Some Ideas Towards Energy Optimization at CERN

The paper presents the efforts of CERN to optimize its energy usage. Work is proceeding in 3 areas: accelerators, campus and infrastructure, and re-use of thermal “waste” energy. The accelerator chain has the potential to further reduce the energy consumption by dynamic suppression of cycles when they are temporarily not needed and by operating magnets in pulsed mode. R&D; for future accelerators includes the recuperation of the RF energy, which is not used for acceleration of the beams. Concerning the CERN campus more than half of the buildings are older than 40 years. Hence there is a big need for renovation, which includes energy aspects. New buildings use renewable energy whenever possible. As an example a building is under construction, which will use a 250 m2 solar field together with an absorption refrigerator for cooling purposes. Finally, about 80% of the electric energy gets dissipated in air cooling towers. Part of this energy can be re-used for heating buildings.