Hydro Power

Hydro or hydraulic power is power derived from the force or energy of moving water which can be harnessed and changed into an electric current. This process relies on two levels of physics, the water cycle, and gravity. This process is often referred to hydroelectric power.

Hydroelectric Power

• Hydroelectric power is now responsible for 19% of the world’s total electric production.
• It’s the worlds most widely used form of a reusable resource.
• Dams such as Three Gorges in China, Syncrude Tailings in Canada and, Chapetón in Argentina, are major contributors to the power conversion process.
• With over 845,000 total dams in the world, hydroelectric power is becoming the main alternative for energy production.

Hydroelectric Power Production Process:

• The first level of physics required to produce hydroelectric power is the water cycle. This law explains that water evaporates from a river or lake turns into clouds. The water in these clouds that came from a water source will then fall back down to earth. Some of the water that evaporated from a lake or the ocean will fall onto a higher elevation than the lake or ocean that it originally was in. This increase in elevation is directly related to the energy that is created through hydroelectric power. Water evaporates and rises in altitude, while the whole hydroelectric process relies on water falling, and losing elevation.
• The next level is gravity. This is where the actual turning of a turbine housed in the dam is actually turned to convert the energy. Water that is high in elevation falls to a lower elevation because of gravity. A hydroelectric dam capitalizes on gravity. In order to subtract the gravitational force from the water and cause an energy transfer, a hydroelectric dam blocks the flow of water from a higher elevation to a lower elevation. The physical dam actually lets a small amount of water pass through the dam, but this amount is blocked by a turbine. The turbine is the primary object that utilizes the gravitational force of the water.
• After the conversion the energy is transferred to different hubs, homes, businesses, etc.

Pros

• Virtually no emissions of greenhouse gases or other harmful toxins.
• Completely natural process.
• The process is perpetual, the cycle will continue within bodies of water with no cost of resources.

Cons

• Construction, maintenance and utilization of dams are somewhat costly.
• Poor construction of a dam could result in a break, causing a mass amount of damage to nearby environment.
• In a longer term, sediment is deposited behind the dams flow, increasing erosion.
• This erosion can break down materials used to construct the dams, making it weaker against the waters current.

Wind Power

Wind is another source of energy, caused from moving air masses of differing temperatures. The kinetic energy, or motion, of wind can be captured using wind-electric turbines. When wind comes into contact with a turbine's rotor blade, it transfers some of its energy to the blade. The rotor blade is basically a giant barrier to wind. Once the rotor blade moves, the shaft starts to move as well. The shaft is the part of the turbine that is connected to the center of the rotor. The rotor is transferring its mechanical energy to the shaft. This energy is then transferred to an electrical generator through the shaft, which creates electrical energy. This electricity is then distributed through power lines. The tower of a turbine supports and lifts the entire setup to a high elevation.

Pros

• The source of energy, wind, is free of cost. The only expenses come with building equipment to capture and convert the wind energy.
• Several different types of wind turbines are currently being created to make wind power even more useful and efficient.
• Wind power does not produce harmful greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.
• Any country can generate wind power without the need of foreign support.
• It is no longer necessary for wind turbines to be cluttered in an area. Now they are placed further apart.
• Newer wind turbines are quiet enough to have a clear conversation underneath.

Cons

• Some wind turbines can be noisy to people living nearby.
• Wind turbines can be dangerous for bats and birds.
• If installing a turbine in a desert area, land erosion may occur.
• Some people think that the sight of wind turbines on natural landscapes is disturbing.

Solar Energy

Solar energy is simply energy emitted by the sun. This energy can be captured and converted into other types of energy to benefit us, like heat and electricity. It is also completely free of cost and renewable. Solar energy converted into heat, or thermal energy, is used to heat water, homes, buildings, and pools. Solar collectors and solar cells convert the sun’s energy into electricity and heat. Calculators, road signs, street lamps, and satellites can all use the sun’s energy. Heat produced by the sun creates temperature differences in the air, creating wind that can also be used as an energy source.

Process:

• The main technology used in solar power collection is called Photovoltaic cells.
• The Photovoltaic system actually converts the retrieved sunlight energy into a form of electricity we can use.
• The Photovoltaic array captures sunlight, sends it to an inverter to keep the current constant, than is transferred by a series of power stations to areas that require energy.

Pros

• Sunlight collected from solar panels is directly changed into electricity.
• This creates no-byproducts or any harmful toxins creating the optimal environment to harvest energy.
• Solar panels can be crafted to any size to fit the needs of a household, business, or any other location.

Cons

• The amount of energy collected can varies from day to day.
• Since panels rely on energy cast off from the sun, energy collected from cloudy days in very minimal.
• Construction of solar panels requires some of most intricate materials such as Photovoltaic cells; this material also costs a very large amount of revenue to construct.
• Photovoltaic cells require quite a lot of hands-on maintenance

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Nuclear Power

What is Nuclear Power?

• About 20% of energy in the United States is produced by nuclear power plants.
• The nucleus of atoms and bonds that hold atoms together contain a large amount of energy.
• One way this energy can be released is using nuclear fission.
• Nuclear Fission is the splitting of an atom.
• The atom most frequently used for nuclear fission is Uranium, which is very abundant in the Earth. Most nuclear power plants specifically use Uranium-235 because the atoms are able to be split more easily.
• To split an atom, a neutron (a subatomic particle within the nucleus that has no charge) comes into contact with a Uranium atom and splits it. The products of this fission are a lighter atom, energy (heat), and more neutrons. These free neutrons are now able to hit into more Uranium atoms, resulting in a chain reaction.

How power plants use nuclear energy

• Nuclear power plants use the heat that was released during fission as a fuel, as opposed to fossil fuels.
• The reactor in a nuclear power plant is where fission occurs.
• The core is in the center of the reactor and is the location of the Uranium.
• The form of the Uranium is the shape of a pellet. The pellets are stacked
  inside fuel rods that are 12 feet long.
• The heat produced from fission boils water into steam and the steam powers turbine blades. The turbine blades turn, powering generators. The generators are what produce electricity.
• When this process is over, the steam gets converted into water again and is cooled in a cooling tower.
• Used fuel is very radioactive at first, so it must be stored in cooling storage containers outside usually made of concrete or steel.

Pros

• Heat is generated from fission, not from burning fossil fuel, so no greenhouse gases are produced.
• Nuclear power plants prevent such a large amount of nitrogen oxide emissions that taking over 51 million cars off the road would be equal to the amount of prevented emissions.
• Out of all clean-air electricity sources, nuclear energy has the least impact on the environment.
• Nuclear power is inexpensive.
• Nuclear power is reliable because it is not affected by unpredictable weather or cost instability.
• Used fuels and other wastes are produced, but with very-low level radioactivity.

Cons

• Uranium is plentiful in the Earth, but Uranium-235 is rarer.
• It is very rare for an accident to occur, but if one does happen then the result would be extremely harmful for humans and nature.
• Nuclear power plants can be a major aim for terrorist attacks and if stricken would have world-wide harmful effects.
  

Clean Diesel Fuel

New diesel engines emit fewer particulate emissions than natural gas. The fewer emissions are due to the use of a new type of diesel fuel. The new fuel is an ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel and the new engines get more miles per gallon compared to natural gas engines. When refueling the amount of methane emissions are severely decreased as well.

Besides fuel, harmful emissions are decreased by combining the harmful NO gas with an electrically charged gas called plasma and a catalyst which reduces the NO into harmless nitrogen gas. Scientists have also found that by using this special catalyst they believed it would reduce NO gas emissions by 70%, but as this catalyst was tested in a lab they found that the NO gas emissions were decreased by 90%.