At the Energy Group meeting in April we started a discussion on what a low carbon Cambridge might look like and how to get there. The plan is to make a list of possible strategies, whittle this down to a manageable number that are practical and will make a real difference, then see what we can do to promote them. Needless to say, we didn't manage all that in one meeting! Also we didn't restrict ourselves to just energy issues. Our initial list of strategies is:
- Very high levels of recycling
- Less energy intensive lifestyles
- Eating less meat and animal products
- Lots more insulation in homes and other buildings
- Lots more street level PV on rooftops
- LED street lights
- High levels of walking and cycling (and possibly electric bikes)
- Much greater use of public transport
- Polluting cars banned from the city centre
- Congestion charging in the city centre
- Hydrogen fuel stations for e.g. buses
- District heating by CHP
- Underground inter-seasonal heat storage
- Smart charging for cars, with vehicle to grid (V2G) energy storage services
- Grid connected battery storage (possibly flow batteries)
Would you like to take part in this discussion? The notes are in a shared document on google drive but I can't give you the link here for fear of spammers. You can access a readonly (pdf) version here . If I know you and you would like to take part let me know.