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Energy also can be measured in joules. Joules sounds exactly like the word
jewels, as in diamonds and emeralds. A thousand joules is equal to a
British thermal unit.
1,000 joules = 1 Btu
So, it would take 2 million joules to make a pot of coffee.
The term "joule" is named after an English scientist James Prescott
Joule who lived from 1818 to 1889. He discovered that heat is a type of
energy.
One joule is the amount of energy needed to lift
something weighing one pound to a height of nine
inches. So, if you lifted a five-pound sack of sugar
from the floor to the top of a counter (27 inches), you
would use about 15 joules of energy.
Around the world, scientists measure energy in joules
rather than Btus. It's much like people around the
world using the metric system of meters and
kilograms, instead of the English system of feet and
pounds.
Like in the metric system, you can have kilojoules "kilo" means 1,000.
1,000 joules = 1 kilojoule = 1 Btu
A piece of buttered toast contains about 315 kilojoules (315,000 joules) of
energy. With that energy you could:
Heat is a form of energy. We use it for a lot of things, like warming our
homes and cooking our food.
Heat energy moves in three ways:
1. Conduction
2. Convection
3. Radiation
Conduction occurs when energy is passed directly from one item to
another. If you stirred a pan of soup on the stove with a metal spoon, the
spoon will heat up. The heat is being conducted from the hot area of the
soup to the colder area of spoon.
Metals are excellent conductors of heat energy. Wood or plastics are not.
These "bad" conductors are called insulators. That's why a pan is usually
made of metal while the handle is
made of a strong plastic.
Convection is the movement of gases or liquids from a cooler spot to a
warmer spot. If a soup pan is made of glass, we could see the movement
of convection currents in the pan. The warmer soup moves up from the
heated area at the bottom of the pan to the top where it is cooler. The
cooler soup then moves to take the warmer soup's place. The movement
is in a circular pattern within the pan (see picture above).
The wind we feel outside is often the result of convection currents. You can
understand this by the winds you feel near an ocean. Warm air is lighter
than cold air and so it rises. During the daytime, cool air over water moves
to replace the air rising up as the land warms the air over it. During the
nighttime, the directions change the surface of the water is
sometimes warmer and the land is
cooler.
radiation. So you would be cooler if you wear light or white clothes in the
summer.
Electrons can be made to move from one atom to another. When those
electrons move between the atoms, a current of electricity is created. The
electrons move from one atom to another in a "flow." One electron is
attached and another electron is lost.
This chain is similar to the fire fighter's bucket brigades in olden times. But
instead of passing one bucket from the start of the line of people to the
other end, each person would have a bucket of water to pour from one
bucket to another. The result was a lot of spilled water and not enough
water to douse the fire. It is a situation that's very similar to electricity
passing along a wire and a circuit. The charge is passed from atom to
atom when electricity is "passed."
Scientists and engineers have learned many ways to move electrons off of
atoms. That means that when you add up the electrons and protons, you
would wind up with one more proton instead of being balanced.
Since all atoms want to be balanced, the atom that has been "unbalanced"
will look for a free electron to fill the place of the missing one. We say that
this unbalanced atom has a "positive charge" (+) because it has too many
protons.
Since it got kicked off, the free electron moves around waiting for an
unbalanced atom to give it a home. The free electron charge is negative,
and has no proton to balance it out, so we say that it has a "negative
charge" (-).
So what do positive and negative charges have to do with electricity?
Scientists and engineers have found several ways to create large numbers
of positive atoms and free negative electrons. Since positive atoms want
negative electrons so they can be balanced, they have a strong attraction
for the electrons. The electrons also want to be part of a balanced atom,
so they have a strong attraction to the positive atoms. So, the positive
attracts the negative to balance out.
The more positive atoms or negative electrons you have, the stronger the
attraction for the other. Since we have both positive and negative charged
groups attracted to each other, we call the total attraction "charge."
Energy also can be measured in joules. Joules sounds exactly like the word
jewels, as in diamonds and emeralds. A thousand joules is equal to a
British thermal unit.
When electrons move among the atoms of matter, a current of electricity
is created. This is what happens in a piece of wire. The electrons are
passed from atom to atom, creating an electrical current from one end to
other, just like in the picture.
Electricity is conducted through some things better than others do. Its
resistance measures how well something conducts electricity. Some things
hold their electrons very tightly. Electrons do not move through them very
well. These things are called insulators. Rubber, plastic, cloth, glass and
dry air are good insulators and have very high resistance.
Other materials have some loosely held electrons, which move through
them very easily. These are called conductors. Most metals like copper,
aluminum or steel are good conductors.
Where Does the Word 'Electricity' Come From?
Electrons, electricity, electronic and other words that begin with "electr..."
all originate from the Greek word "elektor," meaning "beaming sun." In
Greek, "elektron" is the word for amber.
Amber is a very pretty goldish brown "stone" that sparkles orange and
yellow in sunlight. Amber is actually fossilized tree sap! It's the stuff used
in the movie "Jurassic Park." Millions of years ago insects got stuck in the
tree sap. Small insects which had bitten the dinosaurs, had blood with DNA
from the dinosaurs in the insect's bodies, which were now fossilized in the
amber.
Ancient Greeks discovered that amber behaved oddly - like attracting
feathers - when rubbed by fur or other objects. They didn't know what it
was that caused this phenomenon. But the Greeks had discovered one of
the first examples of static electricity (see Chapter 3).
The Latin word, electricus, means to "produce from amber by friction."
So, we get our English word electricity from Greek and Latin words that
were about amber.
Gilbert said that amber acquired what he called "resinous electricity" when
rubbed with fur. Glass, however, when rubbed with silk, acquired what he
termed "vitreous electricity."
He thought that electricity repeled the same kind and attracts the
opposite kind of electricity. Gilbert and other scientists of that time
thought that the friction actually created the electricity (their word for the
electrical charge).
In 1747, Benjamin Franklin in America and William Watson in England both
reached the same conclusion. They said all materials possess a single kind
of electrical "fluid." They didn't really know anything about atoms and
electrons, so they called how it behaved a "fluid."
They thought that this fluid can penetrate matter freely and couldn't be
created or destroyed. The two men thought that the action of rubbing (like
rubbing amber with fur) moves this unseen fluid from one thing to
another, electrifying both.
Franklin defined the fluid as positive and the lack of fluid as negative.
Therefore, according to Franklin, the direction of flow was from positive to
negative. Today, we know that the opposite is true. Electricity flows from
negative to positive. Others took the idea even further saying this that two
fluids are involved. They said items with the same fluid attract each other.
And opposite types of fluid in objects will make them repel each other.
All of this was only partially right. This is how scientific theories develop.
Someone thinks of why something occurs and then proposes an
explanation. It can take centuries sometime to find the real truth. Instead
of electricity being a fluid, it is the movement of the charged particles
between the objects... the two objects are really exchanging electrons.
Chapter 4: Circuits
Electrons with a negative charge, can't "jump" through the air to a
positively charged atom. They have to wait until there is a link or bridge
between the negative area and the positive area. We usually call this
bridge a "circuit."
When a bridge is created, the electrons begin moving quickly. Depending
on the resistance of the material making up the bridge, they try to get
across as fast as they can. If you're not careful, too many electrons can go
across at one time and destroy the "bridge" or the circuit, in the process.
In Chapter 3, we learned about electrons and the attraction between
positive and negative charges. We also learned that we can create a
bridge called a "circuit" between the charges.
We can limit the number of electrons crossing over the "circuit," by letting
only a certain number through at a time. And we can make electricity do
something for us while they are on their way. For example, we can "make"
the electrons "heat" a filament in a bulb, causing it to glow and give off
light.
When we limit the number of electrons that can cross over our circuit, we
say we are giving it "resistance". We "resist" letting all the electrons
through. This works something like a tollbooth on a freeway bridge.
Copper wire is just one type of bridge we use in circuits.
Before electrons can move far, however, they can collide with one of the
atoms along the way. This slows them down or even reverses their
direction. As a result, they lose energy to the atoms. This energy appears
as heat, and the scattering is a resistance to the current.
Think of the bridge as a garden hose. The current of electricity is the water
flowing in the hose and the water pressure is the voltage of a circuit. The
diameter of the hose is the determining factor for the resistance.
Current refers to the movement of charges. In an electrical circuit
electrons move from the negative pole to the positive. If you connected
the positive pole of an electrical source to the negative pole, you create a
circuit. This charge changes into electrical energy when the poles are
Take the block of wood and stick one thumb tack in.
Push the other thumbtack through the thin piece of flat metal.
Push the thumb tack into the wood so that the piece of metal can
touch the other thumb tack (see picture).
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Since no one wants to remember such a big number, that big number is
called a "coulomb," after the scientist Charles A Coulomb who helped
discover what a current of electricity is.
The amount of charge between the sides of the circuit is called "voltage."
We measure Voltage in Volts. The word volt is named after another
scientist, Alexader Volta, who built the world's first battery.
You'll remember that back in Chapter 1, we defined energy as the "ability
to do work."
Well, one volt is defined as the amount of electrical charge needed to
make one Coulomb (625,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrons) do one a
specific amount of work which is labeled one joule.
Joule is also named after a scientist, James Prescott Joule. Do you
remember him from Chapter 2?
Voltage, Current and Resistance are very important to circuits. If either
voltage or current is too big you could break the circuit. But if either is too
small, the circuit will not be able to work enough to be useful to us. In the
same way, if the resistance is too big none of the electrons would be able
to get though at all, but if it were too small, they would rush though all at
once breaking the circuit on their way.
An Electrical Circuit
(From humorist Dave Barry's book Dave Barry in Cyberspace)
"Electricity is supplied by the wall socket, which is in turn connected to the
electrical company via big overhead wires with squirrels running on them.
"A question many people ask ... is, 'How come the squirrels don't get
electrocuted?' To answer that question, we need to understand exactly
what an electrical circuit is.
"When you turn on a switch, electricity flows through the wire into the
appliance, where it is converted via a process called electrolysis into tiny
microwaves. These fly around inside the oven area until they locate the
Hungry Hombre Heat 'n' Eat Hearty Burrito entree; they then signal the
location to each other by slapping their tails in a distinctive pattern. The
workers, or drones, then ... swarm around the queen; this causes the rapid
warming that makes the entree edible and leads via amino acids, to
digestion.
"This is followed by grunting and flushing, with the outflow traveling via
underground pipes to the sewage treatment plant, which in turn releases
purified water into the river, where it is used to form waterfalls, which
rotate the giant turbines that produce the electricity that flows through
wires back to your appliance, thereby completing the circuit.
"So we see that squirrels have nothing whatsoever to do with it. There is
no need for you to worry about squirrels; believe me, they are not
worrying about you."
If we were to set up another circuit next to the first one, we would have
two circuits between the charges. We call these "parallel circuits" because
they run parallel to each other. You can have as many parallel circuits as
you want. Parallel circuits share the same voltage, but they allow more
paths for the electricity to go over. This means that the total number of
electrons that can get across (the current) can increase, without breaking
either circuit.
Electric Motors
An electric motor uses circuits wound round and round. These
wound circuits are suspended between magnets. (We send a 'thank
you' toHow Stuff Works Website for their electric motor graphic.)
The motor is set up in a way that attraction and repulsion spins the center
section with the coiled wire.
series of pipes with water running through them. The heat energy is
conducted into the metal pipes, heating the water in the pipes until it boils
into steam. Water boils into steam at 212 degrees Fahrenheit or 100
degrees Celsius.
The top picture on the right is of a small power plant located at Michigan
State University. The black area to the left of the power plant is coal, the
energy source that is burned to heat the water in the boilers of this plant.
In the second picture to the left, you'll see the turbine and generator at
MSU's power plant. The big pipe on the left side is the steam inlet. On the
right side of the turbine is where the steam comes out. The steam is fed
under high pressure to the turbine. The turbine spins and its shaft is
connected to a turbogenerator that changes the mechanical spinning
energy into electricity.
The third picture on the right is of the turbine fan before it is placed
inside the turbine housing. You can see a close-up of the turbine blades on
the fourth picture. The turbine has many hundreds of blades that are
turned at an angle like the blades of a fan. When the steam hits the blades
they spin the turbine's shaft that is attached to the bottom of the blades.
After the steam goes through the turbine, it usually goes to a cooling
tower outside the where the steam cools off. It cools off and becomes
water again. When the hot pipes come into contact with cool air, some
water vapor in the air is heated and steam is given off above the cooling
towers. That's why you see huge white clouds sometimes being given off
by the cooling towers. It's not smoke, but is water vapor or steam. This is
not the same steam that is used inside the turbine.
The cooled water then goes back into the boiler where it is heated
again and the process repeats over and over.
Most power plants in California use cleaner-burning natural gas to produce
electricity. Others use oil or coal to heat the water. Nuclear power plants
use nuclear energy to heat water to make electricity. Still others, called
geothermal power plants, use steam or hot water found naturally below
the earth's surface without burning a fuel. We'll learn about those energy
sources in the next few chapters.
How the Generator Works
The turbine is attached by a shaft to the turbogenerator. The generator
has a long, coiled wire on its shaft surrounded by a giant magnet. You can
see the inside of the generator coil with all its wires in the picture on the
right.
The shaft that comes out of the turbine is connected to the generator.
When the turbine turns, the shaft and rotor is turned. As the shaft inside
the generator turns, an electric current is produced in the wire. The
electric generator is converting mechanical, moving energy into electrical
energy.
As the trees and plants died, they sank to the bottom of the swamps of
oceans. They formed layers of a spongy material called peat. Over many
hundreds of years, the peat was covered by sand and clay and other
minerals, which turned into a type of rock called sedimentary.
More and more rock piled on top of more rock, and it weighed more and
more. It began to press down on the peat. The peat was squeezed and
squeezed until the water came out of it and it eventually, over millions of
years, it turned into coal, oil or petroleum, and natural gas.
Coal
Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon,
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and varying amounts of sulphur. There are
three main types of coal anthracite, bituminous and lignite. Anthracite
coal is the hardest and has more carbon, which gives it a higher energy
content. Lignite is the softest and is low in carbon but high in hydrogen
and oxygen content. Bituminous is in between. Today, the precursor to
coalpeatis still found in many countries and is also used as an energy
source.
The earliest known use of coal was in China. Coal from the Fu-shun
mine in northeastern China may have been used to smelt copper as early
as 3,000 years ago. The Chinese thought coal was a stone that could burn.
Coal is found in many of the lower 48 states of U.S. and throughout the
rest of the world. Coal is mined out of the ground using various methods.
Some coal mines are dug by sinking vertical or horizontal shafts deep
under ground, and coal miners travel by elevators or trains deep under
ground to dig the coal. Other coal is mined in strip mines where huge
steam shovels strip away the top layers above the coal. The layers are
then restored after the coal is taken away.
The coal is then shipped by train and boats and even in pipelines. In
pipelines, the coal is ground up and mixed with water to make what's
called a slurry. This is then pumped many miles through pipelines. At the
other end, the coal is used to fuel power plants and other factories.
Oil or Petroleum
Oil is another fossil fuel. It was also formed more than 300 million years
ago. Some scientists say that tiny diatoms are the source of oil. Diatoms
are sea creatures the size of a pin head. They do one thing just like plants;
they can convert sunlight directly into stored energy.
In the graphic on the left, as the diatoms died they fell to the sea floor
(1). Here they were buried under sediment and other rock (2). The rock
squeezed the diatoms and the energy in their bodies could not escape.
The carbon eventually turned into oil under great pressure and heat. As
the earth changed and moved and folded, pockets where oil and natural
gas can be found were formed (3).
Oil has been used for more than 5,000-6,000 years. The ancient
Sumerians, Assyrians and Babylonians used crude oil and asphalt ("pitch")
collected from large seeps at Tuttul (modern-day Hit) on the Euphrates
River. A seep is a place on the ground where the oil leaks up from below
ground. The ancient Egyptians, used liquid oil as a medicine for wounds,
and oil has been used in lamps to provide light.
The Dead Sea, near the modern Country of Israel, used to be called Lake
Asphaltites. The word asphalt was derived is from that term because of
the lumps of gooey petroleum that were washed up on the lake shores
from underwater seeps.
In North America, Native Americans used blankets to skim oil off the
surface of streams and lakes. They used oil as medicine and to make
canoes water-proof. During the Revolutionary War, Native Americans
taught George Washington's troops how to treat frostbite with oil.
As our country grew, the demand for oil continued to increase as a fuel for
lamps. Petroleum oil began to replace whale oil in lamps because the price
for whale oil was very high. During this time, most petroleum oil came
from distilling coal into a liquid or by skimming it off of lakes just as the
Native Americans did.
Then on August 27, 1859, Edwin L. Drake (the man standing on the
right in the black and white picture to the right), struck liquid oil at his well
near Titusville, Pennsylvania. He found oil under ground and a way that
could pump it to the surface. The well pumped the oil into barrels made
out of wood. This method of drilling for oil is still being used today all over
the world in areas where oil can be found below the surface.
Oil and natural gas are found under ground between folds of rock and in
areas of rock that are porous and contain the oils within the rock itself. The
folds of rock were formed as the earth shifts and moves. It's similar to how
a small, throw carpet will bunch up in places on the floor.
To find oil and natural gas, companies drill through the earth to the
deposits deep below the surface. The oil and natural gas are then pumped
from below the ground by oil rigs (like in the picture). They then usually
travel through pipelines or by ship.
Oil is found in 18 of the 58 counties in California. Kern County, the County
where Bakersfield is found, is one of the largest oil production places in the
country. But we only get one-half of our oil from California wells. The rest
comes from Alaska, and an increasing amount comes from other countries.
In the entire U.S., more than 50 percent of all the oil we use comes from
outside the country... most of it from the Middle East.
Oil is brought to California by large tanker ships. The petroleum or
crude oil must be changed or refined into other products before it can be
used.
Refineries
Natural Gas
Sometime between 6,000 to 2,000 years BCE (Before the Common Era),
the first discoveries of natural gas seeps were made in Iran. Many early
Biomass can also be tapped right at the landfill with burning waster
products. When garbage decomposes, it gives off methane gas. You'll
remember in chapters 8 and 9 that natural gas is made up of methane.
Pipelines are put into the landfills and the methane gas can be collected. It
is then used in power plants to make electricity. This type of biomass is
called landfill gas.
A similar thing can be done at animal feed lots. In places where lots of
animals are raised, the animals - like cattle, cows and even chickens produce manure. When manure decomposes, it also gives off methane gas
similar to garbage. This gas can be burned right at the farm to make
energy to run the farm.
Using biomass can help reduce global warming compared to a fossil fuelpowered plant. Plants use and store carbon dioxide (CO2) when they grow.
CO2 stored in the plant is released when the plant material is burned or
decays. By replanting the crops, the new plants can use the CO2 produced
by the burned plants. So using biomass and replanting helps close the
carbon dioxide cycle. However, if the crops are not replanted, then
biomass can emit carbon dioxide that will contribute toward global
warming.
So, the use of biomass can be environmentally friendly because the
biomass is reduced, recycled and then reused. It is also a renewable
resource because plants to make biomass can be grown over and over.
Today, new ways of using biomass are still being discovered. One way is to
produce ethanol, a liquid alcohol fuel. Ethanol can be used in special types
of cars that are made for using alcohol fuel instead of gasoline. The
alcohol can also be combined with gasoline. This reduces our dependence
on oil a non-renewable fossil fuel.
You can see the pipes running in front of the geothermal power plant in
the picture. This power plant is Geysers Unit # 18 located in the Geysers
Geothermal area of California.
A geothermal power plant is like in a regular power plant except that no
fuel is burned to heat water into steam. The steam or hot water in a
geothermal power plant is heated by the earth. It goes into a special
turbine. The turbine blades spin and the shaft from the turbine is
connected to a generator to make electricity. The steam then gets cooled
off in a cooling tower.
The white "smoke" rising from the plants in the photograph above is not
smoke. It is steam given off in the cooling process. The cooled water can
then be pumped back below ground to be reheated by the earth.
Here's a cut-away showing the inside of the power plant. The hot water
flows into turbine and out of the turbine. The turn turns the generator, and
the electricity goes out to the transformer and then to the huge
transmission wires that link the power plants to our homes, school and
businesses. We learned about transmission lines in Chapter 7.
Though it gets much hotter as we go deep below ground, the upper layer
of the earth close to the surface is not very hot.
Almost everywhere across the entire planet, the upper 10 feet below
ground level stays the same temperature, between 50 and 60 degrees
Fahrenheit (10 and 16 degrees C). If you've ever been in a basement of a
building or in a cavern below ground, the temperature of the area is
almost always cool.
A geothermal or ground source heat pump system can use that constant
temperature to heat or cool a building. Pipes are buried in the ground near
the building. Inside these pipes a fluid, like the antifreeze in a car radiator,
is circulated.
In winter, heat from the warmer ground goes through the heat exchanger
of a heat pump, which sends warm air into the home or business. During
hot weather, the process is reversed. Hot air from inside the building goes
through the heat exchanger and the heat is passed into the relatively
cooler ground. Heat removed during the summer can also be used to heat
water.
For another FLASH "movie" about how ground source heat pumps work, go
to the GeoExchange website
at: http://www.ghpc.org/about/movie.htm.
The water behind the dam flows through the intake and into a pipe called
a penstock. The water pushes against blades in a turbine, causing them to
turn. The turbine is similar to the kind used in a power plant that we
learned about in Chapter 6. But instead of using steam to turn the
turbine, water is used.
The turbine spins a generator to produce electricity. The electricity can
then travel over long distance electric lines to your home, to your school,
to factories and businesses.
Hydro power today can be found in the mountainous areas of states where
there are lakes and reservoirs and along rivers.
Please note that some web browser software may not show an exponent
(raising something to a power, a mathematical expression) on the
Internet. Normally c-squared is shown with a smaller "2" placed above and
to the right of the c.
Scientists used Einstein's famous equation as the key to unlock atomic
energy and also create atomic bombs.
The ancient Greeks said the smallest part of nature is an atom. But they
did not know 2,000 years ago about nature's even smaller parts.
As we learned in chapter 2, atoms are made up of smaller particles -- a
nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by electrons which swirl
around the nucleus much like the earth revolves around the sun.
Nuclear Fission
An atom's nucleus can be split apart. When this is done, a tremendous
amount of energy is released. The energy is both heat and light energy.
Einstein said that a very small amount of matter contains a very LARGE
amount of energy. This energy, when let out slowly, can be harnessed to
generate electricity. When it is let out all at once, it can make a
tremendous explosion in an atomic bomb.
A nuclear power plant (like Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant shown below)
uses uranium as a "fuel." Uranium is an element that is dug out of the
ground many places around the world. It is processed into tiny pellets that
are loaded into very long rods that are put into the power plant's reactor.
The word fission means to split apart. Inside the reactor of an atomic
power plant, uranium atoms are split apart in a controlled chain reaction.
In a chain reaction, particles released by the splitting of the atom go off
and strike other uranium atoms splitting those. Those particles given off
split still other atoms in a chain reaction. In nuclear power plants, control
rods are used to keep the splitting regulated
so it doesn't go too fast.
If the reaction is not controlled, you could have an atomic bomb. But in
atomic bombs, almost pure pieces of the element Uranium-235 or
Plutonium, of a precise mass and shape, must be brought together and
held together, with great force. These conditions are not present in a
nuclear reactor.
The reaction also creates radioactive material. This material could hurt
people if released, so it is kept in a solid form. The very strong concrete
dome in the picture is designed to keep this material inside if an accident
happens.
This chain reaction gives off heat energy. This heat energy is used to boil
water in the core of the reactor. So, instead of burning a fuel, nuclear
power plants use the chain reaction of atoms splitting to change the
energy of atoms into heat energy.
Most wave-energy systems are very small. But, they can be used to power
a warning buoy or a small light house.
Tidal Energy
Another form of ocean energy is called tidal energy. When tides comes into
the shore, they can be trapped in reservoirs behind dams. Then when the
tide drops, the water behind the dam can be let out just like in a regular
hydroelectric power plant.
Tidal energy has been used since about the 11th Century, when small
dams were built along ocean estuaries and small streams. the tidal water
behind these dams was used to turn water wheels to mill grains.
In order for tidal energy to work well, you need large increases in tides. An
increase of at least 16 feet between low tide to high tide is needed. There
are only a few places where this tide change occurs around the earth.
Some power plants are already operating using this idea. One plant in
France makes enough energy from tides (240 megawatts) to power
240,000 homes.
This facility is called the La Rance Station in France. It began making
electricity in 1966. It produces about one fifth of a regular nuclear or coalfired power plant. It is more than 10 times the power of the next largest
tidal station in the world, the 17 megawatt Canadian Annapolis station.
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC)
The idea is not new. Using the temperature of water to make energy
actually dates back to 1881 when a French Engineer by the name of
Jacques D'Arsonval first thought of OTEC. The final ocean energy idea uses
temperature differences in the ocean. If you ever went swimming in the
ocean and dove deep below the surface, you would have noticed that the
water gets colder the deeper you go. It's warmer on the surface because
sunlight warms the water. But below the surface, the ocean gets very cold.
That's why scuba divers wear wet suits when they dive down deep. Their
wet suits trapped their body heat to keep them warm.
Power plants can be built that use this difference in temperature to make
energy. A difference of at least 38 degrees Fahrenheit is needed between
the warmer surface water and the colder deep ocean water.
Using this type of energy source is called Ocean Thermal Energy
Conversion or OTEC. It is being demonstrated in Hawaii. More info on OTEC
can be found on the archive pages for the Natural Energy Laboratory of
Hawaii at:www.hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/otec-nelha/otec.html
the children at this Iowa school are playing beneath a wind turbine that
makes enough electricity to power their entire school.
We have many windy areas in California. And wind is blowing in many
places all over the earth. The only problem with wind is that it is not windy
all the time. In California, it is usually windier during the summer months
when wind rushes inland from cooler areas, like the ocean to replace hot
rising air in California's warm central valleys and deserts.
In order for a wind turbine to work efficiently, wind speeds usually must be
above 12 to 14 miles per hour. Wind has to be this speed to turn the
turbines fast enough to generate electricity. The turbines usually produce
about 50 to 300 kilowatts of electricity each. A kilowatt is 1,000 watts (kilo
means 1,000). You can light ten 100 watt light bulbs with 1,000 watts. So,
a 300 kilowatt (300,000 watts) wind turbine could light up 3,000 light
bulbs that use 100 watts!
As of 1999, there were 11,368 wind turbines in California. These turbines
are grouped together in what are called wind "farms," like those in Palm
Springs in the picture on the right. These wind farms are located mostly in
the three windiest areas of the state:
today. And ethanol fuel costs have plummeted from $4 per gallon in the
early 1980s to $1.20 today.
But there are also drawbacks to renewable energy development.
For example, solar thermal energy involving the collection of solar rays
through collectors (often times huge mirrors) need large tracts of land as a
collection site. This impacts the natural habitat, meaning the plants and
animals that live there. The environment is also impacted when the
buildings, roads, transmission lines and transformers are built. The fluid
most often used with solar thermal electric generation is very toxic and
spills can happen.
Solar or PV cells use the same technologies as the production of silicon
chips for computers. The manufacturing process uses toxic chemicals.
Toxic chemicals are also used in making batteries to store solar electricity
through the night and on cloudy days.. Manufacturing this equipment has
environmental impacts.
Also, even if we wanted to switch to solar energy right away, we still have
a big problem. All the solar production facilities in the entire world only
make enough solar cells to produce about 350 megawatts, about enough
for a city of 300,000 people. that's a drop in the bucket compared to our
needs. California alone needs about 55,000 megawatts of electricity on a
sunny, hot summer day. And the cost of producing that much electricity
would be about four times more expensive than a regular natural gas-fired
power plant.
So, even though the renewable power plant doesn't release air pollution or
use precious fossil fuels, it still has an impact on the environment.
Wind power development too, has its downside, mostly involving land use.
The average wind farm requires 17 acres of land to produce one megawatt
of electricity, about enough electricity for 750 to 1,000 homes. However,
farms and cattle grazing can use the same land under the wind turbines.
Wind farms could cause erosion in desert areas. Most often, winds farms
affect the natural view because they tend to be located on or just below
ridgelines. Bird deaths also occur due to collisions with wind turbines and
associated wires. This issue is the subject of on-going research.
Producing geothermal electricity from the earth's crust tends to be
localized. That means facilities have to be built where geothermal energy
is abundant. There are several geothermal resource locations in California.
The Geysers area north of San Francisco is an example. In the course of
geothermal production, steam coming from the ground becomes very
caustic at times, causing pipes to corrode and fall apart. Geothermal
power plants sometimes cost a little bit more than a gas-fired power plant
because they have to include the cost to drill.
Environmental concerns are associated with dams to produce
hydroelectric power. People are displaced and prime farmland and forests
are lost in the flooded areas above dams. Downstream, dams change the
chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the river and land.
Unlike fossil fuels, which dirties the atmosphere, renewable energy has
less impact on the environment Renewable energy production has some
drawbacks, mainly associated with the use of large of tracts of land that
affects animal habitats and outdoor scenery. Renewable energy
development will result in jobs and less oil imported from foreign
countries.
Note: For those working on a school assignment comparing renewable vs.
non-renewable energy, we'd suggest creating a Pro and Con list for each
energy source. That will give you a a way to compare the various energy
resources.
Burning gasoline, however, creates air pollution. That's why oil companies
are creating newer types of gasoline that are cleaner than the kind we use
today. Beginning in 1996, all the gasoline sold in California will be this
newer, cleaner type called "reformulated gasoline." The main ingredient in
that gas, however, MTBE was found to hurt water supplies if it leaked. So,
that additive is being removed by 2005.
Another concern about using oil for transportation is that a lot of oil used
comes form the Middle East. This makes the U.S. very vulnerable if there is
political unrest. During the 1970s, Americans saw long lines at the gas
pumps because oil from the Middle East was turned off by the Oil
Producing Exposting Countries - OPEC. And we're in in worse shape in
2002 because we're importing more and more oil form the Middle East
than ever before.
Because of concerns about air pollution and petroleum-dependence, new
clean-burning fuels made from fuels other than oil are being introduced.
These fuels include methanol, ethanol, natural gas, propane and even
electricity. The car on the right uses methanol, the same fuel used in
Indianapolis Speedway race cars.
All these fuels are called alternative fuels
because they are an alternative to gasoline and diesel. Cars and trucks
that use them are called Alternative Fuel Vehicles or AFVs.
Right now, there are only a small number of cars and trucks that are
running on fuels other than gasoline and diesel. Energy officials hope,
however, that one-quarter of all the vehicles will run on alternative fuels
by the year 2025.
For more on alternative fuel vehicles, we have a whole section on Energy
Quest. Go to our Transportation Section.
Recycling
To make all of our newspapers, aluminum cans, plastic bottles and other
goods takes lots of energy.
Recycling these items grinding them up
and reusing the material again uses less energy than it takes to make
them from brand new, raw material.
So, we must all recycle as much as we can.
We can also save energy in our cars and trucks.
Make sure the tires are properly inflated.
A car that is tuned up, has clean air and oil filters, and is running right will
use less gasoline.
Don't over-load a car. For every extra 100 pounds, you cut your mileage by
one mile per gallon.
When your parents buy a new car, tell them to compare the fuel efficiency
of different models and buy a car that gets higher miles per gallon.
You can also save energy in your school.
Each week you can choose an energy monitor who will make sure energy
is being used properly.
The energy monitor will turn off the lights during recess and after class.
You can make "Turn It Off" signs for hanging above the light switches to
remind yourself.
Also check out our on-line pages on Saving Energy.
You can make sure your classmates recycle all aluminum cans and plastic
bottles, and make sure the library is recycling the newspapers and the
school is recycling its paper.
and / or nuclear power companies to stop such devices from getting to the
public.
Some of these contraptions use theories called "Free Energy," "Over Unity"
or "Zero-Point Energy." As a matter of fact, you can find all sorts of
information about such devices on the Internet. Just plug in any of those
words.
But none of these devices have ever been proven, either theoretically or
physically. The "free energy" area is filled with con artists selling
unintelligible information, often clouded with technical sounding jargon,
and seeking people with money to develop their inventions or ideas.
As the old saying goes, "a fool and his money are soon parted."
Most of these devices are perpetual motion machines, which violate
known laws of science. Even the U.S. Patent Office will not issue a patent
for such devices. With energy and the universe (at least as we know it
today), there's no such thing as a free lunch; or free energy. You can't get
energy from nothing because of the fundamental laws of physics that
energy cannot be created or destroyed.
What about matter and anti-matter? What about energy that they use on
Star Trek and in other science fiction stories? The ideas are interesting, but
they are still fiction. Though science fiction has a basis in some fact. Jules
Verne wrote about traveling under the water more than a hundred years
ago, and today we have submarines. He also wrote about going to the
moon, and in 1969 humans first set foot on our closest neighbor in space.
So, while some ideas being used by writers are fiction... there could be
some basis in fact. Who knows, someone might create a mater-antimatter
energy system that could revolutionize the way we think about energy and
our universe.