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Green Districts: The City District as a Power Station | |
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7 September 09 By Dr. Steffen Lehmann This presentation discusses the need to retrofit the existing cities and de-carbonise the energy supply, on a district-scale. Low-emission energy generation technologies can turn the city districts themselves into power stations, where energy is generated close to the point of consumption. Localised energy generation using renewable energy sources (solar, wind, biomass, geothermal), and complemented by distributed heating and cooling systems, has a huge potential to reduce the built environment’s energy demand and emissions. Such decentralized, distributed systems, where every citizen can generate the energy needed, will eliminate transmission losses and transmission costs (which always occur with the large grid and inefficient base-load power stations) for the local consumer. The concept can be considered for both existing and new buildings: Small power generators are positioned within communities to provide electricity for local consumption, and the waste heat they produce is captured for co-generation (for CHP; or for tri-generation, when waste heat also produces chilled water for cooling); used for space conditioning via a local district heating or district cooling system. New energy principles look at capturing and harvesting waste heat and waste water streams, and how the strategic arrangement of programme within mixed-use urban blocks can lead to unleashing such unused energy potential. This presentation will illustrate that a low-emission future is feasible, and how cities will adapt, if countries are to meet international obligations such as those outlined in international emission agreements. However, there is urgency; without incentives, policy directions and updating the building codes, the stationary energy demand across all sectors is projected to increase further. About the Speaker German-born architect Dr. Steffen Lehmann has been involved in environmental design scholarly research, teaching and consultancy since the mid 1980s. He has lectured in 24 countries and his writings have been translated into several languages. He is recognized as an international authority on sustainable buildings and cities. Steffen holds the UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific; he is Chair and Professor of Architectural Design in the School of Architecture and Built Environment at the University of Newcastle (NSW); and he is the Founding Director of the s_Lab Space Laboratory for Architectural Research and Design (Sydney-Berlin). The s_Lab is an international interdisciplinary research and design cluster, based in Germpractice with research in pursuit of a sustainable design ethic. Steffen has achieved international recognition in the field of sustainable design, while he was instrumental in the construction of the ‘New Berlin’ during the 1990s. His expertise is in sustainable healthy cities, ‘Green Urbanism’ and energy-efficient buildings, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches, new technolosustainability, and their social inclusion. He has taught as a Visiting Professor at the TU-Berlin, Art Academy Berlin-Weissensee, TU-Munich, Tongji University Shanghai, among other leading universities. Steffen is the author and co-author of over 220 journal publications and book chapters, and of a number of books, in the area of sustainable design, cities and architecture. He is the General-Editor of the US-based Journal of Green Building, and an advisor to government, city councils and industry in Europe, Asia and Australia. Recognizing his international role in sustainable urban design, the United Nations appointed him to the prestigious UNESCO Chair in Sustainable Urban Development for Asia and the Pacific, which is the first UNESCO Chair in the area of Sustainability which was established in the Asia-Pacific Region, with the aim to consult governments and municipalities on sustainable urbanization models, to harmonize extreme conditions of rapid urban growth. Last updated on 31 Aug 09
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