Non Renewable
Traditional Energy Conventional Energy
Wood Coal Field Crops Oil Fecal Material Natural Gas Peat Nuclear What is Peat? -Peat is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter and is the first stage in the formation of coal -Peat forms in wetlands, variously called bogs, moors, muskegs, pocosins, mires, and swamps -It contains a large amount of water and must be dried before use -Historically, it has been used as a source of heat and burns with a long flame and considerable smoke Where Is Peat Mined? -Peat deposits are found in many places around the world, notably in Russia, Ireland, Finland, Scotland, Poland, northern Germany, the Netherlands and Scandinavia, and in North America -Approximately 60% of the world's wetlands have peat -Peat is mined as a fuel in Ireland and England -its stacked slowly to dry out |
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Oil?
-Conventional oil is currently abundant, has a high net energy yield, and is relatively inexpensive, but using it causes air and water pollution and releases greenhouse gases to the atmosphere -Heavy oils from oil sand and oil shale exist in potentially large supplies but have low net energy yields and higher environmental impacts than conventional oil has. Who controls the Oil Prices? -OPEC Controls Most of the World’s Oil Supplies -13 countries have at least 60% of the world’s crude oil reserves -Saudi Arabia: 25% -Canada: 15% -Oil production peaks and flow rates to consumers What are the Advantagesand Disadvantages of Conventional Oil? -Extraction, processing, and burning of nonrenewable oil and other fossil fuels -Advantages -Disadvantages What is Hydraulic Fracturing? -Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a technology used in drilling for oil and natural gas. |
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Natural Gas?
-Conventional natural gas is more plentiful than oil, has a high net energy yield and a fairly low cost, and has the lowest environmental impact of all fossil fuels. What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Coal? -Conventional coal is very plentiful and has a high net energy yield and low cost, but it has a very high environmental impact. -Gaseous and liquid fuels produced from coal could be plentiful, but they have lower net energy yields and higher environmental impacts than conventional coal has. What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Nuclear Energy? -Nuclear power has a low environmental impact and a very low accident risk, but high costs, a low net energy yield, long-lived radioactive wastes, vulnerability to sabotage, and the potential for spreading nuclear weapons technology have limited its use. How Does a Nuclear Fission Reactor Work? -Controlled nuclear fission reaction in a reactor -Light-water reactors •Fueled by uranium ore and packed as pellets in fuel rods and fuel assemblies •Control rods absorb neutrons |
How Does a Nuclear Fission Reactor Work?
-Water is the usual coolant -Containment shell around the core for protection -Water-filled pools or dry casks for storage of radioactive spent fuel rod assemblies What Is the Nuclear Fuel Cycle? -Mine the uranium -Process the uranium to make the fuel -Use it in the reactor -Safely store the radioactive waste -Decommission the reactor |
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Alternative Energy
U.S. Energy Consumption
-The four primary consumers of energy in the U.S. in 2007 were - Industrial 32% - Transportation 28% - Residential 22% - Commercial 18% -93% of the energy generated and used in the U.S. are from nonrenewable resources Alternative Energy Sources -World-wide, with the exception of coal, which has known reserves that will last a couple of centuries, the known reserves of oil are expected to be exhausted in your lifetime... -Clearly, alternative energy sources are needed for the future Examples: - Solar energy - Geothermal power - Hydropower - Tidal Power - Ocean thermal energy conversion - Wind energy - Biomass Solar Energy -The Sun is free (nobody owns or controls it) -In principle, the amount of solar energy that reaches the Earth’s surface could provide for all human energy needs forever -The distribution of solar energy over the continental U.S. in watts per square meter -The desert regions of the southwest U.S. receive the most sunlight -It produces no hazardous solid, liquid or gas wastes -It does not create water or air pollution -The two areas in which solar energy can make the greatest contribution are in space heating and in the generation of electricity -These are uses that account for two-thirds of U.S. energy consumption -0.5% of the U.S. power needs, but even with existing technology, it could provide up to 15% Solar Heating -The simplest approach to solar heating is passive-solar heating -The building design should allow the maximum amount of sunlight to stream in through south and west windows during the cooler months -Trees can be positioned to shade the house in summer -Wide eaves can shade windows in summer, but allow winter sunlight to enter -Drapes and shutters can insulate window areas in winter -It has been estimated that 40 to 90% of most homes’ heating requirements could be supplied by passive-solar heating systems -100% solar homes have been built, but such homes usually cost many tens of thousands of dollars more to build -Retrofitting older homes to be solar efficient can be too costly -Over insulation can aggravate indoor pollution Advantages of Solar Heating -its free, Quick installation, No CO2 emissions Very low air and water pollution. Disadvantages of Solar Heating -Need access to sun 60% of time, Environmental costs not included in market price. Geothermal Heat
-Even if the geothermal water is not as hot as steam, the warm water can be used to heat buildings, home and even greenhouses -This is routinely done in Russia and Iceland -In fact, using geothermal energy to heat is about 2-3 times as common as using it to create electricity Limitations -Each geothermal field can only be used for a period of time, a few decades, before heat extraction is seriously reduced -Simply put, you can take hot water out of the ground faster than it can be renewed even if you pump the water back into the ground -For example, steam pressure at The Geysers has declined rapidly over recent years -It peaked at over 2 billion watts by 1991, but now in 2011 produces about 0.7 billion watts Hydropower -One-third (33%) of all power plants in the U.S. are hydroelectric, but they only generate 6% of U.S. electricity needs -A cross-section of a typical hydroelectric dam -Water flows down the penstock, turns the turbine blades which power the generators -Water use for generating hydroelectric power is totally dependent on the available water -The Glen Canyon Dam in Utah is the classic example of building too big of dam for not enough water -Hydropower is a very clean, pollution-free, renewable energy source -The water is not consumed, but rather simply passes thru the generating equipment, and since several dams may occur along the same river, the water can be reused and reused -If every stream and river in America was dammed to generate power, you still only provide 20% of current U.S. power needs -There are about 1000 dams in the U.S. and there is very little prospect of building any new ones -In fact, some older dams have been removed, such as the 162 years old Edwards Dam in Maine Advantages of Hydropower: Moderate to high net energy, Low-cost electricity, Can provide flood control below dam Disadvantages of Hydropower: Environmental costs not included in market price, High environmental impact from flooding land to form a reservoir, High CO2 emissions from rapid biomass decay in shallow tropical reservoirs OTEC -Ocean energy thermal conversion (OTEC) is a new, clean technology that is still in the developmental stage -It exploits the temperature difference between warm surface water and the cold water at depth to run a “heat engine” -A heat engine is a device placed between a high temperature reservoir and a low temperature reservoir that produces energy -Either the warm water is used directly to run a turbine, or the heat is used to vaporize a working fluid (ammonia) which runs the turbine -The cold water is used to chill down the water or vapor -Drinkable, distilled fresh water is a by-product -The temperature difference must be at least 40oF (22oC) year round, which is only found near the equator -So this emerging technology is best for tropic islands -A test plant is currently being constructed at Keahole Pointe on the Kona coast of Hawaii and should become operational in 2013 Biomass Energy -Biomass energy is derived from organic matter -Stoves that burn wood are the classic example -In fact, there had been a 20-25% increase in the use of wood stoves over the past several decades -Biofuels differ from other renewable energy sources, such as wind, hydroelectric, geothermal and solar, as they are primarily used in the transportation sector and are derived from recently living matter, both plant and animal Advantages of Biodiesal: Reduced CO emissions, High net energy yield for oil palm crops, Better gas mileage Disadvantages of Biodiesal: Increased NOx emissions and more smog, Environmental costs not included in market price, Loss and degradation of biodiversity from crop plantations Ethanol Fuel -Ethanol fuel is a biofuel alternative to gasoline, which is gaining popularity world-wide -Car engines can be designed to run on 10%, 50% even 100% pure ethanol -Ethanol fuel mixtures have "E" numbers which describe the percentage of ethanol in the mixture by volume, for example, E85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline -Low ethanol blends, from E5 to E25, are also known as gasohol, though internationally the most common use of the term gasohol refers to the E10 blend -Automotive ethanol capabilities vary widely country to country, but most spark-ignited gasoline style engines will operate well with mixtures of up to 10% ethanol -Brazil is the world leader in ethanol fuels -In Brazil, ethanol-powered and flexible-fuel vehicles are manufactured to be capable of operation by burning hydrated ethanol, an azeotrope of 93% ethanol and 7% water -Ethanol fuel is produced from sugar cane in Brazil, which is a more efficient source of fermentable carbohydrates than corn as well as much easier to grow and process in the tropical climate Advantages of Ethanol fuel: Some reduction in CO2 emissions, High net energy yield, Can be sold as E85 or pure ethanol Disadvantages of Ethanol Fuel: Environmental costs not included in market price, May compete with growing food and raise food prices, Higher NOx emissions and more smog UT & Switchgrass -The UT Biofuels Initiative has started testing the use of switchgrass, which is believed to offer a greater ethanol yield than corn in a temperate climate, such as in Tennessee -The project represents the culmination of years of corporate research and development and a highly touted $40.7 million investment from the state of Tennessee to build a plant for demonstrating technology developed by DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol |
Solar Electricity
-Direct production of electricity using sunlight is accomplished using photovoltaic cells, also called solar cells -They have no moving parts and are “clean” energy -They are used to power the space station and to provide electricity in remote areas on Earth -A major limitation is cost, which greatly exceeds the cost of producing electricity using fossil fuels or nuclear power -The best solar cells are only 20% efficient and only provide 50 watts of electricity per square meter of cell size -A 100 watt light bulb would require 2 square meters of solar cells And a 100-megawatt power plant would require 2 square kilometers (0.78 square miles) of solar cells -This represents a major use of land and resource, which would use far more steel and concrete than a fossil fuel power plant How Do We Store Solar Electricity? -In a solar energy home, extra electricity is stored in batteries for later use -This work well for one house -Unfortunately, no wholly practical technology has been developed to store large amounts of electricity, despite advances in batteries -Some possible schemes for storing the energy of solar generated electricity include breaking up water into oxygen and hydrogen to burn later as fuels -Also pumping water to an elevated reservoir for later use as hydroelectric power generation -In summation, to make solar energy truly useful for large-scale power generation: -We need more efficient solar cells -We need a means of better storing electricity Geothermal Energy -Magma rising from the mantles brings unusually hot material near the surface -Heat from the magma, in turn, heats any groundwater -This is the basis for generating geothermal energy -The steam or hot water is used to create electricity or for heating Geothermal Power Plants -Worldwide, there are now about 40 geothermal power plants, especially in Japan, Mexico and the Philippines -most geothermal power plants are built along plate tectonic boundaries -How the geothermal energy is used depends on the temperature of the water -Three types of power plants are used to generate power from geothermal energy: - Dry steam - Flash - Binary What Are The Types of Geothermal Energy? -Dry steam plants take steam out of the ground and uses the steam to turn a turbine that spins a generator -This was first done in Italy in 1904 -Iceland, a volcanic island, has many geothermal areas that produce steam and are tapped to generate electricity -Flash plants take super heated water, usually at temperatures over 200°C, out of the ground, allowing it to boil as it rises to the surface, then separates the steam from the water and uses the steam to turn a turbine generator -In binary plants, the hot water flows through heat exchangers, boiling an organic fluid that spins the turbine -For all three types of power plants, the condensed steam and remaining geothermal fluid are injected back into the hot rock to pick up more heat -This is why geothermal energy is viewed as sustainable -The largest U.S. geothermal power plant is The Geysers in California Three Gorges Dam
-is now the largest hydroelectric dam in the world -is 5 times larger than the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River -The dam is 185 meters (600 feet) high and 2.3 kilometers (1.4 miles) wide -It has 26 hydroelectric power generators with a collective generating capacity of about 18,000 megawatts (the average nuclear power plant generates about 1000 megawatts) -As with any engineering project of great magnitude, there are serious problems -The reservoir will eventually stretch over 600 kilometers (375 miles) in length -It will submerge 125,000 acres of prime farmland -1,900,000 people were forced to relocate, many against their will -Entire cities have been abandoned -Over 1200 historic areas are being flooded -Three spectacular river gorges called Qutang, Wuxia and Xiling, all worthy of being national parks, have been flooded -Officials report that the cost is within its US$25 billion budget and insisted early on that the project would pay for itself through electricity generation -However, the project is thought to have cost more than any other single construction project in modern China, with unofficial estimates of US$100 billion or more Tidal Power -All large bodies of water, including the oceans and large lakes, have tides -Tidal power captures the energy contained in moving water mass due to tides -Two types of tidal energy can be extracted: -Kinetic energy of currents between ebbing and surging tides -Potential energy from the difference in height (or head) between high and low tides -You can use the flowing water between low and high tides to generate electricity, similar to hydropower -Turbines can be place on the ocean floor, for example at the entrance of a bay, where the flowing water can turn the fan to generate electricity -Another option is to use under water turbines, which is like an underwater wind farm -This is currently being tested offshore of Scotland’s Orkney Islands -The ebbing and surging tidal flows turn 100 foot propellers, which each produce 1 megawatts of electricity Wind Energy -Wind energy has been utilized for thousands of years -The wind is free, commonly available and can provide clean, pollution-free energy -Today’s wind-turbines are very high tech -In most places, the cost of commercial wind power on a large scale is not now economically competitive with conventionally generated electricity -One important factor is that with a doubling of wind speed, power output increases by a factor of 8 -The numbers indicate the percentage of 1990 regional electricity demand that full utilization of wind energy could meet -Clearly, the great plains have significant wind energy potential -The U.S. remains the world leader in wind energy, but Europe has embarked on an very ambitious wind-power development program -It is predicted that by 2030, wind energy will supply at least twice the electricity it does now Wind Energy Limitations -It would take about 1000 one-million watt windmills to equal the energy output of one sizable fossil fuel power plant -The windmills can be noisy -And they are hard on migrating birds Advantages of Wind Power: Moderate to high net energy yield, Low electricity cost (and falling), Land below turbines can be used to grow crops or graze livestock Disadvantages of Wind Power: Steady winds needed, Plastic components produced from oil, Can kill birds and interfere with flights of migratory birds Gasohol -E10 gasohol is becoming more commonly found at gas stations in the U.S. (Tennessee is way behind) -As the “10” indicates it is made from a mixture of gasoline (90%) and ethanol (10%) -Gasohol has higher octane, or antiknock, properties than gasoline and burns more slowly, more cooler, and more completely, resulting in reduced emissions of some pollutants Alternative Energy Sources -Most of the world still relies very heavily on fossil fuels, but slowly but surely, attention is being diverted to alternative energy -Energy use in the future will not be dominated by a single source -The most important aspects of most alternative energy sources is that they promise clean, pollution-free energy |
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The renewable game I used wind, solar, tidal, hydro, amd geothermal. It took 2 windmills and 2 tidal turbines and 1 solar panel to have 100%
Cool Facts:
1. Inside the tidal turbines, the rotor blades connect to a gearbox.
2. Solar panels are also known as photovoltaic cells.
3. Hydroelectric energy uses the water trapped in dams and gravities force to create the power.
4. The dam traps water in the area called the resevoir.
5.Wind turbines must have a rotor, a gearbox, and a generator.
Cool Facts:
1. Inside the tidal turbines, the rotor blades connect to a gearbox.
2. Solar panels are also known as photovoltaic cells.
3. Hydroelectric energy uses the water trapped in dams and gravities force to create the power.
4. The dam traps water in the area called the resevoir.
5.Wind turbines must have a rotor, a gearbox, and a generator.