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| <back | home A Microscopically Local and Personal Article on Energy by Ken Haggard To the American public, energy production and use are mysterious and incomprehensible, and much too large for any of us to affect. If this were not true, then energy would have been a huge political issue in the last presidential election or would be in the upcoming congressional elections. While our nation is fighting an immoral, expensive war to control more oil, we are simultaneously the world’s largest cause of climatic disruption by burning the oil we already have. We are allowing the fossil fuel industries to set federal energy policy and are resisting international treaties signed by almost every other nation attempting to moderate the catastrophic results of this climatic disruption. Why couldn’t any of these have been an issue? Even more importantly, why couldn’t the connective, contextual relationships of all these have been a major part of the presidential campaign? Has the public become so dumbed-down that we can no longer connect cause and effect, even when it directly affects ours as well as the whole planet’s health and welfare? Are we that disconnected from reality? The Republicans would like to think so, and the Democrats keep acting like this is true. How removed from the realities of energy relationships we’ve become was clarified to me in 1995 when I, with 9 other people, were appointed as the technical committee to help develop the Energy Element for the San Luis Obispo County General Plan. Even most members of this committee, who had some technical background, could only think of energy in the context of how do we get more of it. Production of energy dominated any discussion as we wrestled to develop a comprehensive plan. This came as a shock to me because 18 years earlier, in a book called Soft Energy Paths, a then-young physicist named Amory Lovins had shown that any discussion about energy has not only to deal with the production side, which he termed the “hard path,” but with the transmission and use of energy which he termed the “soft path.” Getting the committee to deal with any issues of efficiency or alternate approaches to production at the local scale was a difficult fight. Our result finally did give some space to the softer paths, but, as a whole, the plan was dominated by the traditional hard (how we get energy) concerns. Fast forward ten years to 2005. San Luis Obispo County is overdue to update its conservation and open space element of the General Plan, as required by law. This element includes an energy element. Many public interest groups began communicating on this element, including a new local organization, San Luis Obispo Green Build, of which I am a member. We have been lobbying for green buildings to become part of the General Plan, particularly in this energy section. Ten years ago, SLO Green Build tried to clarify the energy basics to take some of the mystery out of the energy questions and help provide an energy vocabulary. The assumption was that once we have some common vocabulary, we can have conversations among various interests. In our communication with the Planners and Planning Commission, we used Lovins’ “hard and soft” energy path terminology but improved it by adding a third path, which we called an “integrated” path. This is explained in the following commentary to the planning staff: To employ the best available practices, the city needs to differentiate between three different aspects of energy utilization: 1. energy production — the supply side viewpoint of the energy equation (hard path) 2. energy use — the demand side of the energy equation (soft path) 3. integrated approach — combining production, use, and location. 1. Historically, emphasis on the supply side has dealt with the quantity of energy available and the initial cost of providing the energy. Though important, this is only one of three aspects that nee d to be considered. The recent California electricity crisis and continuing stresses illustrate that pure production by itself is not the whole picture. Over-emphasis on production has created neglect of environmental cost and health risks and allowed unethical market manipulation. More efficiency in production, increasing the use of clean and renewable energy sources, and greater accountability are being emphasized at the state level. But in regard to the supply side viewpoint, a city the size of San Luis Obispo has limited options in affecting this aspect of the energy equation. Some things can be done, but the best practices in energy utilization for a city the size of San Luis Obispo lie elsewhere, in categories 2 and 3. 2. Historically, the demand side has dealt with delivery systems and application of energy upon its arrival. This is the softer side of the energy equation since it involves social and behavioral besides technological considerations. Our recent energy problems have rekindled an emphasis on energy conservation. We have made great progress in conservation and production efficiencies; however, on the demand side (the soft side) in the last decade, we have become progressively more wasteful. A simple way to illustrate this is merely to walk around downtown San Luis Obispo during daylight hours and observe outdoor lights on. Many interior lights could also be replaced with a proper fenestration scheme for the building. This simple example illustrates the problem we’ve created by conceptually separating energy supply and energy use. Very few people make the connection anymore, so such flagrant waste has now become part of daily life and is hardly noticed. 3. The third approach combining production and use on site sounds complex but actually in many situations is the simplest. It has both hard and soft advantages and, in addition, is the easiest for city policy to effectuate. This integrated approach is more economical because it can use the same components to achieve multiple effects like heating, cooling, lighting, and ventilation. And because it is generally an integral part of each building, it is not so abstractly removed from the users’ everyday experience to encourage thoughtless waste. An analysis of best available practices finds San Luis Obispo to be uniquely placed because of its setting and climate to take maximum advantage of this more integrated approach to energy utilization. Because of our cool summer nights, we can provide space cooling by passive means in buildings that utilize thermal mass. Our mild winter also allows us easily to provide most of the heating to a building by passive solar using the same building components: essentially, windows and thermal mass. The scale of our city and its buildings is such that natural lighting and ventilation are relatively easy if considered as part of the building design — something that is generally not done in new buildings. Green buildings are the most common way to utilize the third energy path because: 1. They can affect more than 50% of the energy use of the U.S.A. 2. In many cases, they give the most economical return if we look beyond the artificial subsidies given to the traditional construction. 3. It’s a good way to involve the soft side of the energy equation because it is less abstract and more people-connected. 4. The integrated energy path is the one most regulated by local entities such as our planning commission. Production and delivery is most regulated by federal and state policy, but buildings are largely dealt with by local jurisdictions. At the time of this printing of Hope Dance, the planning commission has proposed adding into the General Plan a section on green buildings which has been consented to by SLO Green Build, the Chamber of Commerce, and the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. With this action, the vocabulary necessary for a real conversation between builders, planners, and users regarding energy is established in San Luis Obispo. Hopefully this conversation can lead to more community in regard to a sustainable energy future. Ken Haggard is an architect who lives in Santa Margarita in a mini-community of two residences, an office, a shop and a sound studio, all of which operate by integrated systems and have been off the electrical grid for 11 years. <back | top^ |