Advanced Energy Efficiency, Lecture 2: Industry - Rocky Mountain ...

No limits to profitable industrial energy
efficiency for a very long time to come
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Industry is a materials-processing activity, ~99.98% of the
materials are wasted, and most of this waste will ultimately be
turned into profit by dematerialization, virtualization, product
longevity, closed loops, industrial ecology, desktop mfg., etc.
Conventional technological innovation continues apace despite
appalling private and public underinvestment in energy RD&D
Important new classes of processes, like microfluidics
End-use efficiency keeps getting bigger and cheaper, esp.
with integrative engineering to “tunnel through the cost
barrier”
Next come two further design revolutions
Biomimicry: innovation inspired by nature (Janine Benyus)
Perhaps nanotechnology (in Eric Drexler’s original sense)
› Caution: nanomaterials look risky, and biomimicry is not biotechnology
(often unwise): over time, Darwin always beats Descartes
Plus the options we haven’t yet thought of—but could live to
do so…if we quickly get the hang of responsibly combining a
large forebrain with opposable thumbs!