Unit 6: 6.7-6.13

Heliostats

An apparatus containing a movable or driven mirror to reflect sunlight; used in a photoarray farm

Conservation

Protecting and preserving natural resources and the environment

Carbon Neutral

an activity that does not change atmospheric CO2 concentrations

NIMBY

"Not in My Back Yard," describing the tendency of people to protest poor environmental practices when those practices will impact them directly

Three Gorges Dam

A barrier built on the Chang Jiang to control floods; A dam being built over the Yangtze river, 607' high by 1.4 miles wide, which will be completed in 2009. It will be the world's biggest dam.

Hydroelectric Dam

A device used to capture the energy of downward flowing water using a turbine

Turbine

A device with blades that can be turned by water, wind, steam, or exhaust gas from combustion that turns a generator in an electricity-producing plant

Silt

A mixture of rich soil and tiny rocks found on river bottoms; makes for rich soil.

Perpetual Resource

An essentially inexhaustible resource on a human time scale. Solar energy is an example.

Hydroelectric Power

Electricity generated by flowing water

Geothermal Energy

Energy from steam or hot water produced from hot or molten underground rocks.

Ethanol

High sugar plants (corn & sugar cane) are allowed to ferment to produce an alcohol

Biomass

Living or once living material that can be burned to generate energy

PIMBY

Put in my backyard; a willingness to accept what others do not want, usually because of the economic benefit.

Photovoltaic Cells

Solar cells; when light strikes silicon and metallic film activates electrons, energy is then transferred and stored in batteries for use.

Green Architecture

Sustainable architecture that seeks to minimize the negative environmental impacts of buildings

Energy Efficiency

The percentage of energy put into a system that does useful work

Tidal Energy

The use of the force caused by gravitational pull of moon and sun on the Earth's oceans; water as tides come in and out to turn turbines

Net Energy Yield

Total amount of useful energy available from an energy resource or energy system over its lifetime, minus the amount of energy used and unnecessarily wasted in finding, processing, concentrating, and transporting it to users.

Hybrid Vehicles

Vehicles that use a gas engine to drive an electric generator and use the generator and/or storage batteries to power electric motors.

ZEV/BEV

Zero Emissions Vehicle: usually a hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle.

Wind Farm

a group of wind turbines that produce electricity

Reservoir

a large natural or artificial lake used as a source of water supply.

Xeriscaping

a method of landscaping that uses native plants, soil and water,that are well adapted; used on roofing for examples.

Hydrogen Fuel Cells

creates electricity chemically by combining hydrogen fuel with oxygen from the air

Hydrogen Sulfide

gas released from active geothermal active areas.

Hydrogen Combustion

hydrogen gas is channeled past a platinum catalyst which splits each hydrogen into proton and electron; the protons then bond to a nearby oxygen; generating water

Active Solar Energy

solar radiation captured with photovoltaic cells that convert light energy to electrical energy

Fuel Economy

the relationship between the distance traveled and the amount of fuel consumed by the vehicle

Passive Solar Energy

uses the solar energy that naturally falls on a building to heat it directly

Microhydropower

water is diverted through a pipe to turn a small turbine -generates energy without greatly disrupting the flow of river water