Student spatial data visualisations

Students on the Energy Systems and Data Analytics MSc use the spatial data visualisation challenge as an opportunity to work with diverse sets of geospatial data related to energy, transportation, and climate change from across the globe. They create a range of map visualisations on topics such as fire vulnerability, solar power, global warming challenges, and fuel poverty. Set as part of the Spatial Analysis of Energy Data module, the challenge asks students to communicate complex spatial dynamics around energy systems using a map that minimises text. This requires students to empathise with potential map users, synthesise data into key useful information, and develop supportive aesthetics.

Explore the visualisations

The Vulnerability of California’s Electrical Grid to Fire-Induced Power Outages

Created by Mila Stieglitz-Courtney

In the context of growing wildfire risks to California’s electrical grid, the map sought to identify the vulnerability of the state's power plants and transmission lines to fire-induced power outages based on their location in fire-threat zones. While initially the project focused on anticipating public-safety power shutoffs, it was later broadened to investigate how fire-threat maps might help inform the optimal placement of distributed energy resources (DERs), such as off-grid solar photovoltaics (PVs), which are cleaner alternatives to diesel generators for backup power during extreme weather events and can contribute to the state's emissions reduction targets. 

One of the largest challenges of the project was finding open-source geospatial data on wildfire risk. Another challenge was if, or how, to incorporate a visualisation of high solar-potential zones to enhance the argument that solar PVs could be a good way of bolstering energy security during blackouts. Ultimately, it was decided to omit this component for ease of visualisation. Overall, the project was incredibly enriching, and I hope to continue exploring this very important area of research in the future!

Household fuel poverty in England

Created by Constance Lu

This map is set to understand the spatial distribution of fuel poverty households using a Low Income High Cost (LIHC) indicator, focusing upon England. Specifically, the three maps presented in this coursework provide information concerning (a) the general patterns in the spatial distribution of fuel poverty households; (b) spatial clusters and outliers of fuel poor households; (c) the geographical features (urban and rural) associated with the fuel poverty indicators. 

Global Warming Challenges in West Africa by 2050

Created by Eglantine Mansion

The map is based on a moderate Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP) 3-7.0 scenario, which assumes that the world has failed to enact any climate policy. The scenario bases its estimates on a world where global temperatures have risen by an average of 4.1°C. At this rate, temperatures would force humans away from equatorial regions. West Africa highlights the impacts of this phenomenon, being one of the warmest regions on Earth. The purple area shows the region where the average monthly maximum temperature would reach more than 35°C, at which humans and animals die from hyperthermia if they stay outside for a few hours, hence rendering the region in question uninhabitable. In addition, those countries would be pervaded by drought, which would make agriculture and breeding impracticable, pushing the populations to migrate to cooler territories. 

What’s more, from a resource perspective, such temperatures would require drastic changes to the region’s energy supply. In Sub-Saharan Africa, hydropower accounts for over 50% of the total power supply, and as can be seen on the map, the largest hydropower plants are located inland, particularly in the purple zone. Considering the SSP 3-7.0 scenario, it is certain that most rivers in the region would dry out, and rainfalls would become highly irregular, resulting in more variability in hydropower capacity factors. It is therefore essential for countries to introduce resilience measures as well as diversify their energy sources to cope with the potential extreme weather.

Belgian Nocturnal Luminosity Compared with Population Density

Created by Hector Camm

The map shows the wasteful light pollution occurring in Belgium as well as the impacts it may have on the local population. The hardest part of the project was acquiring the data.

Coal Electricity Production in Europe

Created by Jean Sirech

LinkHistorically, Europe has been very reliant on coal for its energy production, at great costs for the environment and human health. However, European countries now have to phase-out coal to meet climate change related policy. This map aims to provide an overview of coal power dependencies in Europe and future phase out commitments. It can be noticed that coal still accounts for a significant share of the power generation mix for many European countries, with Germany, Poland, and Turkey having the most capacity installed in 2020. Although the majority of coal power plants do not have phase out plans, it can be seen that countries are planning to shut down their plants in the near future. Taking the example of Germany, this raises important financial and energy security questions with respect to the alternatives it will use to replace 39% of the electricity generated by coal-fired power plants in 2018.

London zero carbon potential

Created by Santiago Velez

This map demonstrates the potential percentage energy savings that could be achieved from installing Photovoltaic (PV) Panels on the rooftop of every building in London. At current average energy use intensity and PV efficiencies, it would be challenging to achieve 10% savings in central London and 30% in lower residential areas. A significant effort in reducing energy demand together with on-site and off-site renewable energy is necessary to achieve a Zero Carbon London.

Potential Investment Area for Wind and Solar Plants in Line with California’s Mandate to Sell Only Zero-Emission Vehicles in 2035

Created by Jiahao Shi

The map aims to analyse solar and wind potential, distribution of existing power plants, and electric charging stations in order to propose potential investment areas for solar and wind plants in California. California’s state government has aggressive environmental targets and mandates all new vehicles sold in California only be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. Currently, the total number of vehicles in California are approximately 14.9 million by 2019. New registrations of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles are 160 thousand which is 7.6% of all new vehicle registrations in 2019. However, rapidly phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles could dramatically increase the power demand and cause potential threats to energy security. In 2020, residents in California faced the first rolling blackouts because of electricity shortage and were asked to charge electric vehicles during off-peak hours. It is critical to find new locations with extensive renewable resources to compensate for electricity demand. 

The biggest challenge of the project is to find potential investment areas for solar and wind plants. When I pick the investment area, I have to consider not only wind and solar potential but also land cover and protected area. Due to the time constraints, I wasn’t able to analyse other spatial constraints, such as topographic inclination and distance from residential areas.

Reuse of Oil and Gas Assets for CCUS projects in the UK

Created by Ulvi Zamanbayov

Despite the consensus that Carbon Capture and Utilisation Systems (CCUS) is an essential part of our net-zero future, there is a lot of controversy surrounding this new technology. In particular, incorporating CCUS is not making a very appealing business case.

With this map, I attempted to convey how well placed the UK is for CCUS deployment due to the existing oil and gas infrastructure. Particularly, the map shows decommissioned pipelines that can be employed for transporting the CO2 into the offshore and the depleted hydrocarbon fields that are already well studied and would provide enough storage to last the UK for 100s of years, as well as heavy emitters that are clustered in a few convenient locations. 
Reuse of this infrastructure could lead to significant time and cost savings in CCUS deployment, making it a more attractive solution.

The two zoomed-in sections show areas with an abundance of heavy emitters in close proximity to the decommissioned infrastructure. As a matter of fact, they show the Acorn cluster in Scotland and the East Coast Cluster in England, which are two of the three clusters prioritised for CCUS deployment by the UK government.
The biggest challenge I faced making this map was finding good and relevant data, something I think every data-related project struggles with. This is especially the case for the relatively conservative oil and gas industry.

It would be beneficial to add the ages of pipelines to assess if they require maintenance, as well as more information on the depleted fields, such as the estimated capacities.

The Energy Challenge for Earthquake-Prone Tokyo

Created by Masa Aoki

Japan is an earthquake-prone country, and so needs its infrastructure to be earthquake resistant. The country recently declared its intention to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 and to this end is introducing more renewable energy. What needs to be borne in mind, however, is that another devastating earthquake is predicted to occur in the Greater Tokyo Area in the next 30 years. This earthquake could be as large as the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and it is essential to be prepared for such a disaster. Therefore, this spatial analysis aims to underline the need for policymakers in Japan to consider this probable danger in terms of energy security. 

The bottom left map illustrates that many existing power plants are operating in an area with a relatively high probability of large earthquakes and tsunamis, while the graphic on the right shows areas with a high potential for renewable energy. Taken together, the maps show the current and potential energy infrastructure is at serious risk, with two key messages:

1. Existing power plants should be evaluated for their ability to withstand strong earthquakes.
2. The seismological analysis must be a significant factor when determining renewables.

Industrial Waste Heat Recovery Potential and Metropolitan Heating Demand in Ontario

Created by Christopher Lee

Upwards of 50% of the energy consumed in industrial processes is lost as waste heat to the environment. This map seeks to highlight potential industrial site clusters that can utilise waste heat in a district heating network to meet a portion of metropolitan area heating demand and abate Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emissions. The biggest challenge was estimating waste heat and heating demand from publicly available data—since they are not measured directly. 

Using common methods from the literature and making reasonable assumptions within the scope and time constraint of the coursework, it was possible to make estimates and validate them with the literature.

South Korea Solar Power Production and REC Price Trend

Created by Ho Sig Lee

In South Korea, the RPS (Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard) policy has been operating since 2012 to encourage the renewable energy industry. This policy obligates power generation companies of a certain size or more (≥500MW) to supply renewable energy more than an imposed percentage of their total power generation. Under the RPS scheme, power generation companies can purchase REC (Renewable Energy Certificate) from a renewable energy market where private renewable energy companies are allowed to sell their REC at a competitive market price. However, growing competition in this limited market is causing a decline in the REC market price and a hindrance to renewable energy market entry.

An objective of the map is to show spatial solar energy potential and actual solar energy production of South Korea from 2017 to 2019 and the REC market price trend. By showing them together, it is expected that policymakers will understand growing competition in the REC market and consider adjusting the imposing renewable energy percentage of the RPS to promote the renewable energy industry. 

Scotland’s carbon neutral battle lines

Created by Calum Gibson

The map focuses upon a trade-off causing much debate across the highlands of Scotland – which pertains the focus of environmental policy, the restoration of forests or onshore wind-farm development? The categorisation of trees by age corresponds to the potential for carbon storage, for instance, saplings will capture greater levels of CO2 over the next 20 years than older trees. Viewing this debate through a spatial lens is, in my opinion, a more powerful way to illustrate the balance (or imbalance) between infrastructure and forest development. Land use is difficult to perceive through figures and charts, it is more emotive and relatable for the reader to see changes occurring on a map. Perhaps even more challenging is demonstrating how reforestation can be an effective tool for capturing carbon dioxide. Determining the sequestration rates of trees to reflect carbon storage potential was the biggest challenge when creating the map – it was important to classify the age and type of tree with the correct abatement rates and there is a degree of uncertainty when doing so, given the granularity of the data. Hopefully, the map presents the reader with a more informed view of the on-going landscape changes across the highlands.

New Zealand offshore wind farm site suitability

Created by Ting Cooper

This map provides information for preliminary site suitability analysis for offshore wind energy in New Zealand. Exclusion zones (environmental protection zones and shipping lanes) are displayed to show areas not suitable for wind development. The map also displays wind power potential, water depth, and the national grid to help identify potential sites with strong wind conditions, suitable water depth for offshore installation, and access to power lines. The analysis was also extended to consider offshore wind-powered hydrogen production. The dotted red line shows the distance offshore (100km buffer from the power grid) beyond which power-to-gas only platforms should be considered, due to high costs of underwater electrical connection.

Renewable energy evolution in Chile

Created by Felipe Riquelme Larenas

The highlight is that the map shows a simple way of seeing the evolution of renewables at a regional level. This type of map would be useful for professionals and policymakers who have previous information about energy resources by region and want to understand how the potential has been exploited.

Felipe Riquelme Larenas

Nuclear power in South Korea

Created by Jihae Ko

Southern regions of Korea, which are found suitable for nuclear power generation, show a very high concentration of nuclear power plants. This might put millions of lives under threat in case of an incident as this overlaps with populated regions. The range of the risk is visualised as 10-mile and 50-mile buffers, which designates Exposure Pathways. Moreover, the trend in earthquake and proximity shows that there is a possibility that plants will be affected by earthquakes.

In particular, the southeast part of the peninsula is marked with the highest frequency and magnitude of the earthquakes, the highest concentration of the plants and the highest population density. This indicates that this area is associated with the biggest danger, therefore actions to minimise the risks need to be taken immediately.
The challenge, however, was to express the multi-layered risks and their magnitude at the same time. I managed it by using buffers and visualising the overlapping of multiple components. Plus, it would have been a great adjustment to add the recent increasing trend of earthquakes visually.

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