Rita Shaw and Geraldine Bryson, Electricity North West

Posted on January 26, 2017

Wednesday 25th January 16.00-18.00, D72/MR11 FASS, Lancaster University -All Welcome This seminar will be available via Livestream. An introduction to Electricity North West’s thoughts on how the demand for electricity could change in the future, the issues it would cause and the innovative solutions we are investigating to solve these issues.   Download the seminar slides…

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Seminar: Giuseppe Salvia, Smart technology vs smarter people?

Posted on December 20, 2016

The application of smart technology is spreading in everyday practices. Devices such as self-driving vehicles and autonomous thermostats promise a more efficient future in which smart automation reduces human workload and energy consumption. But at what expense? I argue that the renegotiation of competences between people and ubiquitous smart technology tends to undermine and override people's…

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The Curse of the Modern Office

Posted on November 22, 2016

Downtown Chicago. Photo credit: Charles Voogd, Wikipedia Commons. The information society promises to dematerialise society and make it more sustainable, but modern office and knowledge work has itself become a large and rapidly growing consumer of energy and other resources.  Welcome to the Office These days, it's rather easy to define an "office worker": it's someone who sits in front of…

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Managing heat stress within and across domains: outdoor workers, rhythm and responsibility in Australia’s monsoonal north. Elspeth Opperman

Posted on September 22, 2016

Seminar held: Wednesday 21st September 2016 Australia’s monsoon tropics is characterised by high temperatures combined with extremely high humidity for about half of the year. These conditions pose a profound challenge to human thermoregulation and heat stress is a common experience in the region. The outdoor, labour-intensive workforce is particularly exposed, and produces additional…

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Think Piece: (Em)powering the household? Emerging energy practices around decentralised storage of solar energy

Posted on September 5, 2016

Sanneke Kloppenburg, Robin Smale & Nick Verkade (sanneke.kloppenburg@wur.nl) The rise of renewable energy generated by wind turbines and PV poses challenges to the balancing of supply and demand of electricity. Solar panels only generate energy during day time, whereas a peak in consumption takes place in the evening. Storage of renewable energy near to their decentralized sources, at…

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