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Rem Koolhaas Redraws Europe To Reduce Carbon Emissions by 80%
Posted By
Bridgette Meinhold
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Environment,News,Politics,Renewable Energy |
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OMA studied a number of fields to come up with their plan — namely the existing power grid, economics of various scenarios, renewable energy resources, energy efficiency, and transportation networks. They highly suggest implementing a plan no later than 2015 that includes policy development and implementation on the following five areas: energy efficiency; investments in regional grid interconnections and smart grid projects; continued and accelerated technology development; market reform to ensure an effective long-term investment case for business; and switching away from fossil fuels in both the building and transportation sectors.
As part of their pragmatic guide to reducing carbon emissions, OMA recommends a major overhaul of the transmission system to efficiently connect the entire EU to make the best use of renewable energy sources in the region. The UK has a lot of tidal and wind resources, while Spain and Portugal have a lot of sun and Eastern Europe’s main resource is biomass. The report even goes so far as to redraw the region’s boundaries according to their resources. Ireland would be called the Tidal States, Britain and Northern Europe would be the Isles of Wind, countries on the Mediterranean become Solaria, and Eastern Europe becomes Biomassburg. By rethinking the regions in terms of their natural energy resources this would ideally make for more efficient planning and development. And by including solar-rich North Africa in the mix, Europe can exchange power all year long and in the winter export some its wind power.
OMA uses creative graphics and maps to illustrate their point effectively. Visualizing Europe’s transmission grid as a subway map makes the point especially clear. The Roadmap certainly has some merit, so perhaps bringing in an architecture firm has helped make the idea more palatable. One of the most important take home points though is that action is needed. Now.
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Architects aren’t typically known for their policy planning and work on climate change, but Rem Koolhaas’s OMA (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) is a bit outside of the box. They recently unveiled a policy report on how Europe can drastically reduce its carbon emissions by 80% before 2050 rolls around. Their plan, developed in part with the Imperial College London, Kema, Mckinsey & Company, and Oxford economics, proposes an EU-wide decarbonized grid and essentially a realignment of the boundary…
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The main principle behind OMA’s Roadmap is the efficient utilization of all renewable energy resources from the region. Solar from the south; wind, hydro and tidal form the North; and biomass in the East.
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The Roadmap proposes a practical guide to replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy through the implementation of policy and advancing technology, so by 2050, the region can reduce 80% or more of its carbon emissions.
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Visualizing the power grid as a subway map helps clarify where all the power is coming and how it is connected. Light blue is hydro, dark blue is wind, pink is geothermal, orange is nuclear, yellow is solar and green is biomass.
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Part of OMA’s guide envisions Europe with new boundary lines drawn according to the major energy resource. Central Europe including most of Germany becomes Enhanced Geothermalia.
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Hydropia, which is the Scandanavian countries, has a large resource of hydro power from its rivers.
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Eastern Mediterranean Europe, which is largely populated with forests, could easily churn out energy from biomass.
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Ireland and Eastern Britain has a powerful tidal source that could be tapped to become the Tidal States.
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Meanwhile the North Sea region would harness the strong offshore winds and become the Isles of Wind.
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Then down South along the Mediterranean, where the solar resource is strong, the sun would be utilized for solar thermal and photovoltaics to become Solaria.
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During the winter, the winds and tides are stronger so more power would be generated in the north and exported South when the sun is less strong. During the summer, when the sun is blazing down South, they can export solar energy to the calmer North.
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Renewable energy plants would certainly not be limited to just one specific area, as all areas have multiple resources. This map shows which regions have what renewable energy sources. It should be noted that nuclear energy has also been included in the
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Drastic reductions in energy use and carbon emissions would mostly occur in the area of power generation, road transportation, the building industry and waste.
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Here are the projected energy demands for each region by 2050.
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