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Energy for Cities: Supply, Demand and Infrastructure Investment

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Building Sustainable Cities of the Future

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology ((GREEN))

Abstract

Energy is essential to all activities in all regions of a country. However the density of energy use in, and our economic dependence on, cities means that it is more critical for urban areas. Nevertheless we suggest that the provision of energy for urban areas cannot be considered separately from the national context. We will demonstrate how to assess the ability of a nation to invest in energy infrastructure for the benefit of cities. Our approach exploits data sets which are available in most industrialised countries, and we select two quite different case studies to illustrate our method: the Colombia (Bogota) and UK (London). Our focus for energy sustainability in cities is quality of life and reduced fossil-fuel emissions. We will show that the main target for cities should be to improve air quality and reduce energy demand by improving energy efficiency.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In Sankey diagrams, the widths of the lines are proportional to the size of the flows which they represent.

  2. 2.

    HDD: for each day, the number of degrees that the outside temperature is below a nominal threshold requirement for indoor heating. The reference value for the UK is 15.5 °C. Data can be calculated using http://www.degreedays.net/.

  3. 3.

    CDD: for each day, the number of degrees that the outside temperature is above a nominal threshold requirement for indoor cooling. Most countries reference to 22 °C. Data can be calculated using http://www.degreedays.net.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Luis Giovanetti and Humberto Mora for their help with the Colombian data and the specific context of Bogota. We are grateful too for graphical design by Elisa Magnini, and to Stephen Cook and Jake Hacker for helpful discussions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Energy Futures, Brunel University, London, UB8 3PH, UK

    Colin J. Axon

  2. Arup, 13 Fitzroy Street, London, W1T 4BQ, UK

    Simon H. Roberts

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  1. Colin J. Axon
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  2. Simon H. Roberts
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Correspondence to Colin J. Axon .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Justin Bishop

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Axon, C.J., Roberts, S.H. (2017). Energy for Cities: Supply, Demand and Infrastructure Investment. In: Bishop, J. (eds) Building Sustainable Cities of the Future. Green Energy and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54458-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54458-8_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-54456-4

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