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