Comment
Why being all-electric should be the priority for our cities
The net zero discussion is everywhere. Investors, developers, countries and cities are all vying to be the first to achieve net zero. Sustainability Director, Barny Evans shares his view on why cities should focus more on becoming all-electric.
The calculation method for net zero is flawed, but that is an issue for another day. My point is that for city authorities electrification is more important than the net zero calculation (even if you accept the flawed methodology).
I was speaking to a city representative recently who was seeking to decarbonise his city. He mentioned heat networks, solar farms and wind turbines but he hardly mentioned energy demands - the crux of the matter for all cities. Whilst we live in an exciting world where energy generation and demand are more mixed up, cities are always going to be overwhelmingly energy demanders rather than energy producers.
The focus by cities on energy generation projects, heat networks and big infrastructure is partly because they are much easier than managing energy demand. They can be done discreetly, with simple financial models and ribbons to cut, and they create a lot of jobs. Dealing with energy demand is messy and involves peoples’ homes, electrical networks and thousands of small changes, with very few ribbons to cut and financial models that are difficult to box into a simple return on investment.
Still, that is the challenge that we need to face. We have solved the issue of how to supply zero carbon energy; solar, wind and nuclear can and will supply as much energy as you can ever imagine, cheaper than you will ever believe. We can generate some of that in cities, but the vast majority will be generated in more cost-effective places; fields, the ocean or even abroad.
We have unlimited clean, cheap electricity. The issue is the intermittency or inflexibility of the supply. That means our cities need to electrify all the demands and become as flexible as possible to help balance that supply. There is some talk around hydrogen and efuels, but this is more appropriate for heavy industry, shipping or aviation fuels. It is not going to be a major issue in cities.
Everywhere you look, however, that is not what our policies are focused on. In London for example, new developments are required to connect to gas fired heat networks, even when they would otherwise be all-electric. Many local authorities require or support “net zero” development with gas fired systems and lot of solar balancing it out. Although increasingly cities favour electrification on new development, it needs to be mandatory. All-electric vehicle fleets in the form of car clubs and light freight could provide huge flexibility, but they are hardly mentioned in transport policy. On energy flexibility, there are often warm words in planning policy and glossy documents, but little clear investment or planning policy. In fairness, this could be supported by Building Regulations, OFGEM and BEIS, who should be doing far more to drive energy flexibility.
The reason it is more important that cities target being all-electric than net zero is that net zero often involves the continued use of fossil fuels, with offsets and/or net calculations to achieve the calculation. It is no use cities being net zero on a net basis today, if in the future they are still using gas or petrol/diesel. If they can’t be all-electric and flexible with energy storage and turning things on and off, then they will hold back our renewable energy revolution.
The opportunity is huge. The all-electric city will have much less air pollution, be much quieter, decarbonise rapidly and enable huge productivity leaps. Once a city makes the clear commitment to complete electrification it can have sensible discussions with utility providers, developers, investors, businesses, and the public. If you are a city representative, please grasp this opportunity now.
If you’d like to learn more about going all-electric and net zero, please contact Barny Evans.
20 September 2022