We need to rethink our approach to energy

Sonny Strömberg

By Sonny Strömberg, Head of Special Projects, Innovation, E.ON in Sweden

Urbanization is one of the most powerful mega-trends mankind has ever experienced.
Today, 50% of the world´s population lives in cities. A figure that keeps rising. All those city dwellers need energy for transport, light, heating and cooling. And most of that energy is currently generated by combustion, often using fossil fuels that pollute the air. Urbanization has become a major cause of pollution, with cities being responsible for almost 70% of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere.

Urbanization is not slowing down. If we are going to make our megacities healthy to live in, we need to rethink our approach to energy.

In modern cities there are enough thermal energy flows, generated by human activities to provide the base for both heating and cooling of the entire city. Harvesting those, normally wasted, low level residual energy streams, will make it possible to decrease the energy consumption and hence the fossil fuelled combustion, drastically.

#DecarbCities is a conference organised  by the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA)

Rue d’Arlon 63 – 67, B-1040 Brussels – Belgium

T: +32 2 400 10 17 | F: +32 2 400 10 18

E: info@ehpa.org