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When you switch on a light or turn the heating on in your home, do you think about where that power has come from? In most of the world, we’re still burning harmful fossil fuels to create energy. However, throughout Europe a growing number of householders have decided to put the environment first, by switching to a “green tariff” with energy suppliers who can guarantee renewable, fossil fuel-free energy. This album explores the various ways in which innovative technologies - such as wind-farms, heat exchangers, photovoltaic panels and combined heat and power plants - provide the opportunity to revolutionise energy markets and turn whole communities and districts green. One town in Holland is a good example of a “suburban energy island”, where the solar-panelled buildings act as energy providers back to the main grid when they generate extra to spare. Altogether the tracks in the album inspire a new way of looking at designing modern living using a mix of technologies to ensure a socially, economically and environmentally sustainable future. You can find out more about innovation in design by exploring the albums "Design and Sustainability" and "Sustainable Communities". This material is taken from The Open University course T307 Innovation: designing for a sustainable future.
Track 2: What makes customers choose a green tariff?
Customers who have opted for a green tariff talk about the reasons why they have decided to do so.
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Tracks in this podcast:
| Track | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Innovation Design: Energy and Sustainability | A short introduction to this album. Play now Innovation Design: Energy and Sustainability |
| 2 | What makes customers choose a green tariff? | Customers who have opted for a green tariff talk about the reasons why they have decided to do so. Play now What makes customers choose a green tariff? |
| 3 | The uptake of green tariffs | Reasons why green tariffs are taken up by the minority in the UK. Play now The uptake of green tariffs |
| 4 | Living in a power station | How a suburb in Holland is offsetting its power consumption by generating solar power. Play now Living in a power station |
| 5 | Power generation in Woking | Woking and its use of green technologies to power community buildings and local houses. Play now Power generation in Woking |
| 6 | Green technologies that are available to the consumer | Looking at the issues that influence the consumer to change to green technologies, and the current programmes that exist to support that. Play now Green technologies that are available to the consumer |
| 7 | What drives innovation in sustainable technologies | A professor of technology policy talks about the route of innovation in the context of green technologies. Play now What drives innovation in sustainable technologies |
| 8 | Government: actor in the diffusion game | The role that government plays in promoting new technologies and the influence that they have. Play now Government: actor in the diffusion game |
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