ENERGY PROJECT
TIMELINE
ROUGH DRAFT DUE ______
FINAL DRAFT AND PACKET DUE ______
DAY 1 (pgs. 3-4)
1. Go to the following site and read all the Renewable Energy information
2. Fill out the Renewable Energy Questions (1-3) on the Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy worksheet
DAY 2 (pgs. 4-5)
3. Read Nonrenewable Energy information
4. Fill out the Nonrenewable Energy Questions (4-6)Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy worksheet
5. Answer question #7 on the Renewable and Nonrenewable Energy worksheet
DAY 3
6. Read theRenewable Energy vs. Fossil Fuelsreading paper (pgs. 1-2)
7. Fill out the table on page 6 with information from the reading paper.
8. Visit the Interactive Directions Page
9. Go to the online interactive city power up simulation
10. Fill out the Powering Up Your Town WS (pg. 7)
DAY 4
11.Fill out pages 8 and 9 and startthe rough draft of your energy letter.
DAY 5
12. ROUGH DRAFT DUE BEGINNING OF CLASS. Fill out Peer Edit papers. Startfinal draft of energy letter.
MAKE SURE YOU ANSWER ALL THE QUESTIONS COMPLETELY (WITH DETAILS) AND FOLLOW THE FORMAT REQUIREMENTS
(see page 10 for final draft information)
Renewable vs. Fossil Fuels
RENEWABLE:
There’s no shortage of renewable energy from the sun, wind and water. Even stuff usually thought of as garbage- dead trees, tree branches, yard clippings, left-over crops, sawdust, and even livestock manure, can produce electricity and fuels. These are called “biomass” forms of energy. Biomass is a great way to use materials usually put into landfills to create energy. The drawback is that to produce this energy, the materials are usually burned, which causes air pollution and produces carbon dioxide. In factories that use biomass to create energy, however, the carbon dioxide is trapped and given to the plants to help them grow. Although biomass is renewable, itneeds the materials to help plant growth, such as adequate water and may not work well in times of flood and drought.
The amount of sunlight falling on the United States in one day contains more than twice the energy we consume in an entire year. For areas that have large amounts of sunlight, this is a good way to harness the sun’s power to create energy that can be stored or changed into electricity. This lets us use less of the nation’s energy reserves and over time can be a renewable source of energy for households. Solar thermal energy involves the collection of solar rays through special collectors which need large areas of land as a collection site. This can affect the plants and animals that live there. The environment can also be affected when the buildings, roads, transmission lines and transformers are built. The fluid most often used with solar thermal electric generation is very poisonous and spills can happen. Poisonous chemicals are also used in making batteries to store solar electricity through the night and on cloudy days.
Wind energy is cheaper than solar energy. Large amounts of energy can be created and used by the owner and extra energy created can be sold to power companies. Wind renewable energy uses large blades to spin a dynamo inside the turbine. Many countries have access to wind, although supply is up and down depending on the amount of wind blowing at any one time. Onshore wind turbines are fairly cheap and easy to run. However, they make less electricity than offshore wind turbines. Offshore wind turbines are placed in the ocean and are a stronger and more predictable supply of wind.But they are more expensive to install and can be difficult to maintain. Although they don’t produce any pollution while running, wind turbinesdo have some problems. They are often seen as eyesores, there is a small amount of noise created by the turbines, and birds have been known to be killed by flying into the blades or towers.
Hydropower renewable energy is electricity made by the passage of water through a turbine, which causes a dynamo to spin. Hydropower is one of the greatest renewable energy sources on Earth, currently creating 20% of the world’s electricity and 90% of all renewable energy made. Hydropower plants are somewhat expensive to build, although they are easy to maintain and are one of the most efficient electricity generating sources. Some countries are already highly reliant on hydropower; Norway, for example, gets 99% of its electricity from hydropower plants. Building a dam to provide enough water to create hydropower has created some negative effects on the environment and wildlife.
Geothermal energy is a very powerful and efficient way to get renewable energy from the earth through natural processes. This can be performed on a small scale to provide heat for a residential unit (a geothermal heat pump), or on a very large scale for energy production through a geothermal power plant. Geothermal power is cheap, reliable, and environmentally friendly, but in the past has been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Recent technological advances have dramatically expanded the places that can use geothermal energy. The largest group of geothermal power plants in the world is located at The Geysers, in California. As of 2004, five countries
(El Salvador, Kenya, the Philippines, Iceland, and Costa Rica) generate more than 15% of their electricity from geothermal sources. The impact to the environment and the cost to run a plant is low. The cost of finding a useable site however is high and often takes a lot of money to locate.
Renewable energy production will result in new jobs for people and less oil we have to buy from foreign countries. According to the federal government, America spent $109 billion to import oil in 2000. If we createrenewable energy resources, we will keep the money at home to help the economy.
Continued research has made renewable energy more affordable today than 25 years ago. The cost of wind energy has declined from 40 per kilowatt-hour to less than 5. The cost of electricity from the sun through solar cells has dropped from more than $1/kilowatt-hour in 1980 to nearly 20 cents/kilowatt-hour today. And ethanol fuel costs have plummeted from $4 per gallon in the early 1980’s to $1.20 today.
NONRENEWABLE:
Fossil fuels are nonrenewable, which means that when they are used up, they are gone for hundreds of thousands of years. Emissions from cars fueled by gasoline and factories and other facilities that burn oil affect the atmosphere. Foul air results in so-called greenhouse gases. About 81% of all US greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide emissions from nonrenewable energy sources.
Petroleum is turned into several fuel sources including petrol or gasoline, diesel, propane, jet fuel, heating oil and paraffin wax. Also known as crude oil, this fuel source is nonrenewable. Petroleum is made when organic matter settles in water that has lost its dissolved oxygen and is then compressed under immense heat and pressure for millions of years. There is no way for humans to reproduce this process. Once mankind has used the current supply of petroleum, more will not be available for many centuries.
Coal is also composed of organic matter --- matter that decomposed in peat bogs, which then formed into carbon rock under immense pressure. Coal is generally highly burnableand the world's most-used resource for electrical generation. However, burning coal releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is the main cause of the greenhouse effect. Like petroleum, coal cannot be created by man.
Also made from decomposition, natural gas is mostly methane created as organic matter decays. Once removed from the ground, natural gas is processed to remove everything but the methane. This produces a variety of other natural gases, such as ethane, propane and butane, which are also used as fuels. These natural gases are used to heat homes and businesses and fuel stoves. It is a fairly clean-burning fossil fuel and cheaper than some other types, but as with the others, must be created through millions of years of decomposition and cannot be manmade.
Nuclear energyis sometimes listed with renewable power sources like wind and solar because it is clean-burning and therefore more environmentally safe than oil or coal. Nuclear energy is a nonrenewable resource, however. Although there is a large supply of the basic element uranium, only a certain type of uranium, U-235, is used to create nuclear power. U-235 must be removed from mined and processed uranium. The processing produces only very small amounts of U-235, making it rare and expensive. One drawback to nuclear energy is the radiation produced by the uranium, which can be deadly and has the ability to create large areas of destruction to both people and property if an accident occurs. Other concerns include environmental impacts on the land and wildlife when mining the uranium and storage of used uranium products, which remain radioactive for thousands of years.
Renewable and Non-renewable Energy
1.What does renewable mean? ______
2. List the 5 energy sources that are renewable?
______
3. For each RENEWABLE energy, answer the following:
Energy #1: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #2: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #3: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created? ______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #4: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #5: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
4.What does nonrenewable mean?
______
5.List the 4energy sources that are nonrenewable?
______
6. For each NONRENEWABLE energy, answer the following:
Energy #1: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #2: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #3: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
Energy #4: name ______
What are the different types of this energy? ______
How is the energy created?
______
What are the good and bad effects the energy has on the environment?
______
______
7.Which energy sources do you think would be the best for our country to use?
Pick TWO sources and give at least two reasons why you chose each one.
______
Renewable Vs. Fossil Fuels
Read the worksheet titled “Renewable vs. Fossil Fuels”. Then use the information to fill out the table below.
Type of Energy / Pros (+) / Cons (-)You will "Power Up" a city using an online interactive. In the interactive, you will buy different energy sources, some renewable and some nonrenewable. You will have to keep an eye on your budget and how the energy sources you are buying have an impact on the environment.
While using the interactive, fill out the table below to keep track of what different power plants have to offer. You will need this information later.
Type of Energy / Power (1-20) / Cost (in millions) / Impact (1-20)Understanding What You Learned
Now that you have tried powering a city with various types of power plants, you will need to decide on a combination that is best for the city. Fill out the areas below to organize your findings.
Name of City: ______
I propose that we use the follow types of power plants:
Plant #1 ______
Plant #2 ______
Plant #3 ______
List 2 energies you did not select and give two reasons why it wasn’t chosen.
Energy Not Chosen #1:
Reason 1 ______
______
______
Reason 2 ______
______
______
Energy Not Chosen #2:
Reason 1 ______
______
______
Reason 2 ______
______
______
For each type of energy plant you want to use, give information in these areas:
• Cost (in millions of dollars)
• Pollution 1-20 (1 being best for environment and 20 being the worst)
Power 1-20 (1 produces the least power and 20 produces the most)
• Description of advantages and disadvantages
Plant You Recommend #1: energy type: ______
Cost: ______(millions of dollars)
Pollution 1-20: ______
Describe what that number means: ______
Power 1-20 ______What that means: ______
Advantages:
______
______
______
Disadvantages:
______
Plant You Recommend #2: energy type: ______
Cost: ______(millions of dollars)
Pollution 1-20: ______
Describe what that number means: ______
Power 1-20 ______What that means: ______
Advantages:
______
______
______
Disadvantages:
______
Plant You Recommend #3: energy type: ______
Cost: ______(millions of dollars)
Pollution 1-20: ______
Describe what that number means: ______
Power 1-20 ______What that means: ______
Advantages:
______
______
______
Disadvantages:
______
Using the information you have recorded, write a proposal letter to the people of your city. Be sure to use the format on the “Business Letter Format” paper for your letter.
Write your rough draft on the form you were given and make sure you include all the information stated for each paragraph. Don’t forget to have a greeting and a closure for your letter.
FINAL DRAFT (self-edit information):
Please check the following areas in your rough draft and make changes if needed.
use of correct punctuation and spelling
paper is neat- either typed or printed in ink
use of paragraphs (make sure you indent)
varied sentence length (watch for short ,choppy sentences)
paragraphs contain required information
needs to be a formal letter (no “I” statements or “Hello, my name is…”.
(If you want to make a personal point, you can say “Our company ...” or
“At Western Electric we feel...”)
Letter needs to be persuasive. Your energy company is recommending
threetypes of energy for the town and must have facts to back choices.
(use details and examples to back up your points)