Energyville Overview
Energyville is a game developed by The Economist Group for Chevron to look at providing energy to a city using various resources. A game that is based on something as intricate as the world energy supply will no doubt have some major assumptions. I've quoted parts of the disclaimer for the game below.
... Assumptions for the game, both present and future, are based on The Economist Intelligence Unit’s assessment of global facts and trends obtained from numerous credible sources... The game has limitations and many elements have been simplified to facilitate game play... Additionally, although you are able to determine how to power your city, the game does not take into account the time and investment needed to replace exiting energy infrastructure with your choices.Even the best modelers in the world still have difficulties forecasting because there are so many different factors that will affect a global market. However, for the purpose of the game, these have been simplified and many assumptions have been made to make the game work.
This is your city. How will you power it?
The game lasts two rounds with the years between 2007-2015 and 2015-2030. Your city has various energy needs and you must supply enough energy using different sources. Each energy source has been evaluated on three impacts: economic, environment, and security. Simply put, the lower your impact of your city, the higher your score.
The economic and environment impacts are a given because they are typically discussed in the media. "How much will it cost compared to conventional fuel/energy" and "How much CO2 does it emit compared to conventional fuel/energy" are the typical questions that need to be addressed.
Also, I understand the importance of security related to being able to protect the infrastructure and having a reliable source. This is extremely important for the United States because much of our energy (oil/petroleum in particular) is imported and there is a risk associated with not being able to supply your own energy.
However there is one factor which is often forgotten, the "social" impact. At the Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro in 1992, leaders from around the world discuss sustainable development and determined that there were three factors that must be taken into account: economic, environment, and social. A diagram of how these three factors interact can be seen in the figure below.
Source: http://www.eoearth.org/image/Sustainable_development_triangle.gifUnfortunately corporations are forced by their charter to focus on the economic. The only way that a corporation can focus on the others, is if they will make an impact on the bottom line. (See The Corporation for more information about what corporations are and how they work). Recently more attention has been focused on the environmental aspect and corporations are changing their practices to include some environmental impacts (again, only to increase the branding of their company and to improve their economic sustainability).
It is unfortunate that the social aspect has been left out, but nonetheless I have compiled all of the impact values for the game in the table below.
Petroleum is by far the worst (I wonder how much input Chevron had into this game) at a total of 22% and hydro power is better than all of the rest at 8% (if we can assume that all impacts can be weighted equally). I believe that most of the numbers are relatively accurate of the impact with the exception of the economic impact of nuclear. It is rated as the second cheapest option (tied with coal).
Although I don't have access to the data that they use to calculate the impacts, I assuming that the data is only looking at the operational costs of nuclear power and doesn't take into account the huge subsidies that the government has to provide to dispose the radioactive waste. If the true cost of nuclear power was known, I don't think it would rate as well as coal in terms of economic impact.
Powering Your City
In both rounds the user has to power up their city by selecting a portfolio of energy sources. To mix things up, two random events occur between each of the game rounds which will affect your city based on what energy sources you have chosen. For example, international conflicts will cause the economic and security impacts of petroleum/oil plants to increase, thus decreasing your score.
There are limitations to your energy sources and you cannot just build unlimited hydro plants. Also, one point that I thought the game represented very well was the types of energy that were needed. For most of the city, electricity is generated centrally and sent through the grid. However, there are sectors such as transportation that are reliant on petroleum/oil. If you build only energy sources that can only be used for stationary electricity generation you will get the following message:
Warning! Hungville requires petroleum. Though alternative fuels can reduce the need for petroleum, airplanes and significant portions of ground vehicles will continue to rely on petroleum for fuel.I am glad that they did not gloss over this fact because oil accounts for approximately 96% of the energy needed for transportation with biofuels and natural gas providing most of the remaining 4% with approximately 2% each (Data from the Department of Energy: Annual Energy Review 2006).
How Did I Do?
Playing it 5-6 times I got consistently in the top 5-15% scores. Best score was 688,061,046 which was in the top 3.5%. It is merely about making the least amount of impact and you can do this by looking at the numbers that are given. I think a lot of the players didn't look at the impact of each energy source (about 6% of the energy chosen was hydrogen and oil shales, which based on the data the game gave you, is a terrible choice).
I suspect that the top scores are from people who heavily favor the technologies that present the lowest % gain, and they play it enough such that their technologies aren't affected negatively in the random events.
Rating the game
Overall the game play is pretty bland. All you need to do is pick hydro, wind, and some petroleum in the first round. The second round you pick some more wind/hydro/solar because it has become more efficient. Rinse and repeat and you'll be in the top 10% of the scores out there.
That said, the game offers a wealth of information about each of the different energy sources. Even if the information may be incomplete or is biased towards particular energy sources, the game at least brings the awareness of energy issues and serves as a starting platform for people to learn more.
However, it's not all just fun and games and at the end of the game it is possible for the player to then click on a link to go to the discussion forum. In my second blog about Energyville, I address some of the discussion which is occurring in the forum and offer some of my own thoughts and opinions about energy.
- Energyville Part I: How will you Power it?
- Shell CEO Virtually Admits to Peak Oil
- The Party's Over - Richard Heinberg: Book Review
- Fuel of War: Article Review
- The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
- James Howard Kunstler
- Resource Wars - Michael Klare
- The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial Societies
- Richard Heinberg
- PowerDown - Richard Heinberg
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