ASSIGNMENT 3: Energy Systems: from the Body to the World
This assignment focuses on the energy distribution in my hometown, Virginia Beach, as it relates on a larger scale as well as my local and individual scale. Looking back not too long ago, I have analyzed the various activities that involved the consumption of energy in a four hour period. This past summer, a typical Tuesday late afternoon (between roughly 5pm and 9pm) would find me preparing for work.
My energy consumption activities begin at my parent’s house in the neighborhood Church Point, on the residential scale. As the air conditioning runs and the house is lit, I pump up the water heating system in order to shower before leaving for work. After running water in my shower, face-washing, brushing teeth, etc. I quickly make myself dinner, which usually includes something that has been refrigerating and then is popped into the microwave.
Glancing at one of the many ticking clocks in my house, I realize (as usual) that I am late and quickly rush to my car to leave for my job as a waitress at Chick’s Oyster Bar off Shore Drive on the Chesapeake Bay. This begins my energy consumption on the scale of transportation. Running late, I am sweating and turn up the air conditioning in my 2003 Volkswagen Jetta and verge on the edge of reckless driving by over-using both the gas and brake pedals. Once I arrive, hopefully sometime around 6pm, which is when my shift begins and so does my part in the larger energy consumption of the restaurant, on a commercial scale.
I clock in to the computer system and jump right into work. Running water, printing out receipts, going in and out of the walk-in refrigerator and freezers are just some parts of my individual energy consumption. All around me are even more energy consuming functions that are all part of the everyday life of a restaurant. Because it is sited on a dock on the Chesapeake Bay, Chick’s is constantly consuming energy through attempting to balance the external temperature with a comfortable internal temperature through ventilation, which proves to be quite a dilemma considering that a majority of the seating is outside. This requires a constant exchange between the heating and air conditioning systems. Cooking staff arrive very early in the morning and the earliest that the last employee leaves is usually 1am. This entire time the restaurant must be lit. Meanwhile, food must be cooked, refrigerated and boiled, water must be kept heated and the managers are using their computers in their office.
(Below is a geographically organized map of energy distribution to Virginia Beach.)
The company that powers all of these activities from the individual to commercial scale, and even beyond to a state-wide level, is Dominion Virginia Power, which handles all of the electricity generation and distribution, where it is then transformed in order to provide energy services for the entire area of Virginia Beach. Dominion Power receives its energy in the form of four main energy resources: nuclear energy, natural gas, coal, and petroleum. The Surry Nuclear Power Plant provides nuclear energy. The subsidiary of AGL Resources, Virginia Natural Gas, distributes natural gas from storage plants in James City County and Chesapeake. Coal-fired plants can be found in both Chesapeake and Southampton County and petroleum energy is provided by the Chesapeake Energy Center Gas Power Plant.
(Below is a “Sankey Diagram” inspired diagram of the networking between the extractors, distributors and users of energy, myself including, that I have described above.)
I strongly feel that the individual scale is the strongest catalyst for widespread change in energy consumption. Whether we like it or not, our world revolves around capital. This does not by any means exclude the priorities of the energy extracting and distributing companies in the US. Profit is the priority. So in order for us as individuals to cause a global impact we must begin by inspiring change. Profit is found through the manipulation of supply and demand. Energy companies have complete control over the supply, but we as individuals control what is the demand. If energy efficient lifestyles begin at the personal level, it will inspire a community of energy efficiency that will then get the attention of the suppliers. You can’t complain about the inefficiencies of petroleum consumption when you drive your 4×4 to work every weekday. You are telling the suppliers that you want petroleum, that you need petroleum, that you demand petroleum. If our lifestyles change towards a new demand, the suppliers will find a way to fill that new demand and follow suit.
In Virginia Beach particularly, which is a very spread out community with a very pathetic attempt at public transportation, petroleum consumption for transportation needs are very hard to avoid. However, there are other simpler ways that you can change your lifestyle towards a new demand or to lessen a demand for a certain resource.
Adapt your comfort level! Americans have been proven to have the slimmest zone of comfort. This is an element that affects a variety of energy consuming activities. As much as you argue the contrary, yes you will be able to survive without that 20 minute, boiling hot shower. Yes, you will be just fine if you substitute a sweater and socks for blasting up the heater. Trust me, I sweat too, but you will be ok if your house resembles something other than the inside of a freezer on a hot summer day. Widening our comfort zones will let the energy companies know that no, I really do not need the maximum amount of energy that you can provide me, I will be just find at this lower level of consumption. Provide a precedent upon which change can happen. Energy distributors feel that the need massive amounts of energy from energy extractors because we keep buying it from them. If the norm for energy consumption at the residential scale lowers, then it will trickle back throughout the web of networks and prevent over-extraction of energy from our environment.
Eat locally! Yes, frozen dinners and microwave meals seem to be time efficient, but take an effort to carve some time out of your day to properly cook fresh, local foods and you will look back in disgust on what you used to put in your mouth for the sake of “efficiency”. Again, there is supply and demand. McDonald’s fast-food restaurants continue to pop up globally because we keep buying from them. Grocery stores stock up their freezer section because people can’t seem to wrap their head around the vegetables in the fresh produce section. Change is scary… guess I’ll get the canned carrots again! I’m not even going to go into the benefits of removing meat from your diet because as a vegetarian I’m biased and that is another topic in and of itself, but follow those guidelines and start removing or substituting certain parts of your everyday diet. Go ahead, get those fresh carrots. While you’re at it, you might as well even go organic. You’re eating a carrot one way or the other, but by slowly buying more and more fresh produce and less and less frozen, canned or processed foods, you are telling the Man that you do not want processed foods anymore. Tell a friend, start a trend. Inspire a community that looks in disgust on frozen peas and eventually the demand for frozen peas will lessen and companies that once supplied that product will turn in another direction in hopes of profit.
It’s supposed to be a democracy! Tired of writing off your first-born to gas companies? Stop complaining to your boyfriend, your professor or your dog and tell someone who can actually do something about it. Write to your local politician. Tell them that the so-called local bus system is embarrassing and, personally, you would really like that to be changed. Politicos are in the end based off the wants and needs of the people, so inspire a community that complains to the right people. Eventually, change will happen, and it begins with us.
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