[ontolog-forum] Open Energy Information (WAS: Re: Foundation ontology, C

[Duane Nickull <dnickull@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mills:    (01)

> Mills wrote:
> "Let me give a practical near-term example. The Open Energy Information
> initiative sponsored by the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
> seeks to establish a global energy information commons based on linked open
> data and data commons principles"....    (02)

Are you involved in this?  Very cool!  I have been thinking for a long time
about the various arguments used for ³green² initiatives such as ³buy
locally² and have really felt that the lack of some sort of shared metrics
for determining what ³green² really means is allowing marketeers to hijack
the term.  Here is an example.    (03)

Many people tell you to ³buy locally².  On some sliding scale though, buying
locally grown tomatoes becomes more likely more energy consuming that
importing from other areas.  The various factors that would affect this are
almost too numerous to think about.  Here is a short list:    (04)

* the energy required to grow food year round in green houses in northern
climates vs. using natural sunlight.
* the energy used to move the food (plus how is was produced.  An electric
train powered by wind carrying Californian avocados to Canada might be
better than propane powered Canadian greenhouses).
* The energy used by the farm/producer (including the living arrangements
with employees, fuel and equipment used, shipments of fertilizer etc.).
* The distribution network and itıs challenges (refrigeration, freezing,
storage time...)
* The use of manual vs automated labor
* more...    (05)

The idea came to me as I was shopping and was looking at Apples and my wife
and I were trying to decide which Apples to buy.  It would be nice if every
food item was clearly labeled with something like ³This piece of fruit used
XXX of YYY units of energy to be on this shelf².  There are units of energy
that would be appropriate measuring metrics such as Kilojoules/calories.    (06)

In order to do this, there would have to be a formal model for energy
calculations.  Most of the data is already known in terms of how much fuel
the transporters/farms purchase plus the utilities various buildings use.
Seems like a good place for some data commons principles.    (07)

I started working on such a model but have had little time to complete it.
I was going to see if someone from the David Suzuki foundation here in town
might be interested in pursuing this.    (08)

Duane
---
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Twitter ­ http://twitter.com/duanechaos    (09)


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