Mariana Silva

Iceland has been an enourmous pioneer to geothermal energy.  Geothermal power facilities currently generate 25% of the country’s total electricity production.

What is Geothermal Energy:

Geothermal energy has been around for thousands of years. This process basically is power obtained from the Earth’s internal heat. There is no fuel burned during this process, which is one of the many benefits of geothermal energy. This turmoil energy is held in the rock and fluids underneath the Earth’s crust. There are also downsides to this though, for example the release of hydrogen sulfide. This is a downside because many have describe to the smell being similar to rotten eggs.

Iceland has over 20 active volcanoes and a lot of hot springs and geysers. Its location makes it one of the most tectonically active locations in the world. Plenty of the building and swimming pools are heated with geothermal hot water. Iceland is now the leading exporter of geothermal expertise to the rest of the world, according to the Trade Council of Iceland. In Iceland 99%of its electricity is made from renewable sources, and 30% of that is geothermal.

References:

• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/iceland-geothermal-power/
• http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/geothermal-profile/

Stirling Heat Engine:

From my research on the Stirling heat engine I learned right away what it was, “a little bit like a steam engine that uses no steam! Instead, it heats, cools, and recycles the same air or gas over and over again to produce useful power that can drive a machine.” Chris Woodford explains in his article on explainthatstuff.com I also learned that all though there is so much rave about it now, the Stirling heat engine has been around since 1816!

Many people refer to this as a closed-cycle, regenerative heat engines. Some describe the Sterling engines are simple, while others think they are complex. There are different designs of the Sterling heat engine, but lets focus on the beta.

How it works:

The Stirling heat engine converts heat energy into mechanical energy by repeating its cycle. First there is cooling and compression. This is when most of the gas on the cooler end of the cylinder. Then there is the transfer and regeneration this is where the displacer piston moves to the right and the cooled gas moves around it to the hotter part of the cylinder on the left. After that is the heating and expansion most of the gas is now on the left in the hot end. It is then heated by fire or another source of heat so that the pressure can grow, absorbing energy. With the gas expanding it now pushes the work piston to the right. During the heating and expansion the  engine modifies heat energy into mechanical energy. Finally there is the transfer and cooling part of the cycle, the displacer piston moves to the left and hot gas moves around it to the cooler part of the cylinder. After this part the cycle restarts.

The Peltier Device:

Tech Target defines the Peltier device, also known as thermoelectric cooling, as “a temperature difference created by applying a voltage between two electrodes connected to a sample of semiconductor material”. It is beneficial to transfer heat from one medium to another on a small scale.

How it works:

This device has two side, a cool side and a heated side. The difference in temperatures is about 70 degrees. It uses a lot of  electricity. It pumps the heat from one side to the other. In addition to pumping heat, it also produce heat. When this happens the system cools it self where it needs too.

References:

• http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-stirling-engines-work.html
• http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Peltier-effect
• http://www.activecool.com/technotes/thermoelectric.html

Prior to starting the generator lab we were told that the more you shake the higher the voltage. My partner Rosanna and I were excited to try it out. We set up our “Wall-up” and got started.

 

Rosanna was in charge of the shaking and I was computing everything into the system. everything went pretty smoothly until we got to out 3 trial. The excel format did not gather out information and then from there it went downhill. As we tried to redo everything my computer went to a blue screen. We had chosen my computer to begin with because my partner’s did not work. It was now the end of class and we were still figuring it out.

We managed to finished the last two trails

Here is our data: (all trials lasted a total of 30 seconds)

Trial 1 –

Number of shakes: 64

Sum of the squared voltages: 2.24

Trial 2 –

Number of shakes: 104

Sum of the squared voltages: 1.58

Trial 3 –

Number of shakes: 106

Sum of the squared voltages: 3.82

Trail 4 – 

Number of shakes: 67

Sum of the squared voltages: 1.78

Trial 5 – 

Number of shakes: 61

Sum of the squared voltages: 1.08

And come up with out graph which we showed professor Sonek because to us it looked kind of funny.

He then explain to us that it was not wrong. Even though our marks did not really follow the line. Despite the computer, whom I blame every experiment, I did enjoy this lab!

The Model S a car by Tesla that has receive plenty of rave. It was even the motor trend car of 2013. Theres is more to this very special car though.

In the article I read by Sam Laird about how the Tesla car actually work, he compared it to a macbook and for me this made it easier to understand. Electricity charges the Model S lithium-ion battery, which in fact is like the one in laptops except that the car’s is a lot more strong then those used in computers.

There is more than one way to and place to charge this electric car. You can have a technician install a High Power Wall Charger in you home, plug it into a 100-volt outlet through a mobile connector, and you can install solar panels in your home. So far in California, Tesla has installed “supercharging” stations on highways and they plan to have these all throughout the United States and Canada.

Once the Model S is charged, this electricity is then used to power, what was referred to, a watermelon sized mother that not only transforms mechanical power into electricity but also into more electricity.

Electrical Charging Stations

In another article I read by Brad Berman he describes charging electrical cars, in comparison to having a car that runs on gasoline, as complicated. There’s plenty that you need to know having an electrical car and charging station. Some of those things include how they work, where they are located, how to pay, and many more.

I’ve learned a lot from doing research for this blog post but I must say that what surprised me the most was the number of different charging stations that exist. For example there is; Aerovironment, Blink Network, Chargepoint, the Electric Circuit, EVGO, GE Wattsation, Greenlots, Semaconnect, Shorepower Connect, and Tesla Supercharger.

All of these stations vary in price, which could be either monthly subscription, pay as you go, and some can even be free. They also have different amounts of locations.

 

Here is a video I found that really helped me understand charging stations better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1K8FQwKUAM

 

References:

• http://mashable.com/2013/01/17/tesla-electric-car/#1nfP6E39r5qE
• http://www.plugincars.com/ultimate-guide-electric-car-charging-networks-126530.html
• http://auto.howstuffworks.com/electric-car-charging-network.htm

In this blog I’ll be discussing about electricity generation from coal-fired, nuclear gas, and finally power plant.

Coal-Fired:

The coal-fired system is a process of approximately four different steps. Rst2.edu calls it a simple process. The four steps consists of heat being created, then the water turns into steam, the steam then turns into turbine, and lastly steam turns back into water, basically creating a cycle. In the first step before the coal is heated it is transformed into talcum powder. that powder is mixed with hot air and then blown to the firebox, with the coal and air mixture creating the maximum heat, bringing us to the second step. Water that is highly purified is pumped through the boiler and then turns into steam by the heat. Duke-energy.com informs that ” The steam reaches temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures up to 3,500 pounds per square inch, and is piped to the turbine”. Moving on to the third step, the pressure pushes against turbine blades and turns the turbine shaft. the generator, which is connected to the turning shaft, has magnets that spin within wire coils to produce electricity. Lastly the steam then goes into a condenser, which is a large chamber in the basement of the power plant. This last step it is very significant because millions of gallons of cool water from sources close by are pumped through a network of tubes that are running through the condenser. The water then converts the steam back into water and the cycle restarts and can be used again in the plant.

 

Nuclear Power Plant:

This process is much like the coal process. The water is tired into steam then it turn drives turbine generators to make electricity. Duke-energy.com explains that the difference is “the source of heat”.  With this process the heat to make steam is made when uranium atoms split. This process is also known as fusion. The PWRs (Pressurized Water Reactor) keep water under pressure so it can heat but not boil. The heat water goes through tubes in steam generator which permits the water in the steam generator to also turn into steam which then turns into turbine generator. With the BWRs (Boiling Water Reactors) the water that is heated by fission boils and transforms steam to turn the turbine generator. With nuclear gas and both the PWRs and BWRs it is also a cycle where the steam turns back to water and the cycle re-begins.

 

Natural Gas:

In this process the natural gas if pumped to the gas turbine and is then mixed with air. It is then burned, in this burning step it converts its chemical energy into heat energy. Not only does the natural gas produce heat but it creates a mixture of gases known as the combustion gas which expands with the heat and creates a build up of pressure. This pressure pushes the combustion gas over the blades of the gas turbine making it spin, changing some of the heat energy into mechanical energy. The generator uses an electromagnetic field to change the mechanical energy to electrical energy. The combustion gas then goes to the heat recovery generator. This heats the pipes filled with water and turns that water into steam before it can escape through the exhaust stack. The hot steam expands and creates high pressure which jets spin the steam turbine. This steam turbine is connected by a shaft to the steam turbine generator that converts the turbine;s mechanical energy to electrical energy. After the steam passes through the turbine it reaches pipes filled with cold water, which cools the steam so that it condenses back into water. The cycle then restarts.

My thoughts on the research:

Out of all the blogs we have done so far this one was my favorite. The info was clear and I learned very much. I noticed many similarities in these three. The method sort of say was very alike, it started at A and went through all these steps and got back to A. A lot of the terminology was the same like

 

 

References:

https://www.duke-energy.com/about-energy/generating-electricity/coal-fired-how.asp

http://www.rst2.edu/ties/acidrain/IEcoal/how.htm

http://www.duke-energy.com/about-energy/generating-electricity/nuclear-how.asp

http://www.edfenergy.com/energyfuture/generation-gas

 

 

My Personal Experience:

Personally, I really enjoyed this lab. I believe it was because the instructions was more straight forward.

My partner and I encountered three minor setbacks while doing this lab. At first the batteries for our “Wall-E’s” were not working which set us back on a time a little. The second set back happened when we started the first five trials and we measured the mass as grams instead of kilograms. We converted all our masses and re did all the trials just to double check all the numbers were still the correct. And finally when making the chart, I had issues making the first set of data’s lab. I believe the second set of data graph is correct but the first one doesn’t seem like the one Professor Sonek displayed in class.

Data:

The lab was quite fascinating really, It was really interesting to see how everything changed because of the power or mass. One simple change of a number could change how fast the weights were lifted. Below is the data my partner and i gathered for both sets of data

 

With this first part we noticed that as we altered the mass it affected with the speed, time and acceleration.

This chart looks similar to the one that was displayed in class. With this we kept the mass constant at 0.15 Kg. We noticed that again changes in speed, time, and acceleration based on changing the power.

 

Fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing, is the process of drilling a mix of water and chemicals into the earth in a high pressure which basically cracks a rock layer releasing gas out of the head of the well. From my research, I read that fracking is considered a “profitable extraction”. BBC.com describes fracking as “a technique designed to recover gas and oil from shale rock.” There are many mixed feelings when it comes to fracking, some view it as an economic savior while others believe that it is destroying health. With that being said there are a couple of pros and cons to fracking.

 

*picture from BBC.com*

Pros: 

• Has significantly boosted domestic oil production and driven down gas prices in the US
• Allows drilling firms to access difficult-to-reach resources of oil and gas.

Cons:

• Can be considered unhealthy and toxic
• Can cause small earth tremors
• Releases Uranium
• Fracking chemicals are dangerous

Resources:

https://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_101#.VgS_X7SKzww

http://marmapoints.org/fracking-the-basics

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-14432401

http://www.rodalewellness.com/health/fracking-1

Last week we had our first real activity with the robots. The objective was to run there different trials where we would switch around the numbers of the power and time and measure how far our robots would go and the rotations it would make and then compare it to the distance the computer system gave us.

My Personal Experience:

I must admit, this activity was not as easy as I thought it would be. I went in to it thinking; “change the numbers, see how fast the robots go”. It wasn’t that easy. For starters, my partner and I had issues getting our robots to move, putting us a little behind on time. When we finally got it to move we then got stuck with the computer system which we both have never used. Once we started getting the hang of it, things ran a bit more smoother.

Trials:

 

 

This is the data that we came up with in our trials. Note that on trial 2 under time I have inserted a question mark (?), this is because I must of not taken down a number during class and being that my partner is out of town with a school club, I couldn’t get the actual number. The first chart, top, is the data that I chose and calculated and the second chart, bottom, is the computed calculations. The circumference of our wheel was 0.09.

With our data we realized that both power and time are very important. In the first trial we kept the power and time as the computer had it set, just to see how it would run and it was pretty smooth. I observed that in 3 seconds with the power at 75 the robot went pretty far. In the second and third trial we changed the power and time. When we lowered the power to 20 on trial 2 we saw how little the car actually moved, even down to the sound it made when it moved. It was very interesting to see.

Before this assignment, I can honestly say I had very little to no knowledge on this topic. Due to this blog post I found some very interesting things that I never knew before. I believe that for me, this blog will be more of me discovering new things and I think it will be very interesting.

The U.S Energy Grid:

With the research I did on the energy grid I learned that it is an electrical system that provides energy to producers and consumers. The grid has grown into three big systems that provide  electricity around the country. This system really grew after WWII when demands for electricity grew, they then decided to interconnect their systems. this interconnection was very useful and helped in many ways, including reducing the extra capacity that each utility had to hold.

The Smart Grid:

The smart grid is basically an electric grid that moves electricity from the power plants and into our homes, businesses, facilities, etc. Now, what makes this grid a “smart” grid is the digital technology that permit the two-way communication between where the power comes from and where it goes. The smart grid has grown so much since it first started in the 1890’s. This grid now stands for and supply for our economic and environmental health.

Pros:

• More efficient transmission of electricity
• Quicker restoration of electricity after power disturbances
• Reduced peak demand, which will also help lower electricity rates
• Improved security

Cons:

• Cost
• Privacy

Recourses:

http://www.eia.gov/energy_in_brief/article/power_grid.cfm

https://www.smartgrid.gov/the_smart_grid/smart_grid.html

http://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/smart-grid-how-does-it-work-and-why-do-we-need-it

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