October 2015 – omarqus

Worldwide solar energy use

A list of where solar energy is used most

Ranking	Country	Installed PV [MW]
1	Germany	32,411
2	Italy	16,361
3	China	8,300
4	USA	7,777
5	Japan	6,914
6	Spain	5,166
7	France	4,003
8	Belgium	2,650
9	Australia	2,650
10	Czech Republic	2,072

Germany:

Germany is the number one user of solar energy in the world in 2010, “Germany installed 3.8 GW of PV(Photo Voltaic) solar energy capacity, and the country has added at least 3.3 GW of new solar capacity per year, and more like 6 GW per year between 2010 and 2012.” 50% of the energy used in the country was from solar energy, 78% of their total energy was from renewable sources. They also have the first building that captures more energy than it uses.

China:

China has grown its solar energy usage by a whopping 6000% since 2009, from less than one-third of a gigawatt to 18.3. They are also a major solar panel manufacturer. The government has also increased their renewable energy plan from 20-30 Gigawatts by 2020 to 70 gigawatts by 2017.

http://pureenergies.com/us/blog/top-10-countries-using-solar-power/

http://energyinformative.org/where-is-solar-power-used-the-most/

Nuclear Energy self study

Nuclear energy is the energy released during nuclear fission or fusion, especially when used to generate electricity. When energy is released when an atom is split in two it is called fission. When two parent nuclei merge and release energy this is called fusion.

Nuclear Power Plant-

The chain reaction that occurs during fission (neutrons cause other atoms to split) creates the heat that is used to generate electricity in a power plant. Uranium, a heavy metal that is mined, is the most common fuel in Nuclear Power plants

Advantages:

Efficiency: a pound of Uranium= one million gallons of gasoline.

Cleanliness: 164 tons of carbon do not enter the atmosphere annually because of nuclear energy(more nuclear energy use will increase this)

Disadvantages:

Radiation can cause genetic mutations, some do not have a great effect, like blue eyes, others can result in horrors found in chernobyl.

Radiation has been linked to causing cancer.

Fukushima Daiichi

On March 11, 2011 an earthquake occured that killed 20,000 people in Northern Japan. The quake created a tsunami. A natural disaster of this level led to a breakdown in civil services such as public transport and electricity. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was effected because of this.

Fukushima Daiichi Disaster

Without any power, there was no water to cool the power plant, creating the high temperatures which lead to explosions that released radioactive debris into the air. Contaminated water was leaked into the sea for months.

A large amount of steam was produced because and the pressure began rising. The temperature kept rising rapdily and the cooling system had failed because of the tsunami.

Effects

The people surrounding the reactor were very quickly evacuated, minimizing the effects of the radiation of human life. Certain areas were quarantied for a short time until the radiation faded, while some areas are still under quarantine.

Radioactive material still spills into the sea because the fences that were present before the accident had faield. They are being consumed by species of fish that are consumed for food. The food in Japan is now being mointored to avoid the consumption of radioactive fish.

Continued nuclear reliance

Without access to natural resources Japan will continue to rely on nuclear energy, although continiously trying to develop renewable energy they have had trouble leaving nuclear power.

http://fukushima.ans.org

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/fukushima-accident/

http://www.wsj.com/articles/japan-struggles-to-find-balanced-energy-strategy-1431545581

10. Obama’s Climate Action Plan

In 2009, President Obama announced that that by 2020 US greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 17%. The s Climate Action outlined three major goals to complete the

1. Cut Carbon National Carbon Output by Increasing Fuel Economy Standards:

The amount of carbon released into the air would be regulated by the government to help protect the health of the American people. In 2012 carbon emission levels. If we decide to focus on reneweable energy as a country, we would be able to reduce emissions even more and create jobs to boost the economy since importing energy is difficult.

Fuel standards have been set for heavy duty vehicles for the first time in the country’s history. They are the second largest source of greenhouse gases because of transportation. An estimated 270 million metric tons and 530 million barrels of oil will be saved.

2. Create a National Infastructure that can Withstand Climate Change:

While trying to prevent climate change (which is already occurring) steps are being t taken to prepare the country for its effects. The creation of stronger roads, shorelines, and bridges has been promised to better shield the populace from the effects of climate change.

Prepration for the consequences of greenhouse gases and climate change have begun. Hospitals will need to be able better serve patients during heatwaves and keep the temperature reasonable. Agencies and taskforces have been developed to pinpoint the proper investments, which can be done privately or through federal agencies, for different facilities in the country . The goal of the agencies and taskforces is to create an infastructre that can last against the tide of climate change.

3. Spearhead the Fight Against Global Climate Change and Prepare for its impact on an international level through Long Term Investments In clean Energy

No lone country can counter a global issue of this scale, the goal of the USA will be to lead the world in combatting any effects of climate change and pollution that have already occurred while

One of the first goals of the initiative is to increase the use of clean energy. The plan wants the Gov to research, develop, and deploy clean energy. This will be done with a 30% increase of budget across all agencies.

Stirling Heat Engine

Robert Stirling invented The Stirling engine in 1816 to create a safer alternative to the steam engine. Steam engine boilers would explode due to high pressure combined with low quality parts, killing and injuring many operators. The Stirling engine operates by cycling the compression and expansion of gasses. The gasses used never leave the engine, so it has no exhaust valves that can explode and cause injuries and deaths. They have been used to run refrigerators, fans, cars, and sewing machines.

Modern Day Uses:

Modern ingenuiety has created other alternatives to the Stirling heat engine, but ti is still used in solar power generation for being very efficient in converting solar energy to electrical energy and

The Peltier effect is a temperature difference created by applying a voltage between two electrodes connected to a sample of semiconductor material. This phenomenon can be useful when it is necessary to transfer heat from one medium to another on a small scale. A Peltier device is a heat pump that uses the Peltier effect to move heat.

http://www.mpoweruk.com/stirling_engine.htm

http://stirlingshop.com/html/applications_.html

http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Peltier-effect

Geothermal Energy in Iceland

Geothermal energy is the heat that is generated and stored in the earth. It can be found in the hot ground, water or rocks in the earth.

Iceland went from being one of the EU’s poorest countries to one where almost all of the energy comes from renewable sources. Geothermal sources account for 66% of Iceland’s primary energy use. Iceland is in an area with multiple volcanoes, tectonic plates bring the heat to the surface. It’s location and focus on the research of harnessing renewable geothermic energy has allowed iceland to become a world leader in the field.

Lacking a national grid, Iceland harnesses energy by digging into the ground. By drilling a few metres underground, power plants can harness geothermal energy. The heat is constant due to their location. The large amount of heat sources in the country allow the vast majority of the country to be powered by geothermal energy.

Georthermal energy is low cost and creates no pollution, it is more effecient and cleaner than all of the non renewable methods used in the world.

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-geothermal-energy-works.html#.VmDduNKrTcc

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/geothermal-energy/tech.html

Shaker experiment

In Class Activity:

We used a hand powered generator, (a tube with a magnet in it) to create energy. The generator. We counted the shakes and the voltage was calculated via a computer program. We then calculated the sum of the squares of the voltages and plotted them in a graph to see the correlation which resulted in a linear curve.

Number of SHakes & sum of Sqs

22 16.00569
41 133.4468
71 61.2941
90 96.83239
154 239.8341

Faraday’s law is supported, the greater the magnetic influx the greater the voltage produced. As there were more shakes, more voltage was created and the square of the voltages increased.

Electric car

With environmental concerns and innovation for clean energy at the forefront of technology, electric cars were created(although an old invention). They are powered by electric engines and emit less pollution. An example of an electric car is the Tesla.

Tesla is an American car company founded in 2003 (named after the awesome scientist Tesla).The roadster, their first car, launched in 2008. Unfortunately Tesla only sold just over 2400 cars. The roadster could run 245 miles with a fully charged battery. Three other models have produced with just over 50k units sold. The company is based in California.

Function

Tesla cars are powered via battery. Their cars are fully electric so the battery must be recharged constantly. Pollution is not produced via the tail pipe like regular vehicles BUT, the creation of electricity may be a pollutant, these cars are exponentially cleaner than their counterparts. Access to a charging unit or grid electricity is needed. Tesla cars can be charged at home for convenience.

Electric Charging Stations:

Tesla has it’s own car charging system. The plugs for Tesla cars are designed to be supported by any outlet. Each car comes with an outlet that allows the cars to adapt to home outlets and level 2 charging stations. There is teslas supercharging station, which can fill up a battery in an hour(which is awesome)

Typical home outlets will charge a car for 75 miles over 15 hours(120 volts) enough for 75 miles. Most public charging stations have an output of 240 volts, which would give a car a full charge in 8 hours. High tech specialized stations exist that can charge a car from 0 to 80% called level three chargers. They have an output of 480 volts. The car and charger have data pins and computers installed within them to allow the two to communicate, this allows for the owner to be notified of when charging is done, and for the charger to stop output once the car is fully charged.

(We have charging stations by northstation, on friends st, across the street from the garden)

http://www.ucsusa.org/clean-vehicles/electric-vehicles/how-do-battery-electric-cars-work#.ViUVCtY-DR0

http://www.teslamotors.com/about

http://www.cnet.com/news/slow-fast-and-faster-where-to-charge-electric-cars/

Electricity Generation

5. Electricity Generation

Electricity is what keeps the digital and information age running. There are three major ways electricity is produced. Natural gas,coal firedplants, and nuclear power.Coal Fired Plants-

1. Heat is created
Before the coal is burned, it is crushed to the consistency of talcum powder. Then it is mixed with hot air and blown into the boiler. The coal and air mixture creates the most complete burn possible.

2. Water turns to steam
The cleansed water is pumped through pipes inside the boiler and turned into steam by the heat. The steam can reach temperatures of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit and pressure up to 3,500 pounds per square inch.

3. Steam turns the turbine
The pressure of the steam rises into the turbines and forces them to spin. Creating electricity via kinetic energy.

4. Steam turns back into water
After powering the turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser. Cool water is pumped through a network of tubes running through the condenser. The cool water in the tubes converts the steam back into water that can be used over and over again in the plant.

Natural Gas- The gas is burned, then heat and gas created rises up to a turbine forcing it to spin, as it spins, mechanical energy is created which is then converted to electricity. Natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel.

Nuclear Power Plants- Fission(the splitting of a uranium atom) creates energy, which in turn, is used to create steam that rises up into a turbine, causing to spin. The spinning of the turbine creates mechanical and kinetic energy which is then turned into electricity. Nuclear power is a low pollutant and the waste can be disposed of in a clean manner.

All of these forms of power generation require kinetic and mechanical energy, the principle of creating force is converting one type of energy to another, turbines are a common theme because they are also used for hydro energy.

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

https://www.cpsenergy.com/en/about-us/programs-services/energy-generation/natural-gas.html

http://www.triplepundit.com/special/energy-options-pros-and-cons/natural-gas-pros-cons/