Lecture 2 Review
The
first topic of Lecture 2 was Fossil Fuels, which we currently use for
85% of our energy needs. There are three types of fossil fuels - Oil,
Coal and Gas. Oil is the world's primary fuel as it is energy dense and
easy to transport. Natural Gas is the cleanest in terms of pollutants
formed after combustion, and Coal is the hardest to extract. To give
an idea of the price of Oil, in terms of volume, it costs less than 25%
compared to bottled water.
We then moved on to look at Nuclear Energy. We currently only produce energy through fission, as fusion requires initial temperatures that are nearly impossible to achieve on earth. However it would be preferable to use fusion as it produces no radioactive waster and the raw materials are easier to obtain. On a global scale Nuclear Power produces 16% of the world's electricity, though this varies largely from country to country, mainly due to public perception. The Chernobyl disaster is responsible for a lot of bad publicity for Nuclear Power, and it is only recently that the general public have restored their faith in it.
Next
we moved to renewable energies, in Solar Thermal. Looking at solar
resources globally, it can be seen there are many suitable sites. The
best area of the US, in terms of average solar energy received is the
South West. However there are different technologies suited to
different temperature regions. High temperature areas can generate
electricity through thermodynamic cycles and generators. This isn't
viable in lower temperature areas, however they can still use Solar
Thermal to cook and distill water etc.
Thermodynamic
cycles were discussed, and a demonstration of a Stirling Engine was
shown (video clip available here).
We then looked at the
different High Temperature technologies on offer. Parabolic Dishes,
Power Towers and Parabolic Troughs are technologies that use the heat
they absorb to generate electricity, on the order of tens of
megaWatts.. The Drake Landing Solar Community in North America was
given as an example of a community planned to use energy only generated
through solar power. Also, various technologies were explained, such as
Linear Fresnel, Solar Distillers and Cookers, Solar Water Heaters and
Solar Cookers.
We then moved on to look at Nuclear Energy. We currently only produce energy through fission, as fusion requires initial temperatures that are nearly impossible to achieve on earth. However it would be preferable to use fusion as it produces no radioactive waster and the raw materials are easier to obtain. On a global scale Nuclear Power produces 16% of the world's electricity, though this varies largely from country to country, mainly due to public perception. The Chernobyl disaster is responsible for a lot of bad publicity for Nuclear Power, and it is only recently that the general public have restored their faith in it.
Next
we moved to renewable energies, in Solar Thermal. Looking at solar
resources globally, it can be seen there are many suitable sites. The
best area of the US, in terms of average solar energy received is the
South West. However there are different technologies suited to
different temperature regions. High temperature areas can generate
electricity through thermodynamic cycles and generators. This isn't
viable in lower temperature areas, however they can still use Solar
Thermal to cook and distill water etc.Thermodynamic
cycles were discussed, and a demonstration of a Stirling Engine was
shown (video clip available here).
We then looked at the
different High Temperature technologies on offer. Parabolic Dishes,
Power Towers and Parabolic Troughs are technologies that use the heat
they absorb to generate electricity, on the order of tens of
megaWatts.. The Drake Landing Solar Community in North America was
given as an example of a community planned to use energy only generated
through solar power. Also, various technologies were explained, such as
Linear Fresnel, Solar Distillers and Cookers, Solar Water Heaters and
Solar Cookers.
