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the
energy justice part, and I wrote the conclusion, abstract, table of contents, and edited the whole
paper and had to re write most of the boys sections because they made no sense at all to me.
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Abstract
Making the city of Keene, New Hampshire run on 100% renewable energy by the year
2045. This paper breaks down the justifications and reasoning behind why Keene should
become 100% renewable. As well as discussing the logistics and calculations of aspects such as,
lighting and appliances, space heating, transportation, weatherization, and hot water, required
to figure out Keene’s energy demand. The last section, energy justice, dissects the meanings of
distributional justice, recognition justice, and procedural justice, and how each aspect will be
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Table of Contents
Justification……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………4
Energy Plan……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………9
Energy Justice…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………15
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..19
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..21
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Justification
In the modern world, humanity faces a wide variety of challenges that continue to
threaten our well-being. Ranging from war, poverty, pandemics or starvation. However, no
threat is as wide spread and capable of endangering the entire human race like climate change.
As history will show, the earth is a constantly changing. These natural changes happen over the
course of thousands of years. The changes we see the world going through today are happening
at an unprecedented rate, which leads scientists to believe that these are not just natural
environmental shifts, but are being driven by factors on earth. The fear that humanity’s actions
on earth may alter the global environment are far from new theories. One of the earliest
scientist to study climate change was John Tyndall (history.aip), born in Ireland in 1820. Tyndall
began studying the gasses in the atmosphere, and how they are able to block inferred
radiation. What Tyndall did not know, is that he would be taking the first step, in a long
GHGs have the capability of protecting all life on earth, as well as leading to the demise
of it. Earth’s atmosphere was able to maintain a balance of natural GHGs, mainly carbon dioxide
and water vapor. This allowed enough of the sun’s radiation to reach earth’s surface and reflect
some of it back, while trapping the rest which created a warm climate, about 60°F (USGCRP).
The climate to supported the growth and spread of life across the globe. For centuries, this
balance worked in near perfect harmony, with natural sources emitting carbon dioxide which
would remain in the atmosphere until one of earth’s natural CO2 sinks, such as the ocean, or
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plant life, would absorb it and then recycle it back into the environment. Unfortunately, that
balance has been heavily disrupted by the actions of humanity and the consequences of those
Today, the most common GHGs are, carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide
(N2O), and water vapor. The abundance of these gasses have caused what scientists refer to as
global warming. This potentially catastrophic effect is the result of human activities, disturbing
the natural balance of atmospheric gas concentration, to a point where the natural sinks are
unable to absorb it at a high enough rate, and are even beginning to collapse as the natural
balance of gas continues to be skewed. One of the clearest examples, and also most tragic, is
the regulatory failure that can be seen in marine ecosystems across the globe. An example of
one of the many existing ecosystems is, are coral reefs. Coral is vital for maintaining healthy
oceans, since they provide shelter and food for thousands of marine species. Unfortunately, as
the oceans continue to absorb more and more CO2 from the atmosphere, they become more
acidic, and increase in temperature. This change in ocean conditions can be seen in Figure 1,
which shows the average ocean pH, compared to the concentration of dissolved CO2.
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Problems such as increased ocean temperature, can cause widespread loss of life to
many keystone species. But the most visible effect continues to be coral bleaching. The effects
of coral bleaching can be seen in Figure 2. On the left side of the image is a healthy coral reef,
vibrant with color and inhabited by a diverse community of marine species, which rely on the
coral for protection and nutrients. The image on the right is a different section of coral, which
has already fallen victim to ocean temperature increases. You can see the coral losses its color
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Unfortunately, coral reefs are far from the only victims of climate change. The list is
always growing, and the urgency to mitigate climate change has never been higher. In hopes of
preventing global catastrophe, many scientists have dedicated their lives to studying and
identifying the drivers of climate change, and their findings all seem to have a reoccurring
motif. This reoccurring trend in all climate change studies shows that the rate of environmental
damage was relatively slow until a specific point in history, which changed the world forever.
This moment was the start of the industrial revolution. Before the industrial revolution, human
activities were still detrimental to the natural balance of the planet, but worked at a very
different scale. It was not until the industrial revolution that humanity had the power to really
impact the globe. The invention of combustion engines, and new fuel sources may have
sparked an age of prosperity that benefited large populations of humanity, but they also begun
From the 1850’s on, it can be seen that GHG emissions have skyrocketed to levels never
expand and demand more and more development. These developments not only emit more
dangerous GHGs, but also lowers the ability of earth’s natural atmospheric regulatory systems
to function, by removing more forest space, and replacing it with large cities to house our ever-
growing population.
Humanity’s growth has come to a point where if we do not address climate change
quickly and effectively, there will be no earth for future generations of humans and wildlife. To
do this, we must look at the drivers of climate change, which are predominately anthropogenic,
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human related factors. One of the most promising ways to remove a large portion of
humanity’s GHG emissions, would be to remove the fossil fuel industry entirely. While
removing the entire fossil fuel industry seems like a daunting task, it is one that has never been
so necessary. As technology evolves, we continue to discover more and more ways to supply
everyone’s energy needs. By using renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro, we
will be able to do so. The fossil fuel industry needs to be targeted specifically, due to its wide
spread use and its even wider spread consequences. From start to finish, extraction, to
transportation to combustion, the fossil fuel industry emits the majority share of GHGs across
the globe with almost total immunity. Even though it has been the source of many catastrophic
failures, from deep water oil drilling rig malfunctions, to fuel transport pipe leaks, they present
themselves as if they are working for the people of the world, while they simultaneously
destroy it. The consequences of the fossil fuel industry are not just impacting the environment,
but are directly harming human health across the globe as well. Air pollution, the primary
consequence of the fossil fuel industry has been linked to causing nine million deaths across the
world just in 2015 alone (BBC.com). By causing non infectious diseases such as heart disease,
stroke, asthma, and lung cancer. It is truly terrible to think that many of these deaths could
have been adverted, if more attention had just been given to the potential consequences of the
fossil fuel driven life, that many first world nations treasure so dearly.
Thankfully, out of all this destruction of the environment and human health, there is
hope in the form of technological developments, which are creating alternate forms of energy
production that are capable of sustaining our rapidly growing human population, without
destroying our planet at the same time. One of the most advanced sectors of renewable
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energy, has been the solar industry. We see Keene New Hampshire, as having the potential to
transform into a 100% renewable energy community, by the year 2045. While this goal may
seem hopeful, and even overly ambitious to outsiders, it is truly not only feasible, but necessary
if we wish to maintain our planets resources. The technology is available, but unfortunately
public misunderstandings and government intervention work to maintain the status quo for
energy production from fossil fuels, which makes the select few unfathomably wealthy, while
Energy Plan
For this energy plan we will be focusing strictly on Keene’s residential sector, and not
municipal, industry, or commercial. We will not include Keene State College’s campus, but we
will include off-campus student living, for they too are a piece of Keene’s residential sector. In
order to implement a vision of what Keene will look like once it is 100% renewable, we must
first estimate the total electricity demand needed. The total electricity demand estimate will be
broken down according to the following types of demands: lights and appliances,
To calculate the amount of electricity needed for lights and appliances for all of Keene’s
residents, we must first find the number of homes in Keene and multiply that number by the
average electricity consumption per house hold in New Hampshire. There are 9,449 homes in
Keene, with the average electricity consumption per house hold in New Hampshire at 615 kWh
per month. If we multiply 615 kWh times 12 (months) to get the total kWh per year, it comes
out to a total of 7,380 kWh per household per year. 7,380 kWh equates to 7.38 MWh. Now, we
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can multiply the total number of households, 9,449, by the average electricity consumption per
household, which is 7.38 MWh. We can now estimate the total amount of electricity needed to
power the lights and appliances of an average home in Keene as 69,733 MWh.
Transportation
To calculate demand in MWh for the total amount of Keene’s residential transportation,
we must first estimate how many miles per year Keene residents drive collectively. For this
calculation we will assume every car goes the same number of miles per year. In 2014, the state
of New Hampshire’s citizens we’re estimated to drive 9,734 miles per capita. Thus meaning
each Keene resident drives 9,734 miles per year. If we multiply the total number of miles per
person a year, times the city of Keene’s population, which is 23,400, we get a sum of
227,775,600 total miles driven by the population of Keene. Now that we have the total amount
of miles driven by the population of Keene, we must calculate the MWh demand of all the miles
put together. Today’s electric cars can travel roughly 80 miles on 24 kWh. 24 kWh equates to
.024 MWh. To calculate MWh per mile we must divide 0.024 MWh by 80 (miles), which equals
.0003 MWh per mile. Now we can multiply our calculation for MWh per mile (.0003) times our
calculation for total miles driven by the Keene population (227,775,600). To get the total
electricity demand for the transportation of all Keene residents, being 68,332 MWh.
Space Heating
For this calculation, we will assume that all households in Keene are 2,000 square feet,
and that each household will need a 3ton heat pump that draws 8,325 kWh per year. To
calculate the total electricity demand for space heaters across all Keene Households we will
need to multiply the number of households in Keene, by the amount of energy each space
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heater draws. Since, we have already discovered that there are 9,449 homes in Keene from the
previous calculations, and were given the assumption that each space heater draws 8,325 kWh
per year, all we need to do is convert the electrical draw from kWh to MWh and multiply that
number together with the total number of households. 8,325 kWh converts to 8.325 MWh.
9,449 households multiplied by 8.325 MWh gives us a grand total of 78,662 MWh to heat all
homes in Keene.
Assuming it costs $8,000 to install a new heat pump, we can calculate how long it will
take for the heat pump to pay for itself if it is electrically charged by renewables, both for those
who use gas to heat their homes, and for those who use oil heat their homes. We found that on
average, those who heat their homes with oil spend roughly $2,000 a year, which equates to
about $165 per month. If we divide the total cost of installing the heat pump, $8,000 by the
$165 per month of potential savings, it would take 48 months or 4 years for the cost of the
installation of the heat pump to pay for itself. While, on average we found that those who heat
their homes with gas spend roughly $850 per year, which equates to around $70 per month. If
we divide the total cost of installing the heat pump, $8,000 by the $70 per month of potential
savings, it would take 114 months, or 9.5 years for the cost of the instillation of the heat pump
Hot water
For this calculation, we will assume that everyone in Keene installs a new heat pump/
hot water heater that uses 1,289 kWh per year. To calculate the total electricity demand for
heat pump hot water heaters across all Keene Households, we will need to multiply the number
of households in Keene, by the amount of energy each heat pump/ hot water heater uses
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(MWh). Since, we have already discovered that there are 9,449 homes in Keene from the
previous calculations, and were given the assumption that each heat pump hot /water heater
uses 1,289 kWh per year, all we need to do is convert the electrical draw from kWh to MWh,
and multiply the converted number together with the total number of households. 1,289 kWh
converts to 1.289 MWh. So, if we multiply 9,449 households, times the energy use of heat
pump/ hot water heaters, which is 1.289 kWh per household, we get a total of 12,180 MWh.
Weatherization
Weatherization is a simple and easy way in reducing energy demand and costs. For the
sake of this calculation, we will assume that only 25% of Keene’s households are able to be
weatherized for the first few years. The degree of impact weatherization varies from home to
home. With that being said, we will assume that as a result of each home being weatherized
they will each have a 20% decrease in energy demand. In order to find the reduction in energy
demand that weatherization has across all of Keene, we need to exclude the transportation
energy demand. Excluding transportation, if we add up the total amount MWh for appliances
and lighting, space heating, and hot water, we will get the total amount of MWh that Keene’s
households draw. This number equates to 160,575 MWh. To go along with our assumption that
only 25% of households undergo the weatherization process, we can multiply together 160,575
times .25 to get the total amount of MWh produced by those 25% of homes, before they are
subject to weatherization reduction, which is 40,144 MWh. Since, we are assuming all houses
that undergo weatherization will receive a 20% reduction in energy demand, we can multiply
40,144 MWh times .2 to get our total reduction across Keene homes due to weatherization.
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Now, we can conclude that weatherization will result in an 8,028 MWh reduction across the city
of Keene.
(Ground Mounted)
solar panels, and ground-mounted solar panels. With that being said, we will assume that roof-
mounted solar panels produce all of the electricity demand for that household. This includes
appliances and lighting, space heating, and hot water, but excludes transportation. We will also
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assume that 25% of houses in Keene are viable clients for roof-mounted solar. Since, we
excluded transportation from this calculation, we need to add up the sum of MWh needed for
appliances and lighting, space heating, and hot water that Keene households draw (which we
have already done in the previous calculation). This number equates to 160,575 MWh. To go
along with our assumption that only 25% of households are viable for roof-mounted solar, we
can multiply together 160,575 times .25, which equals 40,144 MWh that can be produced by
If 40,144 MWh can be produced from roof-mounted solar, then we can figure out how
much energy needs to be produced through ground-mounted solar. If we subtract the total
number of MWh the city of Keene requires (160,575 MWh), still excluding transportation, by
the amount of MWH that roof-mounted solar can produce (40,144 MWh), it equals 120,431
One acre of land produces 325 MWh through the use of ground-mounted solar cells.
So, if we divide 40,144 MWh by 325 MWh we can find how many acres of land will be saved
from roof-mounted solar, which comes to 123.5 acres. Therefore, 580 acres of land needs to be
used for ground-mounted solar fields, while the remaining 123.5 acres of land that would have
otherwise needed to be used for ground-mounted solar, will be substituted for roof-mounted
solar instead.
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580 acres equates to .9 square miles. This is roughly the amount of area needed for
ground-mounted solar cells to produce and meet the energy demand of Keene. Obviously, the
ground-mounted solar fields will not all be placed in one spot, and will be distributed
throughout the city. But this does give a solid visual representation as to how much land is
needed.
Energy Justice
Justice is defined as what is fair or right in the context of what is socially acceptable. The
idea of social justice was started in the 1970s. Social norms are shared expectation for what is
morally right or socially appropriate. Social norms are what society expects what to be done,
and what not be done. An example of this would be chewing with your mouth closed (socially
acceptable), versus chewing with your mouth open (not socially acceptable). Social justice is
what right or just in the sense of laws, and how they are enforced. One example of this would
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be, the Clean air act, enforcing the National amenity air quality standard everywhere in the
united states. Environmental justice is what is fair in relation to energy, 250,000 people a year
are expected to die from climate change in the year 2030 to 2050 (Craggs, A.).
Energy justice is a new concept and it has been very unbalanced for long time. The fossil
fuel industry has been burning coal, and another fossil fuels in internal combustion engines that
release pollutants into the air. Certain places like Nepal, China, or even the United States, are
already feeling the effects of climate change. Our current energy system is poisoning the planet
and loss of biodiversity is becoming a large problem because of it. The oceans are turning more
Stake holders are not being represented fairly in energy justice. To balance Energy
justice, a lot of things must happen. Distributional justice in the sense of energy justice, is who
gets the good things and who get the bad things. The next part of energy justice is procedural
justice, which is who get to make all the decision on the what happens. The last is recognition
justice, and everyone is to be respected and treated fairly in the decision process. First, we will
Distributional justice, as in who gets the benefits, and who ends up not benefiting in
relationship to energy. We must look at local energy justice here in Keene, and global energy
justice. The local benefits in Keene of going 100%renewable, would be an increase in air quality.
The people in Keene are suffering from issues due to high particle matter concentration,
because of many people in Keene have wood stoves to heat their homes. In this plan, we
outline how people will have to change to electric heat pumps, which will save Keene a lot of
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money on heating and energy. Public health is one of the biggest concern in the energy plan.
New jobs will also be created in new and emerging field of renewables, which will offer people
With positives changes, also comes harm. Lots of people will lose jobs in fossil fuel
industry, and some of Keene’s forests might have to be cut down to for a solar farm. These are
environmental problems to Keene’s solar installation, but they’re not even close in comparison
to the positive of changes that renewables bring. Deforestation due to the construction of the
solar farm, and the construction of solar panels, will also release some carbon in the
atmosphere. But once they are built, the carbon emission will be zero. The benefits of the vision
for Keene will be clean safe, renewable energy , for everyone in Keene.
The worldwide issues associated with the combustion of fossil fuels are very relevant.
The oceans have been hit the hardest when it comes to climate change. The oceans are turning
acidic due to process known as ocean acidification. The ocean acts as one big carbon sink to
absorb all of the CO2 released for burning the of fossil fuels. “Ocean acidification has been
proposed as a major threat for marine biodiversity” (Dupont, S., Dorey, N., & Thorndyke, M.)
Climate change has also being altering weather patterns making them more violent. There is
process called desertification which is where soil depleted of organic matter becomes sandy
and easily erodible by the wind or water. The main problem with fossil fuels is the emission of
CO2, which is greenhouse gas that traps infrared light in the atmosphere, causing the planet to
heat up. But with all this destruction of the planet we need to make a change by switching to
renewable energy.
The benefit of going renewable are clean air, because they do not emit pollutants into the
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atmosphere. No volatile energy production. All fossil fuel has the possibility of blowing up,
because of how energy dense and volatile they are. We need to switch from dense energy and
volatile like fossil fuel or nuclear, to less dense and sustainable energy options like solar, wind
and water. This will also help with climate change mitigation if our vision was implemented on
time in Keene. On the larger scale, there are some issues with the implementation of our vision
(deforestation). We will need some land area to house these solar panels so we will have to cut
down trees in a sustainable manor to make a solar farm. The loss of jobs is another issue. Fossil
fuel jobs will stop existing. This means that if people don’t change their career some people
might be without jobs. The benefits of renewable energy globally are that a lot of new job will
be created. Most of these jobs will be easy, and not take much training to do. People who lose
jobs in fossil industry could switch over to solar jobs with little training.
The next type of energy justice is procedural justice which is who gets to the make the
decision and who is in the decision-making room. Procedural justice will be considered highly in
our plan, but we have some questions to ask first. Who is going to oversee all decisions being
made, Who, is going to be consulted, who gets to know the information of what is happing
regarding the plan? Where will these panels go, who gets to decide what is fair, who is going to
get renewable energy first, and who will get them last? Procedural justice poses a lot of
questions that need to be answered in order make sure the process is fair and just.
The question we are answering in our plan is, who gets to make the decision? In Keene
the decision will be made by people choose who is on the committee through voting. The
Keene planning committee will oversee the whole operation. The mayor will have the final say.
But the people of Keene can’t be left out. And decision being made will have to done in a
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console meeting, where anyone in Keene who wants to attend and have their voice heard will
be able to. But the final decision will be the mayors. The next part of energy justice is
recognition justice. Everyone will be taken into consideration, and be treated fair and justly.
Recognition justice has been very unbalanced for a long time. The native Americans have taken
a lot defeats from the fossil fuel industry. An example of this, is the Dakota access pipeline. The
fossil fuel industry has taken advantage of many people, and gave the benefits to very
few. With our plan, we hope to change this, and shift towards better energy justice. Everyone
will be included in the process so no one is treated unfairly. We will fix this by holding weekly
meetings where anyone in Keene can attend and give their opinion about how our plan is
moving forward. The site we choose for the solar farm is an unpopulated and near a land fill
site. This will be subject to change if anyone in the Keene disagrees or thinks it is not just. Most
of the solar will be community based where everyone will have equal access to the energy. It
will not matter where you live in Keene because we use the gird in the same way it is now. In
the larger scale of the plan, to keep in compliance with energy justice, we have to make sure to
consult all parties and hear what any one in community has to say. These changes will be just
and fair. Not taking advantage of people based on their race, or class. All three types of energy
The fossil fuel industry takes advantage of people every day. With the implementation
of this plan, we hope to change past energy justice practices by providing a clean, safe
renewable source for everyone in Keene. We will respect distributional justice by placing panels
in approved locations and not in places that will harm anyone and is fair and just. When we
look at procedural justice we need to look at how fair the system is. The current system doesn’t
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treat everyone fairly. With our vision, we hope to change that by making sure everything is fair
Conclusion
Relying on fossil fuels as an energy source is cheap and always seems to be available to
consumers. But, since we are harvesting fossil fuels at an unsustainable rate, they are rapidly
being depleted, and are a main cause of environmental and health problems. Renewable
energy sources such as the sun, wind, and water are always available, and sustainable. But, the
cost of most of renewable technology, is more expensive at first compared to fossil fuels.
However, the renewable energy technology ultimately pays for itself after a few years
Environmental issues and health issues are becoming extremely problematic due to
fossil fuel use. Issues like, mountain top removal, water contamination, deforestation, and
ecosystem deprivation, are all consequences of the unreliable energy sources being used. Other
consequences that affect human health are, asthma, cancer, and respiratory problems. All of
these issues can be associated with the harvesting and burning of fossil fuels. Not only should
Keene, New Hampshire become 100% renewable for these reasons, but so should the rest of
the world.
By the year 2045, Keene is expected to be running off of 100% renewable energy. Keene
being 100% renewable will have 100% weatherization of all homes, 100% electric cars, a solar
farm, Parking lots with solar panels, side walks with solar panels, and 100% of residential
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For energy justice, the plan proposes to have town hall meetings that will be held once a
week during the the change to solar. The issue of residential solar installations will be discussed, and
everyone in Keene has the right to attend the town hall meetings, addressing the change to solar. To
first get the change to solar started, landlords and realtors will be enforced to switch to solar before
single household owners. Property tax will also temporarily be raised, so all citizens in Keene can acquire
solar panels. However, not only will people in Keene benefit from this clean energy change, but other
places around the world will benefit as well, from the decrease in health and environmental problems.
By switching to 100% renewable energy, Keene, New Hampshire is making a small difference to
change the affects that fossil fuels have created for the health of humans and the
environment.
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