Technology Tuesdays: Energy Efficiency in the Age of Intel

Hello Partners!

We have been talking about big data, intelligence, and energy efficiency for quite a long time. These industries have been dancing around each other for much of the last couple decades however, in recent years, they have really converged in a meaningful way.

This convergence is called intelligent efficiency which is the idea that energy efficiency can occur without much interaction from humans. Some examples include smart thermostats’ ability to adjust the temperature within an indoor space in response to changes in temperature, occupancy, and time of day without the occupant having to think about it. Another example is our vehicle’s ability to recharge its battery when the cost of electricity is at its lowest and overall demand is low.

Most appliances and/or machinery we use can be designed with these abilities which simply come from having a connection to the internet. We live in an age where there are more devices that are connected to the internet than people. This means more opportunities for these devices to do work for us which includes their share of energy efficiency.

However, connecting to the internet is just the tip of the iceberg. More of these devices are built with learning abilities which take in information about their environment and the behavior patterns of people and perform their work in a manner that optimizes energy use. These abilities have broad implications for our continued efforts to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The idea of intelligent efficiency really comes to life when we begin to talk about processes and systems as a whole. For example, if we begin to think of buildings as a wholistic system, we begin to see many opportunities for its internal processes to “learn” from each other and optimize temperature and lighting in the most advantageous way to create the most comfortable environment for its occupants all while using minimal energy resources. The same is true of manufacturing processes. Intelligent efficiency in manufacturing has been coined with the phrase, smart manufacturing to describe the ways in which these processes have been optimized to do their work in the most efficient and environmentally sound way.

Although we have a lot of work to do to reach our greenhouse gas emissions goals, no one ever said we would have to work harder, just smarter.

The savings never stop!

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Sources:
https://www.aceee.org/topic/intelligent-efficiency