Energy questions have local answers

Woking, England, the town where I and my family lived for 12 years, is 30 miles west of London, set in unspectacular countryside and lacking historic or architectural charm. Becoming prominent only in the 19th century as a rail terminus, it is awkwardly bisected by railroads. Some years ago the city invested heavily to restore its almost abandoned downtown, as Raleigh is doing now.

In one striking respect, however, Woking is unique. The city is energy self-sufficient, generating 135 percent more than it consumes.

This did not come about by accident. The local council implemented a comprehensive new energy policy in 1991 affecting businesses, utilities and residents. In the 10-year period that followed, energy consumption was reduced by 40 percent, CO2 emissions by 67 percent and water consumption by 44 percent.

The council's initiative had little support from a central government which still focuses myopically on a nuclear solution. Woking is still the only local authority in Britain supplying customers with electricity on private wire, combined heat and power and renewable energy networks.

Other cities in Europe are now studying Woking's success, highlighting the reality that an energy revolution is more likely to occur at the local rather than the national level. Nationalized utilities, like major power companies, tend to favor the status quo, because thinking becomes blinkered on a large scale. In Britain and the U.S. we have moved away from dependence upon local power stations to national grids, which are highly wasteful and vulnerable to catastrophic, if rare, outages.

The new energy solutions being adopted by cities around the world differ according to location. Toronto draws chilly water from the bottom of Lake Ontario to cool its office buildings. Holland uses "hot road" technology, which involves a layer of reinforced pipes through which water can flow from nearby storage aquifers. Even in relatively cool air temperatures, water pipe temperatures under the road can rise 50 degrees, amounting to an energy yield of as much as 77,000 kilowatt hours per kilometer of road per year, incidentally obviating the need for winter salt. Denmark leads the world in wind generation, accounting for 20 percent of its energy supply.

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What these solutions tend to have in common is a new way of thinking. The focus is on small networks and on the end product, rather than the energy medium. In other words, if a building needs cooling, heating and lighting, only one of these requires delivery in the form of electricity. Most new systems use CHP technology (combined heat and power), which recovers heat while generating power, providing energy efficiency up to 90 percent, and heat-fired absorption cooling.

Instead of seeking one simple answer to energy production and distribution, systems are multi-faceted, involving both local energy generation and energy saving.

In the case of Woking, the city has implemented the use of photovoltaic roofs, solar street lamps, geothermal pumps, hydrogen cells to replace conventional electricity substations, and bio-digesters for household waste.

With a conventional system of power generation and distribution, we lose roughly 80 percent of energy input. Look at any power station to see what goes up in steam! With a local hybrid system, we not only save energy but substantially reduce costs, emissions and our contribution to global warming. Such ideas only seem impractical if we consider them as immediate solutions rather than as sensible groundwork for long-term planning. Utility companies routinely plan 10 years ahead.

Progress Energy is reportedly seeking a license to build up to two new nuclear reactors in Wake County. Supporters claim that is better than a new coal-fired power plant, which is rather like saying a surgeon does better using a chisel than an ax.

The threat of increased nuclear power generation should be incentive enough. The Triangle is in a unique position to lead in the new energy wave.

Our fast-expanding private housing sector could be influenced by judicious incentives. While the imposition of high impact fees -- with dramatic fee relief for energy self-sufficient homes -- might provoke initial opposition from developers, it might also point the way to both higher profits and increased consumer benefit.

Raleigh has an opportunity which may not soon recur. With major downtown development under way, a concentration of state and city buildings and a sizable stock of affordable housing, our city could become an example for the nation.

Richard Graham-Yooll is an advertising consultant and novelist ("A Foreign Policy," 2005) who lives in Raleigh.