According to the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), climate change is defined as a long-term change in the earth’s average weather patterns. Many natural events over time can contribute to climate change, including cyclical ocean patterns and volcanic activity. However, industry experts confirm that the precipitous rise in heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels resulting from the burning of fossil fuels by humans over the past 50-75 years has greatly accelerated changes in the earth’s climate. It has contributed to significant global warming— a reality which affects every living thing and natural process.
As a result of its far-reaching impact on the future of our planet, António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, identified climate change as “the defining issue of our time” in a September 2018 address to the UN’s General Assembly.
In response to the growing crisis, industry professionals worldwide are applying the utmost in engineering expertise and technological advancements in everything from electric vehicle (EV) charging technology to renewable energy sources and more to help combat the effects of climate change. The goal is to drive greater sustainability that will benefit generations to come.
Advancements in Electric Vehicle Energy Use
Optimal Vehicle-to-Grid Solutions (V2G)
Electric vehicle charging company Virta estimates that 250 million EVs could be on the road worldwide by 2030. With global sales of electric vehicles (EVs) on the rise, “vehicle-to-grid” (V2G) solutions refer to technologies that help offset climate change. This is done by enabling the energy generated from electric vehicle batteries to be pushed back to the power grid, thereby optimizing energy use. To help achieve this, engineers are currently developing new ways of balancing and efficiently storing energy generated by the range of renewable sources.
EV Battery Swapping Stations
Electric vehicle owners must routinely charge their car batteries in order to keep their vehicles on the road. To address that inconvenience, a number of companies are proposing a slightly different approach known as EV battery swapping. Through the “battery swap system” offered by San Francisco-based company Ample, for instance, EV owners can reduce their car’s downtime by swapping out their spent battery at a designated station for a fully-juiced one in just five minutes— which would make it faster than any EV charger on the market today.
Solutions for Enhancing Residential Sustainability
Hybrid Energy Management Systems to Reduce Home Energy Use
The development of an innovative Hybrid Home Energy Management System (HEMS) over the last several years helps enhance residential energy efficiency by offering homeowners options. Specifically, the system’s analytics will determine whether it’s more sustainable to source electricity from the electric grid or from the home’s own renewable generation technologies (such as solar panels and battery storage units). This solution has been lauded for its ability to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and electric bills while giving homeowners greater ability to personally combat climate change.
Behind-the-Meter Home Resources
“Behind-the-Meter” energy refers to power generated on a homeowner’s property without passing through a utility meter. This is accomplished via the use of residential renewable technologies such as solar panels, small wind turbines, battery energy storage, and local microgrid systems. Some sustainability-forward leaders, like the state of California, are currently re-evaluating tariffs and price signals on the use of these technologies to help promote more equitable adoption of these practices.
Conserving Energy at the Commercial/Industrial Level
Energy-Saving Approaches for Data Centers
While data centers lie at the heart of today’s highly-connected world, they’re also some of its greatest energy hogs. Research shows that data centers accounted for 1 to 1.5% of the entire world’s energy consumption in 2022. The average hyperscale data center consumes between 20 and 50 Megawatts of power annually— enough to power some 37,000 homes— and experts at DataCentre Magazine predict that the energy consumed by data centers worldwide will quadruple by 2030.
One key way of achieving greater energy efficiency and sustainability in data centers involves the application of advanced approaches to cooling the space. This is being accomplished through liquid cooling technologies and direct-to-chip cooling methods, two approaches in which the U.S. Department of Energy is heavily invested.
Conserving Energy at the Commercial/Industrial Level
Energy-Saving Approaches for Data Centers
While data centers lie at the heart of today’s highly-connected world, they’re also some of its greatest energy hogs, with research showing that data centers accounted for 1-1.5% of the entire world’s energy consumption in 2022. The average hyperscale data center consumes between 20 and 50 Megawatts of power annually – enough to power some 37,000 homes – and experts at DataCentre Magazine predict that the energy consumed by data centers worldwide will quadruple by 2030.
One key way of achieving greater energy efficiency and sustainability in data centers involves the application of advanced approaches to cooling the space. This is being accomplished through liquid cooling technologies and direct-to-chip cooling methods, two approaches in which the U.S. Department of Energy is heavily invested.
Reducing Traffic Congestion Globally
Addressing “Congestion Collapse” in the Developing World
In many developing countries throughout Africa, South America, and Asia, the combination of narrow, poorly-built roads all converging together in highly congested areas results in lengthy traffic jams and delays. This process, known as “congestion collapse,” is notorious for promoting fuel waste and the emission of pollutants into the atmosphere. Among other solutions, experts encourage the use of “de-congestion protocols” using live CCTV camera feeds from multiple traffic signals in combination with targeted algorithms to expand road capacity and help prevent the congestion and pollution that occurs in these settings.
IEEE: A Renowned Source in the Climate Change Arena
Given the global threat that climate change represents, and as a recognized hub for engineers and technologists, IEEE is a go-to source for the latest in climate change-related technologies and sustainable design. Among the many available resources is a new course, Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable Future. This online training provides a solid overview of the range of activities and innovative developments in the sustainability arena.
Broken into easily-digestible, seven to ten-minute modules on leading topics drawn from research papers within the IEEE Xplore Digital Library, Engineering Solutions for a Sustainable Future covers everything from intelligent urban networks that can alleviate congestion and Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) solutions for distribution system reliability to hybrid home energy management systems for emission reduction, energy-efficient data center climate control policies, optimal resource scheduling based on export rates, and electric vehicle battery swapping stations.
Within the convenience of just one hour, learners can stay on top of innovative developments in the climate change realm and receive a thorough overview of modern-day engineering solutions to some of the world’s most pressing sustainability challenges. Plus, learners who complete this microlearning course will earn professional development hours (PDHs) and continuing education units (CEUs).
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Resources
What is Climate Change? The National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
(26 September 2018). UN’s Guterres on Climate Change: ‘We Need to Do More and We Need to Do It Quicker.’ United Nations.
Jain, Vipin, Sharma, Ashlesh, and Lakshminarayanan, Subramanian. Road Traffic Congestion in the Developing World.
Everything You Need to Know About V2G. Virta.
Barja-Martinez, Sara, Rucker, Fabian, Aragues, Penalba, and Villafafila-Robles, Roberto. (February 2021). A Novel Hybrid Home Energy Management System Considering Electricity Cost and Greenhouse Gas Emissions Minimization. Research Gate.
Barrowclough, Nicholas. (16 November 2023). Transforming Data Centre Cooling for a Sustainable Future. DataCentre Magazine.
Marsh, Jacob. (6 December 2023). Behind-the-Meter: What You Need to Know. EnergySage.
Balaraman, Kavya. (14 December 2021). California’s Proposed Net Energy Metering Update Could Hit Distributed Solar Hard, Industry Warns. Utility Dive.
Crownhart, Casey. (17 May 2023). How 5-Minute Battery Swaps Could Get More EVs on the Road. MIT Technology Review.
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