Month: February 2012

When there is demand, companies will supply. The automotive industry thrives off of consumer’s wants and needs, not the other way around. The average consumer goes trough many decision-making factors when purchasing a car. For decades the concern was legroom, pick up, and looks. Today, with the spike in gas prices, the major factor consumers are banking on is gas mileage. Consumers want to avoid the gas pumps and not have to fill the tank. Just like in the 70’s with the spike in gas prices, consumers have made the move from heavy gas-guzzlers to light fuel-efficient cars. The automobile industry has always tailored the cars to the consumer; with the rising gas prices this is how they plan to handle the demand shift.

There are many ways for car manufacturers to create engines that can drive a few miles more on a gallon. Hybrids, electric cars, and alternate fuel engines are all hitting the scene. Primitive lunkers like the hummer are being pulled and put to rest. It is a new world of gas and energy conscious consumers.

A few companies have sought the wisdom of NASA to help produce an engine that will use the wasted heat energy during combustion. Only a certain amount of energy is used from every explosion in a combustion engine. There is a large amount of heat energy that radiates off the engine and is wasted. With the help of NASA and their knowledge of capturing and generating energy from heat expulsion, there will be more energy efficient machines on the road soon.

Obama just recently released the new upcoming requirement for car’s gas millage by 2020. Cars have hovered around 27.5 mpg for years, with this new requirement the new average will be 60mpg. This jump was made once in the 70’s and the car manufacturers were not pleased. This time around not a single voice has been spoken against this new requirement. The times are changing and the Automotive industry sees that.

 

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/02/18/automobile-industry-looks-to-space-to-improve-fuel-efficiency/

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/business/carmakers-back-strict-new-rules-for-gas-mileage.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2011-07-19-Raise-standard-to-60-mpg_n.htm

 

Dunken donuts may say America runs on Dunkens, but in fact it runs on 10,663,013,700 kilowatt hours a day. Everyday people flip on light switches, microwave something, watch tv, use the phone, and even right now writing these words uses electricity. Electricity is consumed, as it is demanded. Which means it is up to each individual’s daily electrical decisions that makes up how much energy is supplied.

For the energy to get to every house hold and person’s fingers electricity must first be produced and then sent through the power grid. Here the energy is distributed to the many transformers that convert the volts into usable energy. Every day the energy companies know the least amount of energy to produce to supply everyone with energy. This is called the base load. This is important because everyday there will be energy needed to support daily life.  But like the ocean there are points during the day in which energy usage is higher depending on the time/season/location. The highest point of energy usage is called peak usage time. This is important to be prepared for because if there is a large power surge the whole grid could get overused and crash.

For many people how electricity gets to their home or phone does not cross their minds. For big companies it is always a concern. Before long everyone will know where their energy is coming and appreciate it. As of right now the energy crisis is not on many peoples minds, but it will be.

To be productive and help lower the amount of energy people use they must pay attention to the demand response. Which is noticing when everyone is using, when during certain times of the day it is unnecessary, and how to conserve to prevent blackouts. This is very important for it creates a balance and consistency that can be lowered that will lower costs, prevent black outs, and to start making a change with the energy crisis.

What it means to follow a demand response program is to turn off lights when leaving the house, using air conditioners only when necessary, during peak usage hours decrease the amount of energy consumed, and to become conscience of irresponsible energy consumption. I feel if this is implemented we can lower the costs of energy, become more energy friendly, and prevent blackouts.

 

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/demand-response.htm

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/category/demand-response/

http://www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUC/energy/Demand+Response/

 

On march 11, 2011, a massive 9.0 earth quake hit off the eastern Japanese shore. Moments after the earthquake a series of Tsunamis hit killing more then 20,000 people. The problems for the Japanese did not stop there. As the earthquake hit all nuclear plants followed protocol and shut down the plants by dropping control rods into the fuel rods. The control rods absorb neutrons, which end the chain reaction of fission. All plants were shut down properly.

There was only one plant that had a “melt down” which was the Fukushima plant. This melt down was not due to faulty systems or human error but was due to the loss of 12 of the 13 generators pumping water in and out of the reactors. The tsunami took out the majority of the generators supplying power to the water pumps keeping the reactors fuel rods cool and in a stable state. Without the water-cooling the fuel rods broke spewing hot radioactive products uncontrollably within the steel casing creating a melt down. With the large amount of heat being expelled from these broken radioactive rods was so water began to be broken apart into hydrogen and oxygen. The explosion at one of the reactors was do to hydrogen explosion.

Teams of experts worked around the clock risking their lives to control the radiation and preventing further destruction of the reactors. The melt down forced 80,000 surrounding residents to relocate. It was the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl. This disaster left a bad taste about nuclear power in a lot of peoples mouths. The government down played the severity of the incident making people loose trust in the government, nuclear power, and the significant clean up that had to be done.

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24949

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/japan/index.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/30/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-disaster_n_1240907.html