Ethics

17 Oct Energy Vectors (English version)

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National Academy of Technologies of France (NATF)
2012
Editions Le Manuscrit 2012 Energy procurement/uses, influenced by oil prices and climate change, may differ in different countries. These influences continue but time-scales change (e.g. for peak oil and gas). The Fukushima accident has shaken confidence into nuclear power. This Report proposes a robust methodology for making relevant economic and ecological choices related to energy transition. Focussing on the French situation, it deals with Energy Vectors: the support system delivering energy ready to use (electricity, petrol, gas, or heat, etc.) to consumers; the intermediary stage of vectors between sources (coal, gas, U, wind, hydro) and demand of final energy (for transport, heating, industrial processes, etc.). While end-consumers may not be aware of the source for the final energy, distinguishing between them would allow economic and ecological competition (when C02 emissions carry a price-tag). This report throws new light on the political decisions that must be taken and provides guidelines with a long-range relevance.
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17 Oct Impact of ICT on world energy consumption – and carbon footprints (Report only in French)

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National Academy of Technologies of France (NATF)
2015
EDP Sciences, 2015 The report analyses the impact of ICT’s worldwide energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions, considering the impacts generated by the operation of its various hardware and infrastructure, and the savings it spawns in other areas of activity. Conclusion: The final energy and carbon balance of all ICT categories together is clearly a positive one. In 2012, ICT accounted for 4.7% of worldwide electricity consumption, and a total carbon footprint of about 1.7 percent. These numbers are on an upwards trend, but in smaller proportions than the growing use of ICT, thanks to its contribution to reduce these footprints in other areas of activities such as in the transport sector, buildings, manufacturing industries, or even dematerialised procedures. The report focuses on the (global) transport/mobility sector benefitting from digitisation in and around vehicles and lists current lines of research aimed at better performance of computing, with lower energy consumption.
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01 Oct Recommendations for an AI Strategy in Switzerland

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Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW)
October 2019
Authors: Alessandro Curioni, Lukas Czornomaz, Joachim Buhmann, Ernst Hafen, Manuel Kugler, Hervé Bourlard, Jana Koehler, Matthias Kaiserswerth, Anika Schumann Main themes: artificial intelligence Digital transformation is radically reshaping almost every aspect of our society. The explosion of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data analytics applications is enabled by the extreme availability of data in combination with the substantial computing power of modern highly distributed computing infrastructures connected by high-speed networks. Machine learning technologies can be trained to perform specific tasks with an efficiency and an accuracy that can supplement and, in some cases, outperform that of humans. These systems provide deep insights by learning from data and interactions with users, which is already leading to a profound transformation of numerous industries, professions, and society at large. The current state of AI is, however, still far from delivering truly intelligent behaviour that is comparable to human intelligence. An AI research strategy should therefore carefully analyse AI’s history with its various waves of large promises and conceptual shortcomings. Leading Swiss experts in AI have published their recommendations for a Swiss AI strategy. They advocate more intensive use of the technology and the creation of national data platforms, as data is a prerequisite for powerful algorithms.
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09 Juil Proceedings of Seminaries (CREA Exhibition Verona, 21st October 2009 Streaming proceedings Bioenergy Expo, Verona 5 February 2010)

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CNR, INFN, ITT and Politecnico di Torino consortium	
2010
The aim of the European Parliament’s “climate-energy pack”, whose target is to increase up to 20% renewable energy consumptions within the 2020, attributes to biomass a basic role in the future energy scenarios. Therefore, the use of bioenergies represents, currently, an interesting opportunity not only for environmental and economic benefits, but also for a local development. The seminar illustrates the present opportunities to develop the three energy chains of wood biomass, biogas and liquid biofuels, as well as to illustrate some of the most interesting experiences realised in Regione Veneto. During the seminar, much time is devoted to the presentation of two softwares, realised by Itabia and CRPA, for the feasibility evaluation and the technical-economic analysis concerning the realisation of energy conversion plants, with particular attention to biogas. production.
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08 Juil Methane – where does it come from, what is its impact on the climate? (Report only in French)

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National Academy of Technologies of France
(NATF) 2014
EDP Sciences 2014 Strong variations of atmospheric concentrations of the potent greenhouse gas methane have accompanied glacial and interglacial periods - influencing timetable and magnitude of past and present climate changes. The report describes and analyses natural and human-related sources and sinks of atmospheric methane with particular attention to potentially massive emissions from thawing permafrost and clathrates. The methane fluxes between main reservoirs and the atmosphere is measured via ground-based networks or from outer space. As atmospheric methane is destroyed over time (half-life ~7 years), its GHG-efficiency is not straight-forward. While fossil fuel exploitation is an important methane source, emissions could be limited at reasonable cost. Feedbacks from wetlands and soils are more difficult to control. Recommendations are made in areas such as agricultural practices, waste- and landfill management, biomass combustion, exploitation of coal, natural gas and oil. The potential exploitation of methane from permafrost and marine clathrates should be closely followed.
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08 Sep Decentralised power production needs decentralised storage

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Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences (SATW)
September 2016
Authors: Theodor Borsche, Andreas Ulbig, Göran Andersson Main themes: energy, storage Nature of publication: study Power production in Switzerland is changing. End customers, previously consumers of centrally produced power, are themselves becoming local power producers and storing power for their own needs. In addition to central production in large power stations, there is an increasing number of small power stations producing their own power, in particular using photovoltaic systems. Power generation from new renewable energy sources is not constant or easily predictable. This unusual situation causes problems for network operators. These can be easily technically remedied by furnishing decentralised power production with local storage, but decentralised storage can also be used by a network operator for other tasks: how economic this storage is depending on the tasks which it is able to undertake. SATW commissioned the Power Systems Laboratory at ETH Zürich to investigate how and for what decentralised storage systems could best be used.
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