Open Source Decarbonization
* Special Issue: HardwareX on Open Source Decarbonization for a Sustainable World .
"Open source hardware design has proven to be an effective method to increase innovation and decrease costs of equipment. It can accelerate practical action and the implementation of policies and strategies to reduce our use of oil and gas."
Description
"The world is facing a climate emergency. We must reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and their export and, instead, develop renewable and efficient energy. Electrification of heating with heat pumps can radically reduce natural gas use, electrical vehicles cut the need for oil, and energy efficiency and renewable energy can help shoulder the greater demand this electrification causes, while cutting carbon emissions and resultant climate destabilization.
Open source hardware design has proven to be an effective method to increase innovation and decrease costs of equipment. It can accelerate practical action and the implementation of policies and strategies to reduce our use of oil and gas. In this special issue, the power of open source will be leveraged to improve the performance and decrease the costs of decarbonization technologies."
Typology
Heating Electrification
"There has been sustained advances in heat pump technologies. Heat pump systems are already widely economic, especially when coupled with solar power for offsetting natural gas or propane fuels in some regions, but for widespread adoption the costs must be further reduced. The special issue is specifically looking for open source hardware articles covering:
· Heat pump technologies – geothermal/ground, water and air source for both water heating and space conditioning
· Solar-assisted heat pumps (SAHP) / photovoltaic coupled heat pumps
· Equipment for monitoring, control, characterization and performance evaluation of heat pumps
· Hardware to make, test and use heat exchangers, coils, condensers, evaporators, air handlers, low global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, vapor compression systems, expansion and reversing valves, and temperature and pressure sensors
Transportation Electrification
Electric vehicles are already cost effective from a lifecycle perspective but must also improve performance and decrease costs to become ubiquitous. This special issue is also for hardware used in monitoring, control, characterization and performance evaluation of technologies for electrification of transportation including:
· Electric vehicles
· Battery technology
· Charge controllers and battery management
· Charging stations (including integration with photovoltaics).
Handling Increased Electrification
To enable the grid to decarbonize heating and transportation, energy efficiency is needed to minimize electricity use and renewable energy is needed to eliminate carbon emissions. This special issue is also for manuscripts in hardware for monitoring, control, characterization and performance evaluation of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies including:
· Solar photovoltaic
· Wind energy
· Geothermal
· Hydro power and pumped storage
· Energy storage
· Smart thermostats
· High efficiency electric devices
· Retrofits of existing technologies to reduce energy use
· Energy monitors
More information
Pearce JM. Strategic Investment in Open Hardware for National Security. Technologies. 2022; 10(2):53. https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies10020053
Pearce JM. Economic savings for scientific free and open source technology: A review. HardwareX. 2020; 8:e00139 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2020.e00139
Dupont L, Kasmi F, Pearce JM, Roland Ortt R. ”Do-It-Together”: Towards the Factories of the Future. José Ramos; Sharon Ede; Michel Bauwens; James Gien Wong. Cosmo-Local Reader, Futures Lab, pp.52-59, 2021, 978-0-9953546-3-0. hal-03506100. https://hal.univ-lorraine.fr/hal-03506100