Battle – World Edition 2014 was held in the stunning Tivoli Congress Center, in conjunction with IGRC2014, in Copenhagen, Denmark. What better place to hold this competition than in a country that has met energy goals that no other nation has been able to meet? Denmark is setting the stage for renewable energy, and acting as a springboard for innovative ideas in the field of gas.
THE JURY OF EXPERTS
Teams at this year’s NRG Battle – World Edition pitched their ideas to a jury of energy leaders. Jury president Jèrôme Ferrier, Senior Vice President of Total and President of the International Gas Union, was featured in the foreword of the September 2014 edition of NRG Magazine. He was joined by Marc Florette, Director of the Digital Division of GDF Suez, and David Carroll, President and CEO of GTI and Vice President of the IGU.
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Global Talents | NRG Battle - World Edition
Team DNV-GL's Winning Idea: Self-Healing Gas Pipelines How can we create self-healing pipelines? The natural gas industry relies on an elaborate network of gas pipelines for the transmission and distribution of gas. This makes the integrity of the gas pipeline a matter of utmost importance. Most of these pipelines are underground, and hard to access for maintenance purposes. Studies have shown that natural gas emissions from damaged pipelines amounts to 78 billion cubic metres per year, the equivalent to the annual gas consumption of Italy. To make matters worse, methane emissions from natural gas are around 20 times more harmful to the climate than CO2.
The proud winners of the coveted NRG Battle-World Edition prize - a ticket for a trip around the world.
Team DNV GL was confronted with the problem - could they develop a solution to the problem of pipeline repair under complex conditions and efficiently? One approach to pipeline repair is to excavate, restore pipe strength and clean the pipe. But this is very time consuming and costly. Internal repairs, on the other hand, mean that excavation is unnecessary.
Team DNV GL came up with an advanced solution to repair gas pipe leaks.. Approaching pipes like veins in the human body, they proposed injecting a functional additive to the gas pipeline that works like platelets in the human body. They suggested a device like an aeroplane without wings that will compress the “platelets� against the walls of the pipeline using the principles of aerodynamics, to seal the leaks.. This solution won Team DNV GL the grand prize, as well as a chance to pursue their idea further. DNV GL will now be considering further research and funding options to identify and select components and concepts that will enable in-situ leak sealing in gas pipelines.
TEAM GDF SUEZ
TEAM ENERGINET.DK
How can we achieve a CO2 neutral gas supply by 2050? Solution: With the group name "Switch2H", Team Gasunie proposed injecting hydrogen into the gas pipelines to achieve a CO2 neutral gas supply.
How can we make shale gas production acceptable for the industry's critical stakeholders? Solution: Team GDF Suez's solution It involved introducing better fracking technologies, developing an industrial conglomerate with experts in the field and implementing new communication methods sharing real time data.
How can we achieve a CO2 neutral gas supply by 2050? Solution: Increasing the cooperation of European nations, by using the existing gas infrastructure to transport renewable energy between countries, making the whole system more reliable and consistent.
NRG Magazine 39
GLOBAL TALENTS
TEAM GASUNIE
Global Talents | NRG Battle - World Edition
Next Steps for Team DNV GL What did you think about the case presented to Team DNV GL? It was a very hard challenge. They used a technology from the water industry and applied that in the gas industry. That’s a new way of thinking. The gas industry is more than 100 years old. There are so many people working in the sector that it’s very difficult to come up with something new that has not been developed before.
Pierre Bartholomeus As Global Director and Senior Vice President Gas Consulting & Services, Pierre Bartholomeus leads DNV GL’s efforts to address the strategic and technical issues along the entire gas value chain. He is responsible for the integration of all the value propositions and market positioning related to gas consulting worldwide. Pierre has comprehensive experience in the Oil & Gas industry, having held key positions in the energy sector for more than 18 years.
How will this case impact the industry? We see two challenges. On the one hand, we look at how we can support the industry with the life-time extension of gas infrastructure assets, and on the other hand we look at how we can contribute to a renewable energy driven society. This self-healing pipeline concept combines both. Our objective at DNV GL is to take a broader view of the industry to help drive asset safety, reliability and performance. We want to come up with new, innovative technologies, recommended practices and standards. If we can help the industry to save costs by efficiently maintaining gas pipes, and preserving the environment by preventing leakages, then we are doing a good job as a company. And that’s what we are aiming for. What do you think about how the team approached the case? The team performed very well. They were very dedicated to the job, very engaged in solving this issue, and they were eager to succeed. They are enthusiastic professionals that really want to contribute to a better world. I think their biggest strength was their strong focus on collaboration. They were also consistent in looking at the right arguments and prioritizing their issues. They also had a lot of energy. In terms of market relevance, how viable did you find their solution to be? It’s very viable. It’s an issue that’s very important to the industry, because the image of gas, especially in Europe, is not so good. Because it’s a fossil fuel, it produces carbon emissions. If you compare that with renewable energy – with wind farms, with solar panels– they are cleaner because they don’t emit
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carbon dioxide. I think this self-healing pipeline solution contributes to a cleaner gas future. If you can use gas in a cleaner way, there will be a greater role for it as part of a safe and sustainable energy future. It is vital for the industry that gas is seen as an important part of the energy mix. What steps are being taken in pursuit of this idea? It is early days but we are considering the following: We already have conducted a study of the literature. In the next phase we could do some research and development and proof of concept testing in our labs to see if it’s applicable. It’s always the case in the industry that new technologies have to be safe, reliable, and cost-efficient. The combination of these three elements is what gives value to this. The third stage could be a field trial, where we can test out the technology with our customers and use their experience. Thereafter we could undertake a process of technology qualification to make sure that the it complies with regulations and can be safely applied in practice. When all these stages have been successfully passed, we can come up with a recommended practice for self-healing pipelines, and start to implement the solution. Did you expect when you first decided to participate in the NRG Battle that something this big would come out of it? No, not at all. I was familiar with the NRG Battle, so I was used to the concept. But we were never so excited about it than after the IGRC2014 in Copenhagen. That has to do with the innovative idea that came out of it. I think it would be interesting to do more of these, because it’s a focused approach - a pressure-cooker. Usually in this organization, people talk, we discuss, we debate… this pressure-cooker concept is a great instrument to identify and select a new technology.
Transporting energy
Safe Efficient Transparent
NRG Magazine 41
Global Talents | TTA World
Talents in the Spotlight IGRC2014 Copenhagen Edition
Louisa Tlili
L
ouisa obtained her Master’s degree in Geology at the University of Utrecht in 2013. Her interest in geology springs from her childhood and youth spent in Zimbabwe, where she developed a passion for wildlife and nature. Becoming a geologist allowed her to work and travel to secluded areas in order to research and discover “the mysteries trapped underground.”
“I am looking to experience something new and exciting, to live my life to the fullest so as not to miss out on anything.”
After a six-month long internship at the South Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology, during which she spent 3 weeks aboard a research vessel collecting seismic data, Louisa started working as an Junior Trainee Geologist for an exploration project in Zimbabwe. Although obtaining significant work experience as a recent graduate is tough, Louisa has every chance to rock the industry with her knowledge and passion. “Geologists play an important role in the energy sector, mostly through exploration and mining. We can find and unlock the trapped oil and gas, especially in areas where little map work was done,” she comments. “When I first saw the ads for the NRG Battle, I was impressed to see that students and young professionals were offered the possibility to meet and share their ideas on challenging and important energy
related topics,” shares Louisa. “After all, through discussion and debate between people from different geographical backgrounds and expertise we can find more relevant solutions that can be applied internationally." “NRG Battle was definitely one to remember, we were able to meet a number of professionals, all focused on researching and improving the energy sector,” she comments, “Thanks to the NRG Battle we were able to show that we also care about the world we live in and want to contribute in finding solutions for a sustainable energy future.” Shale gas extraction has a controversial image, and communities now have an overwhelming power to put those projects on hold. Louisa contributed to the team’s work by sharing her geological knowledge on newer and safer methods of extraction. She admits, “We had a highly multicultural team, I don’t think any of us had a particular role, we really worked together as a team. Everyone contributed by sharing their thoughts which were first questioned and then reformulated in order to obtain the most probable and significant solutions on a global scale.”
Louisa is a regulator. Typically, such talents appreciate control and efficiency, they like bringing structure to their surroundings. In solving the challenges, regulators traditionally choose a particular set of methods and tend to stick to them. These talents often are dedicated workers, who are striving towards continuous improvement and reliability.
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REGULATOR
Global Talents | TTA World
TTA World identifies high-potential individuals by testing their talents and finding their key assets. This edition's talents participated the NRG Battle - World Edition at the IGRC2014 in Copenhagen, on Team GDF Suez.
Ryan Maliska
R
yan is currently studying chemical engineering at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. Nanotechnology really interests him, and Ryan is planning to go on and pursue a Ph.D in this field. He comments, “It is really interesting how some of nanoparticles can remediate petroleum contaminated aquifers and surface waters. As we all know, more efficient methods in tackling oil spills are needed, and I chose this area to produce solutions to existing problems.” Hopefully, the research done in Ryan’s lab will lead to the development of real life applications.
representing each of the participants’ views. Here is how he sees it, “Our team was small enough to not require a leadership position. Not only did we produce a terrific pitch, but we had a great time doing it.”
Ryan decided to participate in the World Edition of the NRG Battle in Copenhagen because he wanted to bring novel ideas to the table, and motivate others to critically look at possible ways of solving energy issues. He was selected to work on a challenge provided by GDF Suez, headquartered in Paris, France.
He now recollects, “My NRG Battle experience was fascinating. My teammates and I became great friends and I met many other wonderful people at the conference, including other participants, the organizers of the battle, and conference attendees. I definitely feel that I have come out of the battle with a keener sense of critical social, environmental, and technical issues that the industry is grappling with today.”
Ryan was lucky in having a team where the creative process was well-balanced, and everyone was contributing to the final solution. As a result, their pitch was
“As said by Marie Curie, the human’s ability to innovate is infinite and if we put in the effort, we can find solutions to all problems.”
Ryan is a multitalent. Such people are unique, because they combine the four major existing talents - innovator, regulator, go-getter and socializer. Perhaps one of the most important feature of talents like Ryan is that they are situational leaders – like chameleons, they quickly adapt to the challenge and act their best. Because of this they are often referred to as “master managers.”
Louisa and Ryan are an excellent example of the high level talents who present themselves in the TTA database. The database of TTA World contains thousands of similar talents from all over the world. These talents have been tested online and ranked by our system to determine their unique assets and talents. If you want to know more about our database and how to get access to it please contact our CEO Geertje Dam. You can reach her by mail : geertje.dam@tta-world.com or by phone : +31 (0)50 – 317 14 70
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GLOBAL TALENTS
MULTITALENT
The focus of the case was on making shale gas extraction more acceptable by all stakeholders, and their solution was threefold. It involved introducing better fracking technologies, developing an industrial conglomerate with universities and implementing new communication methods.