ES 19 &20
coal electricity in US
1/3 of all electricity in US is now generated by coal fired plant. - every year approx 1 billion tons of coal burned in US releases close to a trillion metric tons of CO2.
fuel assembly
100 rods of uranium cylindrical pellets stacked in hollow rods, 100 make this assembly. each pellet is equal to 1 ton of coal
venezuela oil percent
18% - highest amount of oil reserves
Richer countries commercial energy
20% of population used 80% of the commercial energy, where the other 80% of population used the remaining 20% of commercial energy. China and India will be consuming 60% of all commercial energy by 2035
Jonah Gas Field
50,000 pronghorn antelope and 10000 elk migrate through here, narrow corridor; biologists worry that noise, traffic polluted wastewater pits will doom the herd
tar sands
Alberta Canada - Athabascan - largest single source of oil for all united states but there are sever environmental and social costs extracting this oil
Average Person energy use
Average person energy use in US or Canada uses more than 300 gigajoules - equivalent of 60 standard barrels or 8 metric tons of oil each year. Each person in the richer countries consumes as much energy in one day as someone in a poorer country consume in one year.
peak oil
Dr. M King Hubert, Shell oil geophysicist predicted that oil production in the US would peak in the 1970s, based on estimates of US reserves. Until recently, his prediction seemed correct - US went from being the greatest exporter to the largest importer.
FutureGen project
George Bush, clean coal technology,, worlds first zero emission coal plant, but was abandoned when it became too expensive.
Kemper Project
Kemper County Mississippi. 2010, obama, projected 2.4 million construction, behind schedule and overbudgen, unlikely it will ever capture carbon profitably.
US has largest supplies of unconventional oil - solid organic materials
Kerogen (similar to bitumen) found in sedimentary rocks which heated can be extracted from stone. Kerogen containing oil shale beds in Green River in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Equivalent of several trillion barrels of oil.
porter ranch
Los Angeles California, gas leak in 2015, well pipe ruptured into depleted oil well, took 4 months to find leak, more than 97000 tons of methane and ethane were emitted from well, equivalent to annual emission of 600,000 cars
US natural gas reserves percent
North America natural gas reserves 5.3 percent
Arch Coal
US second largest coal company.
conserving energy
about behavior, turning off lights, adjusting thermostats, but also about technological challenge. Need to be efficient, better appliances, better buildings etc
green pricing
allows utilities to profit from conservation programs by charging higher prices for energy from renewable sources
negawatts
amount of energy saved through conservation. announced by FERC that they can be traded as a commodity.
Mercury and Air toxic standards announced
announced in 2012 will slash allowable mercury emissions for coal fired power plants, which was required by 1970 clean air act, but delayed for decades by owners of old power plants who were grandfathered in. 45 years later, many of those plants are still in operation emitting pollutants.
measure energy - work
application of force over distance
global fossil fuel subsidies
approx $550 billion per year, 4x the support for wind, solar and renewables.
storms and flooding in Hong Kong and Shanghai
at risk from storms and floods due to climate change from pollution
Abu Dhabi
built 258000 mirror plant can provide electricity for 20,000 homes
China coal
by 2013, China had 45% of the worlds coal burning power plants, and the largest user of and consumer of coal - and largest source of anthropogenic CO2 - but catastrophic air pollution is making China rethink its policy because 1.2 million people die each year in China due to air pollution
Global Wind Energy council calculates this
calculates that wind could supply 40x the current world electricity supply and 5 x all global energy consumption if potential were tapped.
photovoltaic PV cells
capture solar energy and convert it directly to electrical current by separating electrons from their parent atoms and accelerating them across a one-way electrostatic barrier formed by the junction between two different types of semi conductor material . the first PV cells were made from silicon. increased efficiency over the years.
Transportation efficiencies
carpooling, energy efficient vehicles, walking or biking, public transit.
land based wind farms
cheapest source of new power generation. - if there was a carbon cap and trade program like most Europeans do, wind energy would be cheaper than fossil fuels nearly everywhere
coal location
coal mines, underground mines, surface mines, Appalachia mountain top scraped off to reach buried coal - one of the most environmentally destructive methods of coal mining. Originates in vegetation in peat swamps
High temperature solar energy
concentrating solar power (CSP) systems - use long trough-shaped missors to reflect and concentrate sunlight on a central tube containing heat absorbing fluid. large and expensive to build - sited in desert areas with abundant sunshine,.
transportation energy
consumes the US largest share of primary energy. 3/4 of transportation energy is used by motor vehicles. almost all of it from petroleum.
Industry energy
declining, but still second largest source in US - mining, milling, smelting are about 25%
Eastern and Western Europe
depend on imported natural gas.
silicon collectors
described by stanford ovshinky, noncrystalline thin film can be made into lightweight paper films. cheaper to manufacture. Largest installation in US is desert sunlight and topaz solar farms in southern california
nuclear fuel cycle problems
disposal problem from enormous piles of radioactive mine wastes and abandoned mill tailings at uranium mines
steps to save energy
drive less, walk ride, use stairs instead of elevators, car pool, more efficient car, insulate home, weather strip, turn off lights, stop faucet leaks, eat local food, recycle
Energy
drives today's economy
solar energy
drives winds and the hydrologic cycle.
Liquefied natural gas (LNG)
easier to ship; Canada was once the primary source of natural gas for US, imports were once expected to supply a significant portion of the US supply, fracking has created a surplus. Intercontinental shipping can be difficult, and dangerous because it is volatile and easily ignited.
industrial energy savings
efficient electric motors and pumps, advanced heat recovery systems
smart meters
electricity meters that record data rapidly, every hour communicate with electric utility grid. offer incentives to customers low rates to take power off their hands
cogneration
fastest growing new every - production of electricity from waste heat in a steam heating plant. also called combined heat and power (CHP) plants. Many colleges universities cities have a central heating plant that distributes steam or hot water - bu producing useful electricity from these waste heat plants, net energy yield is increased. becoming less common with falling fuel prices
coal
fossilized plant material preserved bu burial in sediments and altered by geological forces that have compacted and condensed it into a carbon rich fuel found in every geologic system since the siluarian age more than 400 million yrs ago but may date back to precambrian times. coal takes so long to form, it is a nonrenewable resource
methane
fracking and other oeprations leak methane into atmostphere, 20x more effective at retaining heat so climate implications are substantial.
active solar systems
generally pump a heat absorbing fluid through a collector. water pumped through another collector picks up heat to provide heat or hot water. can be retrofitted to existing buildings. china produces 80% of worlds solar water heaters,
advantages of CSP plants
heat from fluid can be stored in medium such as molten salt for later use - can continually generate energy and save it. also, waste heat from turbines can be used to evaporate seawater to create pure drinking water.
breeder reactors
high density, high pressure reactors proposed by nuclear engineers that produce fuel rather than consume it
petroleum burning for energy causes
high levels of cancer, asthma and other diseases
standard home energy consumption
home office uses 44% energy consumption
measure energy - joules
joules - how we measure work
wind turbines
largest wind turbines are 40x more powerful than 20 years ago. some reach 150m tall with 82M long blades - high as a 50 story building. Each one can generate 8mw of electricity, enough for 3000 typical american homes. Giant machines used offshore - can produce power 90% of time.
germany
led the world in solar power for most of the past decade, but China vaulted ahead in 2015. In germany, half of all jobs are in solar industry.
oil deposit
liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons can migrate up through cracks and pores out of the sediments in which they formed into surrounding rock layers. Oil and gas move upward (over millions of years) because they are less dense than the surrounding rock.
unburnable carbon
low oil prices bad for environment because they encourage people to buy inefficient vehicles, but they are an opportunity to avoid dangerous projects such as pipeline and power plants, better to leave it in the ground when it isn't worth much than when prices are high
Oil refineries
major source of air pollution - Crude Oil produces useful products by being cracked, heated to break into smaller molecules. gas, petrol jet fuel, waxes, oils, fuel, roofing supplies
oil volatility
market forces - and geopolitical. Example Saudi Arabia flooded market with cheap oil to drive out competitors. North Dakota was 38th in country of per capita saw economy double in 2002, but by 2012 many had lost jobs - production in Bakken formation crashed; new schools and housing and roads were created and now area can't make payments
toxic coal impurities
mercury, arsenic, chromium, lead, uranium, released into the air during combustion
Kerogen
mining kerogen can create more environmental problems that tar sands, uses vast quantities of water in the west, and produces twice as much CO2
mining uranium for fuel
more dangerous than coal mining; 70% of workers died from lung cancer
worlds deserts receive solar energy
more solar energy in 6 hours than all humans consume in entire year
middle east and former soviet union
more than half of the all the worlds proven natural gas reserves are here
Americans energy use
most american households use about 11,000 kWh per year
control rods
neutron absorbing material such as cadmium or boron inserted into spaces between fuel assemblies to stop fission
passive housing
no thermal bridges (wood or metal to conduct heat), roof and wall insulation, well sealed windows and doors, triple pain windows, heat exchanges, windows well positioned. high efficiency buildings have passive house standards
passive heat absorption, passive solar hear
oldest and simplest use of solar energy, using natural material with no moving parts to gather and hold head. used for thousands of years. collect heat during day, maintain heat and absorb warmth.
watt
one joule per second - the rate of work done
shipping oil
page 436, Keystone XL pipeline proposed to carry tar sands from Alberta to Texas, bring energy to us and provide jobs - Blowouts and leaks on pipeline have been concern, - oil has to be heated to be shipped, in 2016 Obama would not approve keystone pineapple because it was go over the Ogallala aquifer which contains drinking water
Oil
petroleum, derived from organic molecules created by living organisms millions of years ago and buried in sediments, where high pressures and temperatures concentrated and transformed them into energy-rich compounds. Derives mainly from marine algae and plankton in coastal seas.
Wind power
provides the worlds largest amount of renewable energy; 2.5 x as much as solar - China is leader in wind power - china has 1mm jobs related to wind; US is second in wind power
yucca mountain
radioactive waste management - barren desert ridge in nevada, 1987 plan to build the first high level waste repository - waste would be buried deep in ground, hoped to remain unexposed to groundwater and earth quakes from thousands of years. Nevadans objected to receiving waste from far away states, and worry about sites stability, obama cut off funding in 2009
sulfur dioxide
released by coal into the air through combustion. 18 million metric tons in US due to coal burning
nuclear fusion pg 455
released when two smaller atomic nuclei fuse into one larger nucleus. Fusion energy has been proposed as an alternative to nuclear fission. reactions are the energy source for the sun and for hydrogen bombs. The fuels for reactions are deuterium and tritium will occur. two main schemes for fusion, magnet confinement and inertial confinement. page 445
Fracking - hydraulic fracturing
releases oil from tight formations through which passage of liquid would otherwise be obstructed. Now used extensively in the quest for natural gas
renewable portfolio standards
require power suppliers to obtain a minimum percentage of energy from sustainable sources
feed-in tariffs
requires utilities to buy surplus power from small producers at a fair price; these payments are essential to make small solar installations economical; rather than pay for expensive energy storage systems the meter simply spins backwards during the day when you sell surplus energy and at night the solar panels aren't making electricity you can buy it back
Caltech research
research shows a carefully designed wind farm using VAWT (vertical axis wind turbine) can have an output power 10x that of conventional HAWT (horizontal axis wind turbine) - VAWT used to break but now there is better technology
water shortages in China
serious shortage due to water resources needed for c coal use, from processing steam production to cooling.
Marcellus/Devonian formation
shales underlying New York and Pennsylvannia have been focus of debate, may contain a 100 yr supply of natural gas. Now we have so much available, prices are dropping.
Beyond Coal Campaign
shift away from coal (and other fossil fuels) to other renewable energy
wind farm advantages
shorter planning and construction times than fossil fuels or nuclear power plants; they are modular, more turbines can be added, and no fuel costs
renewable energy - distributional surcharges
small charge is levied on all utility customers to help finance renewable energy research
power tower
small mirrors arranged in concentric rings around a tall central tower - mirrors track and focus light on heat absorber at top of tower, themn drives an generator. Ivanpah solar station built in Mojave desert - worlds largest thermal solar station.
solar gardens
solar electric array with multiple subscribers connected to the utility grid or solar farm foster social justice by including people who don't have cash or credit.
renewable energy sources
solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and hydro - now make up about 10% of our power, nuclear reactors make up 8%.
dwight eisenhower - atoms for peace
speech to United Nations in 1953; announced US would build nuclear powered generators to provide clean abundant energy. Predicted that nuclear energy would fill the deficit and would provide cheap power
nuclear fission
splitting, releasing energy and more neutrons. uranium atoms are not stable, when struck by high-energy source they undergo fission
coal fired power plants
supply half of our electrical energy and large amounts of pollution are released during mining and burning of that coal.
water consumption and pollution huge problems in arid west
takes large amounts of water to drill the wells and once in production can produce up to 75000 liters of salty water per day, dumping this toxic waste into stream poisons wildlife and domestic stock
Oil drilling
technology as made tremendous strides, now possible to drill into extreme temperatures and pressures encountered at depth of 12,000 m (40,000 ft). as many as 24 wells can be supported from single drilling pad
measure energy - energy
the capacity to do work
measure energy - power
the rate of energy flow or rate of work done.
natural gas
the world's third largest commercial fuel currently making up about one-quarter of global energy consumption. consists of small volatile organic compounds, mainly methane (CH4) that accumulates at the top of oil or coal deposits. Because it consists of simpler purer compounds than oil or coal, it burns more cleanly and produces only half as much CO2 than coal burning. Rapidly falling prices contribute to the decline in coal use
Oil extraction risks
toxic sludge, consumes several square miles of land and forest for mine pits and tailing ponds, release greenhouse gases, water pollution. Indian communities are protesting because it is destroying their traditional way of life
light emitting diodes LED
transformed lighting efficiency - cost more than compact fluorescent bulb but last 5 x as long as conserve half as much electricity.
IGCC Integrated gasification combined cycle combustion
ultra supercritical boilers can make carbon capture easier. Gasification involves heating a cal slurry at high pressure - the coal doesn't burn, instead reacts with oxygen and breaks down into a variety of gasses - mostly hydrogen which burns cleanly, and carbon dioxide which can be captured for storage.
methane hydrates
unconventional gas sources, mehtane hydrate deposits are composed of small bubbles or molecules of natural gas trapped in crystalline matrix of frozen water. Once it warms, could cause more methane to be emitted, but Japan reports successful gas production from these deposit. methane also produces by digesting garbage or manure, some cities collect this to burn it instead of letting it diffuse into atmosphere
common fuel in nuclear power plants
uranium 235 - naturally occurring radioactive isotope of uranium. makes up about .7% of uranium ore
energy efficient
uses less energy to produce results Products and systems that ise less energy to perform as well or better than standard products. wastes less energy technology or practice that reduces energy use
chain reaction
when one atom will trigger the fission of another uranium atom and the release of more neutrons
Carbon Capture and storage CCS
where CO2 is captured and pumped into deep geologic formations - Clean Coal. to preserve jobs in fossil fuel industry. technology used for many years, but too expensive to capture and trasport the huge volumes of CO2 produced by power plants to oil wells
Germany solar power
world leader, more than half of all solar power is owned by individual homeowners or community coop for local use