Kayla Shepard

March 11, 2011 was a time of complete destruction and turmoil in Japan when the 9.0 rated earthquake later caused a horrific tsunami and took out one of the biggest power plants. The tsunami destroyed Fukushima Daiichi’s reactors by ruining the cooling systems and causing the three cores to melt in the next three days. According to the World Nuclear Association there was detrimental damage of radioactive toxins, “The accident was rated 7 on the INES scale, due to high radioactive releases in the first few days. Four reactors are written off – 2719 MWe net”.

By July they seemed to have the reactors cooled and for the most part under control, but their priority was to make sure there wasn’t any more radioactive leakage. Fortunately there were no casualties or illnesses due to the radioactive exposure but many peoples lives were put on hold as 100,000 people were evacuated, many not yet to come back due to the governments worries. Though, it was later stated by Jan Beyea from the US expert consulting service Consulting in the Public Interest that there are now more predictions of deaths due to cancer have than previously thought,

“Health consequences predicted for the Fukushima Daiichi accident are dominated by “groundshine” gamma radiation from the decay over several decades of dispersed radioactive caesium. Although an individual’s risk is small, the mid-range, predicted number of future mortalities from cancer is closer to 1000 than the 125 figure calculated without considering long-term groundshine [gamma radiation emitted from radioactive materials deposited on the ground]”(rsc.org).

Japan was highly dependent on the Middle East for oil previous to the accident; about 90 percent of their oil was shipped over sea. Now, post nuclear melt down Japan is in more need than ever, it was said to face up to 18 percent raised prices of electricity. Japan’s public has been opposed to the building of more nuclear power plants since the 1990’s, there have been a few reported nuclear accidents other than the serious March 11 incident. It has been recently stated that by 2030 Japan hopes to be free of nuclear plant usage due to public opinion. “A whole generation of Japanese will grow up during this transition,” said Vicente López-Ibor, president of Estudio Juridico Internacional, an energy law firm in Madrid. “They will have to decide which renewable-energy technologies should be used, such as offshore wind farms, and consider shale gas too” (Bloomberg.com). But this change over will not be easy, it has been said that the money spent on solar powering, windmills and other types of renewable energy will cost around 38 trillion yen, 487 billion U.S. dollars plus much more for energy efficient technology.

Brodie, Rebecca. “Reassessing the Health Effects of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident.” RSC. N.p., 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2013/01/reassessing-health-effects-fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-accident>.

“Fukushima Accident 2011.” World Nuclear Association. N.p., 10 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/fukushima_accident_inf129.html>.

Hirokawa, Takashi, and Yuji Okada. “Japan Draws Curtain on Nuclear Energy Following Germany.” Bloomberg 14 Sept. 2012: n. pag. Web. 21 Feb. 2013. <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-09-14/japan-draws-curtain-on-nuclear-energy-following-germany.html>.

Kayla Shepard

Solar energy is quickly becoming one of the best things civilians can do for our earth. It is the cleanest and most efficient way to naturally gain power. Made up of photovoltaic cells, which are semiconductor materials like those in computer chips. When sunlight touches the cells it sends electrons loose and flying from the atoms, which in fact creates electricity. Solar power plants are the same idea but on a larger scale.

President Obama has recently stated that he will be doubling down efforts to enhance the solar industry. Though the recent failure of Bush’s Solyndra act, which resulted in half a billion of taxpayer’s money, Obama has decided to push on. Stated in a Fox News article Obama was said to be angry with the non-believers,

“In a nod to Solyndra, Obama said, ‘some companies will fail, some companies will succeed.’ But he also lashed out at Republicans who make jokes about the promise of solar and wind power as people who have a ‘lack of imagination’ as the nation debates how to deal with rising gasoline prices.” (Foxnews.com)

Like many new ideas people are hard to imagine a positive outcome, also with new ideas it is hard to get something great started from something so little. There are very few workers at solar plants at the moment that making development is hard to jumpstart. Though there seems to be hope, SEIA is making sure that this development is not a failure and will in fact succeed. In the past year, even with economic struggles there has been a strong growth in U.S solar energy jobs, around 13 percent.

Recently there has been a joint effort in the usage of solar powering, Solar Energy Industries Association® (SEIA®) and the U.S. Solar Heating and Cooling Council (SHC Council) launched the U.S. Solar Heating & Cooling Alliance (SHC Alliance). This alliance is focusing on growing solar heating and cooling naturally by taking down hurdles together.

“Solar heating and cooling is an expanding, significant sector of our industry — which is providing affordable, accessible and reliable clean energy technology for our nation while helping us achieve energy independence and security” (altenergmag.com).

Alongside the pros of clean and mostly noiseless production of energy there are a few cons that seem to be dwelled on, National Geographic touches on these arguments,

“But solar energy doesn’t work at night without a storage device such as a battery, and cloudy weather can make the technology unreliable during the day. Solar technologies are also very expensive and require a lot of land area to collect the sun’s energy at rates useful to lots of people” (Nationalgeographic.com).

These are all temporary problems scientists are searching to fix, but the key to a successful change is to keep a positive mind. National Geographic later explains that fortunately prices are falling and in about five to ten years solar power will most likely be able to pay for itself, proving to be a far better future ahead of us.

“President Obama Doubles Down on Efforts to Boost Solar Industry.” Fox News[Boulder City] 22 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/21/president-obama-doubles-down-on-efforts-to-boost-solar-industry/>.

“Solar Energy.” National Geographic n.d.: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/solar-power-profile/>.

“Solar Energy Industries Association and U.S. Solar Heating and Cooling Council Announce Launch of the U.S. Solar Heating and Cooling Alliance.” The Alternative Energy EMagazine 19 Feb. 2013: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.altenergymag.com/news/2013/02/19/solar-energy-industries-association-and-us-solar-heating-and-cooling-council-announce-launch-of-the-us-solar-heating-and-cooling-alliance/28284>.

Kayla Shepard

Our world is in frantic need to suckle every last bit of gas from the earth, in the process of extracting natural gases the procedure of Hydraulic Fracturing was created, which is the process of drilling thousands of feet below the Earths surface and pumping millions of gallons of water at certain chemical helpers into a well. Natural gas is crucial to the world’s goal of clean energy in our future. To obtain natural gas from the earth one must use hydraulic fracturing, which is not the most environmentally friendly process to our earth,

“Onshore ‘unconventional’ natural gas production requiring hydraulic fracturing, which injects a mix of water, particles, and chemicals underground to create fractures through which gas can flow for collection, is estimated to increase by 45% between 2007 and 2030. An estimated 60-80% of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing” (Investor Environmental Health Network).

Fortunately EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) is working with other forces to keep the danger out of Hydraulic Fracturing and keep our population and earth safe. EPA is working on education our population on the possible dangers of Hydraulic Fracturing such as:

• Pressure on surface water and ground water supplies from the extraction of large amounts water used drilling and fracturing.
• Corruption of underground drinking water and surface waters from toxic spills
• Air pollution from release of toxins, unstable organic compounds, or greenhouse gases.

To make sure the Hydraulic Fracturing has as minimal hazards as possible EPA is making sure the use of diesel fueling is properly permitted, “The Energy Policy Act of 2005 excluded hydraulic fracturing, except when diesel fuels are used, for oil, gas or geothermal production from regulation under the UIC program” (www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing).

There are arguably both pro’s and con’s to the Hydraulic Fracturing process. Stated in an article in the Huffington Post, author Jordan Howard stated some reasonable facts about Hydraulic Fracturing,

“The energy potential for shale gas is undeniable. It is among the fastest growing energy sources in the country: In 2000, shale gas represented 1 percent of natural gas supplies in the country. Today, that number is 30 percent and rising.”

Some stated pro’s to Hydraulic Fracturing are: potential energy independence, it burns cleaner air than other fossil fuels, more jobs are created for citizens, and finally during this process the nation is buying time to create renewable energy.

Though there are also just as many con’s to this process such as: water pollution, leaks more emissions than coal, could be linked to more earth quakes on earth, companies don’t have to state what type of chemicals are being used, and finally it requires too much water usage.

Howard, Jordan. “Fracking Pros and Cons: Weighing in on Hydraulic Fracturing.”Huffington Post [Washington] 11 Oct. 2011, U.S. ed.: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/10/fracking-pros-cons_n_1084147.html#s524124>.

“Hydraulic Fracturing for Natural Gas Development.” Investor Environmental

Health Network. N.p., 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://iehn.org/overview.naturalgashydraulicfracturing.php>.

“Natural Gas Extraction – Hydraulic Fracturing.” EPA. N.p., 14 Feb. 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www2.epa.gov/hydraulicfracturing>.

Kayla Shepard

To understand Force and Motion one must understand the concept of Inertia, Inertia means the object will remain at rest or in constant motion in a straight line unless it is acted upon. An object at rest or in uniform motion means it is at a constant velocity, where the object is acted upon it means an outside force changes the velocity of the object. Mass is another aspect that must be understood, mass is the amount of matter/inertia in an object and finally weight, weight is the measure of force gravity.

In an experiment the class took different masses (weights), which were pulled up by a pulley, then one had to determine the acceleration and the time rotation that the motor span.

• F = ma

To find the number of motor rotations we had to find the measure in degrees divided by 360 degrees which equaled one rotation.

Measure in Degrees

• _______________  = 1 rotation

360 Degrees

Then we had to know the time to life a mass,

• t(sec) = t(s)

Unfortunately, due to technological complications we were unable to get the computers to thoroughly connect to the pulleys through LabView, instead we took examples of past experiments and plugged them into Excel to show what past experiments would prove.

The data proved:

-Increase in Potential Energy with the increase of Mass

-Decrease in pulled Acceleration with increased Mass

– Increased Pulled Acceleration with higher power

Kayla Shepard

With the population rising the car industry is rising up right behind it, unfortunately it seems gas and oils are becoming an issue, scientists are beginning to fret how they will keep all of our transportations fueled in the future if we deplete our recourses. Until then, consumers all over the world need to find a resourceful and more eco friendly way to sustain the gas in transportation, mainly automobiles.

Step one to keeping away from high bills on gasoline is to find the best octane level for your car, for most cars that octane is Regular. There is no gain in using a higher level except for paying more to the gas station. Fortunately in this day and age there’s an app for everything! There are now apps for your phone that can help find the best priced gas stations around you, there’s one benefit for so much technology lately. A few more rules to follow to keep your gas prices low are: not to speed, the faster you go the more fuel you go through, avoid keeping your car sitting with the engine on its just fuel and money down the drain, use overdrive and cruise control, this way your maintaining a specific speed and coasting uses the less fuel of all!

One of the biggest ways the automobile industry is trying to help with gas mileage was the creation of the Hybrid car,

“Hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) combine the benefits of gasoline engines and electric motors and can be configured to obtain different objectives, such as improved fuel economy, increased power, or additional auxiliary power for electronic devices and power tools”( www.fueleconomy.gov).

Regenerative breaking is one of the best qualities to a hybrid car, the electric motor applies resistance to the drivetrain making the wheels slow, by doing so it gives the energy from the wheels and turns the motor which in the end functions as a generator. All the energy wasted when breaking and coasting in normal cars is all converted into battery power for a hybrid car. Another amazing thing about the hybrid car is the automatic shutoff meaning the engine turns off when the car comes to a stop and turns back on when it is accelerated, this gets rid of the gas guzzling idling in normal cars.

Purchasing any SUV or other 4 to 6 cylinder can eat up the money in your wallet and skyrocket the price for gas, now in this economic struggle people are beginning to realize the investment of smaller cars and that maintenance on old cars is the best way to save money. According to usnews.com,

“In 2007, the Bust administration raised the gas mileage requirements automakers had to meet.  Then in 2009, the Obama administration raised them further.  Those rules, which are about to be finalized in detail, will require each automaker’s fleet to average a lofty 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025- roughly double the mileage requirement of just five years ago”. (http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/08/27/tough-government-gas-mileage-rules-good-for-drivers-auto-industry)

Because of these new requirements automobile industries are developing new ways to save gas mileage such as superior powertrains and transmissions, lighter pieces in the car, and even different ways to fix a damaged tire instead of carrying around a new one, to save weight.

This new requirement passed by Bush and now soon to be adopted by the Obama Administration is not only helpful for consumers but ironically also for auto-makers, they know that with better mileage they will make better sales and with better sales better profit and eventually more jobs! For example: Ford is hurrying its development for more hybrid cars making their goal 135 million dollar investment in hybrids, Ford has also doubled its team to develop more energy efficient technology and is planning on doubling again in 2015, Honda is also planning on hiring more workers, 300 to be exact to develop the Civic Hybrid, Volkswagen is developing a third shift in their Tennessee plant to enhance the fuel-efficient Passat, and finally Continental (a fuel efficient turbo charger supplier of Ford) is going after electronic technologies as a “long-term investment”. Those are just a few car companies that are developing new efficient ways to save gas mileage for consumers. Automobile makers are taking this new act of efficient gas mileage very seriously and they are not waiting around for the green light. They know the more options buyers have the more cars will be bought in the end.

“How Hybrids Work.” U.S. Department of Energy. N.p., 19 Feb. 2013. Web. 19

Feb. 2013. <http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/hybridtech.shtml>.

Lubber, Mindy. “Why Fuel Mileage Standars Will Benefit The Auto Industry and

Create Nearly 700,000 New Jobs.” ThinkProgress (2012): n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/27/738621/why-fuel-mileage-standards-will-benefit-the-auto-industry-and-create-nearly-700000-new-jobs/?mobile=nc>.

Newman, Rick. “Tough Government Gas Mileage Rules Good for Drivers, Auto

Industry.” U.S.News [Washington] 27 Aug. 2012: n. pag. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/rick-newman/2012/08/27/tough-government-gas-mileage-rules-good-for-drivers-auto-industry>.

Kayla Shepard

During this class of Science and Innovation we created a Lego robot car built up of various pieces including different wheels, a motor, and a plug that attached to the computer. With the computer we were able to raise and lower the speed or “power level”. The purpose of the project was to compare our predictions of the cars distance and the distance the computer predicted based on the power level.

In order to compare the two calculations we first needed to measure the wheel circumference of the car, our measurement was 0.17 cm.  We did three experiments with three different power levels.

• The first power level was 75, our measured distance was about 0.26 m/s, the number of wheel turn was 1.55 and the calculated distance from the computer was about 0.27 m/s.
• The second power level was 100, our measured distance was about 0.35 m/s, the number of the wheel turn was 2.24 and the computers calculation was about 0.39 m/s.
• Lastly, our power level was 50, our measured distance was about 0.17 m/s, the number of the wheel turn was .97 and the computers calculated distance was about 0.17 m/s.

After finding all of this information we calculated the Error percent of each trial. To find that we took our measured distance, subtracted that by the computers measured distance, divided that answer by our measured distance and then finally multiplied that by 100.

Our Measured Dist. –  Comp. Measured Dist.

_______________________________________    X   100%

Our Measured Dist.

By doing so we found out that the percent error was 5.09% for the first trial, 4.7% for the second and finally 0.6% for the third trial.

This project was not necessarily hard, yet it had a lot of parts to it making it tedious work. It was interesting to see the difference between man made

calculations and computer calculations, even if it was by a small percent the calculations were off and that could be detrimental in a giant project.

Kayla Shepard

February 7, 2013

With the world’s desperate need for sustainable energy, scientists are coming up with every idea possible to keep our energy usage in tact. Among these new ideas was the creation of the “smart grid”. In such a technological world it only seems necessary to create a remote controlled delivery system that allows back and forth communication of information track consumerism of electricity to help efficiency and sustainability on earth.

There is an intensive process of gathering data in order for the “smart grid” to work, taking up almost a century to obtain the information needed. Energy.Gov stated, “The workers read meters, look for broken equipment and measure voltage, for example”. The grid is made up of many computerized systems dispersed throughout power plants sending electricity back and forth; sensors also can be installed to gather necessary data on electric usage. Due to the creation of smart grid it allows new energy sources such as windmills to also be monitored keeping our energy greener.

There are many benefits of “smart grid”: efficient two-way power, easy restoration after power disturbances, management costs for utilities, wide spread incorporation of renewable energy, and improved security. SmartGrid.gov stated,

“A smarter grid will add resiliency to our electric power system and

make it better prepared to address emergencies such as severe

storms, earthquakes, large solar flares, and terrorist attacks.

Because of its two-way interactive capacity, the Smart Grid will

allow for automatic rerouting when equipment fails or outages

occur.”

Unfortunately the “smart grid” is still unfamiliar to many consumers when in fact consumers are the ones it benefits the most. It gives the “power” literally and figuratively back to the people. Writer Sonita Lontah wrote in the The Energy Collective, “The Smart Grid will give our energy providers visibility into the way electricity is flowing, letting them fix problems fast. It will empower us with information on how we use energy, so we can choose to use it more wisely. It is our power, our choice.”

Once this genius idea is understood and spread to consumers around the world it will be the first giant step to sustaining renewable power.

Lontoh, Sonita. “Articulating Smart Grid Benefits to End-Consumers.” The

Energy Collective. N.p., 7 Feb. 2013. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://theenergycollective.com/slontoh/182666/super-bowl-outage-smart-grid>.

“Smart Grid.” Energy.Gov. N.p., n.d.Web. 7 Feb. 2013.

<http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid>.

“The Smart Grid.” SmartGrid.gov. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Feb. 2013.

<http://www.smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid#smart_grid>.

Kayla Shepard

February 7, 2013

Renewable energy is a vital source amongst our world in this generation, due to man made mistakes the earth is slowly being destroyed year by year. It is shown in recent studies that renewable energy is low on the scale of usage; companies need to find a way to expand this handling and ultimately save our home. A few renewable sources are: sunlight (as solar powering), wind, rain, heat, ect. By using these sources we can cut down on major damages that are being inflicted on the earth, one problem in particular being global warming.

As many countries are vigorously working on how to spread sustainable energy to factories, homes, and transportation it seems Germany is stepping to the plate. From a positive outlook Germany is saving the world one piece at a time by depleting their nuclear power usage and changing over to renewable energy, unfortunately everything comes with a price, a high one at that. IER, (Institute for Energy Research) discussed this disastrous problem,

“Consumers in Germany are facing the biggest electricity price increase in a decade and those price increases will continue. It is estimated that by 2030, Germany will have spent more than 300 billion Euros on green electricity. And consumer groups are complaining that about 800,000 German households can no longer pay for their energy bills” (IER).

It is said Germany’s ultimate goal is to have more than half of their electrical power to be run on renewable energies by 2050, but residents of Germany are starting to struggle with this phase, hardly being able to pay their electric bills in this year.

With this phase out of nuclear power into renewable energy Germany thought itself to be a hero amongst the world though what they didn’t realize was by doing such a rapid change they were inflicting their financial problems onto surrounding territories,

“For example, Germany’s ‘eco-miracle’ simply used the power grids of neighboring countries not only without asking for permission but also without paying for it. Now Poland and the Czech Republic have pulled the plug and are building a huge switch-off at their borders to block the uninvited import of green energy from Germany which is destabilizing their grids and is thus risking blackouts” (The Global Warming Policy Foundation).

Though Germany was trying help this planet we reside on the government did not plan out the action well enough, by blind-siding their neighboring countries they are isolating themselves from any future help and are now becoming a lonely island sinking in its own financial problems.

Along with sky rocketing prices for electric bills the cost of building all new renewable factories is beginning to rack up a hefty price, this also creates another crisis of black outs becoming more of an occurrence. It seems the people of Germany are starting to panic and question the “development” their government is trying to produce, stated in a German magazine Spiegal they report their concerns on Germany’s future, Adam Peshek of Reason Foundation says,

“The energy supply is now ‘the top risk for Germany as a location for business,’ says Hans Heinrich Driftmann, president of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). ‘One has to be concerned in Germany about the cost of electricity,’ warns European Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger. And Bernd Kalwa, a member of the general works council at ThyssenKrupp, says heatedly: ‘Some 5,000 jobs are in jeopardy within our company alone, because an irresponsible energy policy is being pursued in Düsseldorf and Berlin” (Reason Foundation).

It’s a sad fact when a countries attempt to help the world ends in destruction to their own land, the world needs to find a way to come together and slowly but effectively help this energy crisis.

IER. “Germany’s Energy Policy: Man Made Crisis Now Costing Billions.” Institue   

for Energy Research. N.p., 30 Oct. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/2012/10/30/germanys-energy-policy-man-made-crisis-now-costing-billions/>.

Peshek, Adam. “Germany’s Green Energy Policies Are Shutting Down

Industry.” Reason Foundation. N.p., 29 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://reason.org/blog/show/germanys-green-subsidies-shutting-d>.

Wetzel, Daniel. “Poland And Czech Republic Ban Germany’s Green

Energy.” GWPF. N.p., 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 7 Feb. 2013. <http://www.thegwpf.org/poland-czech-republic-ban-germanys-green-energy/>.