The first exhibit we visited was the Conserve at Home. We got to learn about Watts, which is the rate at which electricity is used every instant something is on. For the example in the museum, they had a hair dryer and a mixer. We learned that you can consume a certain amount of watts wither quickly, over a short amount of time, or slowly over a long amount of time.

The next exhibit we went to was Catching the Wind which taught us about wind power and how that helps us generate electricity to our homes. Wind turbines catch the energy of the wind and turns into a form we can use for electricity. The machinery inside the nacelle converts the energy into electricity. The turbines are made up of many parts such as the blades, nacelle, the hub, low and high speed shaft, gearbox, electricity generator, yaw motors, electronic controller, and anemometers and wind vane. To install a wind turbine, first you must consider the location’s wind speed, duration over the course of the year, how much electricity a wind turbine is capable of generating, the cost, and how much time it will take for the turbine to make profit.

The third exhibit we visited was the Energized! where we learned about about self-repleneshing sources of energy that are cleaner and more reliable than burning fossil fuels. It focused on energy from the sun, wind, and moving water. Solar panels (photovoltaics) on the roofs of homes can transform sunlight into electricity. When the sunlight hits the panels, electrons get energized and start to move, which in turn create an electrical current. There was also a graph that showed the impact of fossil fuels, hydropower, nuclear energy, solar energy, and wind energy. Solar energy has the potential of being our country’s energy source. Because the sunlight is inconsistent and takes large areas to harness a useful amount of energy, solar energy only consists of 1% of our electricity. However, it is the fastest growing power-generation technology in the world.