Turn the light off for heaven’s sake!" The elderly man hurries across the room, past his secretary, and claps his hands quickly three times. The bright ceiling lights go out, and at the same time the dark-tinted panorama windows become transparent, revealing a view of Manhattan. "A few more kilowatt-hours saved," he says with evident satisfaction. "Welcome to my office."
It wasn’t easy getting an appointment with Henry "the Sniffer" Poiret — least of all as a journalist, because if there’s one thing the 70-year-old former FBI scientist can’t stand, it’s publicity. Poiret prefers to work out of sight, and the prodigious wrongdoers he strives to hunt down — power hogs and energy wasters, gas guzzlers, and climate killers — often remain elusive as well. In short, anything that consumes too much electricity, raw materials, or other resources must go. Poiret is an energy-efficiency sleuth. In recent years, he has made a name for himself by cracking a number of spectacular cases. In 2020, for example. Without him, the city council would surely not have succeeded in setting up an almost completely CO2-neutral district.
And many of us remember what happened last summer, when the yellow cabs in Manhattan finally went green thanks to electric drive technology. The old fox had a hand in that too.
At the moment, Poiret is ready to help a European manufacturer of railway systems. U.S. Track, the local New York transit operator, wants to use a new generation of environmentally-friendly high-speed trains. So it announced a competition — with the contract to be awarded to the company whose locomotive can demonstrate the best energy-efficiency and most favorable environmental balance sheet throughout its service life. Naturally, the Europeans don’t want to miss the opportunity to submit a concept, and they believe they can maximize their chances with Poiret’s assistance. The master sleuth has taken time out for our magazine and has even agreed to give us an exclusive look at his new laboratory.
"Bobby, give the lad something to drink and start up the lab, we’re going down," the master says. His secretary hands me a cup of coffee and urges me into an elevator at the end of the room. "I’ve set up a small workroom in the basement," says Poiret. "That’s where I also show customers my results from time to time. Mr. Watson is expecting us." When the elevator doors open, I am met by a wave of loud factory noise. We are in the middle of a cavernous assembly hall; welding robots are everywhere, working on half-finished trains, and the air has a metallic taste. "Watson," calls Poiret, "turn off that soundtrack immediately, it’s unbearable."
The din subsides in seconds. A figure that seems strangely transparent glides forward from behind a locomotive. "Allow me to introduce Virtual Watson," says Poiret. "You don’t have to extend your hand, he couldn’t shake it anyway. Mr. Watson is an avatar, a hologram, just like the entire hall. An entirely new technology, and not exactly inexpensive." Poiret takes a sip of coffee.
"The entire locomotive production process can be simulated down here," he explains. "The manufacturer has already transferred the data to me, so I can find out where energy and raw materials are wasted, for example, and determine the best ways to save even more."
Poiret pulls an ultra-thin folding OLED display from his pocket. "But now let’s get to work. We’re not playing a computer game here. Watson, explain to our young friend what we’ve learned."
"Very well, sir. We invited the Europeans to our lab, and together we took the simulated trains apart literally down to the last screw, while the design stage was still under way. In the process we noticed that the designers wanted to use mainly aluminum panels from China — flawless in quality, but rather inappropriate with regard to the train’s environmental balance sheet."
Virtual Watson straightens his perfectly simulated bow tie. "Production of these panels is very energy-intensive. And in China electricity still comes to a large extent from coal-fired power plants — they have become more efficient in recent years, but they still haven’t integrated a system of CO2 storage. So they emit a relatively large amount of CO2. This is why we have recommended using aluminum panels from Iceland and Norway. In those countries, the electricity comes entirely from renewable sources such as geothermal energy and hydropower. That would considerably improve the train’s environmental balance sheet."
Poiret nods in approval and browses through pages on his OLED display. "Of course, we had other suggestions," reveals the energy-efficiency detective. "Watson, show us the front drive section." The avatar strolls over to one of the locomotives and touches the underbody. As if by a magical force, the entire train becomes transparent. "The drive system is not only gearless and ultra-efficient; it also serves as a generator. Whenever the locomotive is moving downhill or its brakes are applied, it accumulates braking energy. It feeds the power back into the electrical grid or uses it for its on-board systems — so the train not only consumes electrical energy, but also produces it."
Poiret gestures to Watson to climb aboard one of the trains. The assistant takes a seat in one of the compartments and lights up a virtual pipe. "Mr. Watson has just made himself nice and comfortable atop what is essentially a compost heap: All the seat covers are completely environmentally compatible, and what’s more, they will even become valuable fertilizer after they have been used," explains Poiret. "In theory, you could even eat them. Incidentally, the whole train is completely recyclable and contains no toxic substances whatsoever. We succeeded in hunting down all the environmental polluters before it was too late."
Poiret types a combination of keys into his PDA. Slowly, the production hall disappears, and all that remains is a small white room — and Virtual Watson. "I still have a thing or two to do here. Unfortunately, my holographic room uses quite a bit of power," he admits. "But I can hardly bear to turn off Mr. Watson."
