Final Class Experiment

During our last class, we got to try our hands at the other groups' experiments. I found the experiment on radiation and color to be the most interesting. The experiment was fairly practical and hands-on in that it just required thermometers, colored lenses and a heating lamp. The intentions of the process were to see which colors would absorb the most radiation and thus maintain a lower temperature for, say, a residential house.

The four colors chosen were blue, green, black and red - each lens covering a small thermometer. Each thermometer was set at 27 degrees and was heated by the lamp for approximately twenty minutes. Initially, I figured that green would possibly be the most efficient option for absorbing the radiation because most photosynthetic plants are green. At the end of the experiment I found that I had guessed correctly - however, the reason green is so efficient at absorbing the heat was because it's midway in the color spectrum. This was definitely an interesting experiment in terms of thinking of new ways of contemporary innovation and maintaining sustainable energy on a personal/residential level. I might be painting my next house green!

Fruit/Battery Experiment

We utilize all sorts of batteries throughout our everyday lives. Cars, cellphones, and digital watches are all powered by some sort of battery. With that said, we were curious what kind of basic principles create a “battery.” A battery is a container that consists of one or more cells that produce an electro-chemical reaction when connected to a device. The experiment we chose was to create a battery out of a fruit (lemons, limes, oranges, bananas) using carbon as the constant element and switching out various conductive metals (zinc, copper, iron) as the second element. We hypothesized that the lemon would have the highest pH level and thus would generate the highest amount of voltage. Conversely, we had guessed that a banana would produce the least amount of voltage. For the experiment, we utilized a multi-meter to measure the voltage of each fruit and metal combination. Our results were fairly surprising. On average, copper was the least conductive metal – generating only .1 volts when implanted in a lemon. The galvanized (zinc-coated) nail produced the highest readings – producing .84 volts when implanted in an orange. The most surprising aspect of our findings was that the banana produced fairly high readings on the multi-meter. This is because the ascorbic acid found in a ripe banana tends to have a fairly higher pH level than the citric acids found in the other fruits.

     
The basic principle behind creating the 

voltage is a transfer of electrons in a process known as oxidation. While zinc is entering the acidic solution, two positively charged hydrogen ions from the electrolyte combine with two electrons at the carbon’s surface and form an uncharged hydrogen molecule.

The reasoning behind conducting this experiment is to see if the acquired voltages would be adequate enough to power a small device. For instance, a small flashlight requires roughly 1.5 volts. The highest voltage we recorded was created by citric acid from the orange and the zinc-coated nail. The voltage was .84. We realized that this method was not successful in powering a device, however if we were to implant a higher amount of zinc – the voltage would likely be high enough to power a small flashlight.

Group: 
Brian Brewster, Kim Wallace, Joe Cesaro, Joe Scolley

Nuclear Disaster: Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi Power Plant

Nuclear Power plants are double-edged swords; both efficiently beneficial but potentially volatile and dangerous. In March of 2011, The Fukushima-I nuclear power plant in Japan experienced a disaster due to an earthquake's subsequent tsunami. The damage caused by the tsunami resulted in severely damaged equipment within the Fukushima plant. The broken equipment caused a loss of coolants and produced a nuclear meltdown that released huge amount of radioactive material. The disaster is the the largest in calibre since the Chernobyl disaster in the Ukraine. Many casualties resulted in from the earthquake and tsunami, however, experts agree that an radiation-exposure deaths in the future will only be limited to workers within the plant. 

Japan's government is still currently dealing with the aftermath of the meltdown - dealing with contaminated water and ensuring appropriate actions are taken in case of a similar event in the future. There remains much speculation that the disaster could have been avoided had officials reacted more quickly and without miscommunication (if water coolants had been injected at a reasonable time - the meltdown probably would not have occurred).

In a post-Fukushima Japan, there is significant focus on increasing clean energy endeavors. The leading investment firm Goldman-Sachs has even promised an investment of nearly $500 million to assist in solar, wind and biomass-related efforts. However, Japan still asserts that nuclear power is still a necessary source of energy for the country and are committed to opening new plants once proper safety guidelines are followed.

Of interesting note is the fact that Japan is the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons, so understandably the issue of nuclear-related politics is a hot topic issue for its citizens. Government officials should maintain the current interests in renewable energy sources so future disasters such as Fukushima-Daiichi don't occur again.

Global Efforts: Solar Energy & Green Subsidies

Currently, leaders and policy-makers around the world are concerned with finding greener alternatives to produce energy. Solar energy is arguably one of the most prevalent methods for a vast majority of countries to maintain a renewable energy source.

France is one country that is rigorously beginning to improve upon their solar energy efforts. The country's former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, halted new solar installations back in 2011 during an economic stagnation. However, current president Francois Hollande has promised the country to significantly boost the country's reliance on solar energy and to stray away from nuclear endeavors. In 2013 alone, the country has, in fact, doubled its target goal for new solar projects.

In Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia, focus on solar energy is becoming increasingly significant as the country's oil prices have greatly risen. In recent years, burning oil has actually accounted for approximately 50% of the country's electricity. Saudi Arabia's first solar plant was installed just two years ago. However, the nation's energy agency has vowed to expand upon solar capacity to 41 gigawatts within the next 20 years. Currently, the country's solar capacity is only at .003 gigawatts.

Clean energy subsidies have been a main focus for most developed countries. Finding a satisfying pricing equilibrium for both consumer and producer is certainly an arduous task. Global fossil-fuel energy subsidies are over $500 billion; renewable energy subsidies are just under $90 billion. Ensuring clean energy subsidies is important because it ensures security of the energy supply and ultimately stimulates local economies and helps reduce poverty by making energy more easily accessible in underdeveloped nations. However, ensuring that these clean energy sources are at sensible price points does incur the risk of over consumption. This can potentially place a heavy financial burden upon governments and threaten possible economic growth. 

Sources:

Renewable Energy World

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/21/news/international/saudi_arabia_solar/index.htm

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2013/10/20/european-economic-stability-threatened-by-renewable-energy-subsidies/

Solar Energy Project

In class, we connected a small solar cell to the NXT adaptor and measured the cell's acquired voltage with a probe. To do this, we placed a small flashlight from varying distances and aligned the data acquired by the NXT adaptor with the different distances measured. The chart below exhibits that the voltages acquired by the solar cell gradually decreases as the flashlight is distanced further away.

 Next, we placed four different colored film filters in order to see how different light spectrums affected the acquired voltage of the solar cell. The light was placed directly against the solar panel with each respective film sheet in between them. The chart below shows that the darkest hue, blue, limited the voltage the most. Whereas the lightest hue, pink, emitted the most light and gave the cell the most voltage.

Voltage Project

In class, we attached a flashlight's battery to the NXT device which was then attached to the computer via USB. The generator inside the flashlight's tube was a magnet that moved back and forth through a coil of wire. The more the flashlight itself was shaken, the more voltage was produced. The Labview program accurately measured the produced voltage over 30-second intervals. After saving the acquired data, we were able to convert the information into an Excel spreadsheet file for easier analysis.
By manually counting the number of shakes made over the 30-second intervals, we were able to plot out the sum of the squares of the voltages measured versus the amount of times the magnet was shaken. After plotting out the data from three different "shake trials," it was clear that the faster the flashlight's magnet was shaken, the higher the measured voltage was. The scatter plot below shows our findings:

Hydraulic Fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," is the high pressure injection of water-based chemicals and sand into the ground. This process creates small fractures deep within the Earth to which natural gases and petroleum will inevitably disperse to and thereby be extracted from. Despite it's relatively recent inception, fracking currently yields approximately 60% of the Earth's oil/gas wells. However popular the process, hydraulic fracturing nevertheless has created a divide among the population with just as many critics as it has proponents.

Today, many government officials are establishing strategic zoning laws to appease opponents of fracking. These critics argue that the process poses serious risks such as the contamination of valuable ground water, the expulsion of chemicals to the Earth's surface, air pollution and the subsequent health effects caused by said risks. 

Proponents of fracking urge the population to focus on the economic benefits of mining otherwise-unattainable oil and gas. They additionally argue that fracking is responsible for economic growth as well as increasing job opportunities. However, a study in 2012 by professors at the University of Wisconsin found that although fracking benefits overall income growth for a community, it has virtually no effect on employment.

I personally feel that, in terms of hydraulic fracturing, the potential risks of the means don't justify the end result. Phasing out fossil fuels altogether seems to be the safest and most reliable alternative to fracking.

Sources:

http://www.catskillmountainkeeper.org/our-programs/fracking/why-we-need-to-ban-fracking-and-adopt-a-renewable-energy-policy/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1817691/

http://www.spe.org/jpt/print/archives/2010/12/10Hydraulic.pdf

Lego Mindstorms Project

In class, we assembled a small, wheeled robot that we then attached to our computers via it's USB port. On the computer, we used the robot's respective data-entry application to program the robots specifications. By measuring and inputting the circumference of the robot's two wheels - we were able to accurately program the robot to travel for a certain time (measured in seconds) with each wheel set to a certain power level. Through multiple sets of trials and comparisons, we were able to accurately decipher the distance the robot traveled, at what velocity it traveled and the percentage of error between the computer's measured distance versus our manually measured distances. For example, when travelling for 3 seconds with each wheel set to a power level of "30," the computer measured a distance of .6 meters (a meter per second). However, when manually measuring the physical distance from point A to point B, we found the distance to be only slightly longer by .0445 meters. This produced a discrepancy of only .75%. Trying other settings produced similar results - with only small percentages of error between .2% and .75%. It was an interesting experiment and showed me how possible it is for scientists to program a motorized device to travel specific distances and at certain speeds - and how to accurately measure and compare the subsequent data of the device's movement.

Maximizing Fuel Efficiency

Fuel efficiency has long been a significant issue for the automotive industry. Since the levels of efficiency vary per vehicle and their respective technologies, consumers are faced with a vast multitude of buying options. Many factors come into play when determining a given vehicles fuel economy. For instance, the weight, engine size and overall framework of a vehicle significantly affect how efficiently it utilizes fuel.

Engines that use diesel fuel usually attain better gas mileage than engines that use common gasoline. On average, diesel engines gain approximately 10% better fuel efficiency than engines utilizing common gasoline. Simply put, this is achieved because diesel engines ignite from heat compression rather than from a spark. The diesel engine's high compression ratio is more efficient than a gasoline engine's because it only compresses air whereas a gas engine mixes air with the gasoline.

Hybrid electric vehicles are another way in which fuel efficiency is being improved by contemporary technology. These automobiles utilize utilize both a combustion engine and one or more electric motors. Not only do hybrids achieve better mileage than traditional vehicles, they also release significantly fewer harmful emissions such as CO2 into the air.

Currently, automotive designers have even implemented ways for vehicles to run off of hydrogen-fueled rockets. However, hydrogen fuel isn't a naturally-occurring agent on Earth. So scientists and engineers must find efficient ways in which it can be produced locally within the vehicle - either through wind or by solar-power.

Sources:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/di_diesels.shtml

http://what-is-what.com/what_is/hybrid_vehicle.html

http://www.nrel.gov/hydrogen/proj_wind_hydrogen.html

"Smart Grid" Technology in The U.S.

Although the U.S. has had a dynamic electrical grid since the Industrial Age, energy efficiency is nevertheless improving because "Smart Grid" technologies are being utilized across the country. This innovative system of delivering electricity relies upon two-way digitized communication between power plants and their respective consumers. Now, network operations can be monitored and controlled by devices that accurately measure and gather data pertaining to voltage, distribution and networking errors and faults.


 On the consumer end of "Smart Grids," benefits include the prioritization of energy distribution. For example, local meters and devices minimize energy consumption from home equipment of low-precedence (i.e. water heaters, washer/dryer units etc.) and reserve that power for more critical usage. Subsequently, this energy prioritization proves to be economically-friendly. The U.S. Department of Energy even estimates that these "Smart Grid" technologies will potentially save the country upwards of 100 billion dollars over a 20-year period.

However advantageous, automizing the electric industry inevitably receives public criticism. Ensuing job cuts are taking place in markets where these new technologies are implemented because electric workers are constantly being replaced by self-efficient meters and devices. Despite this, advocates for these "Smart Grid" technologies argue that the end results ultimately justify the means.



The 21st century is full of technological advances in virtually every sector of society. To deny similar advances for the country's century-old electrical grid seems, to me, to be counterproductive regardless of job losses.

Sources:
GridWiseTM: The Benefits of a Transformed Energy System - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

http://energy.gov/oe/technology-development/smart-grid

http://www.energyfuturecoalition.org/files/webfmuploads/EFC_Report/EFCReport.pdf

Germany's Green Energy Policy

Germany's green energy policy is widely considered to be one of the most innovative renewable energy plans in the world. Despite this reputation, there still remains much criticism concerning the country's obsessive focus with becoming a trailblazer for green energy. The country aims to produce nearly 35% of all its energy from renewable sources by the year 2020. Subsequently, government officials have been shutting down a vast majority of the country's nuclear plants in favor of utilizing more renewable sources.

Most notably, Germany has employed the use of wind turbines along it's Northern coasts to transport energy throughout the country through a strategic national grid. Because these turbines are placed along the country's shores, they tend to be more cost-effective and dependable than turbines located elsewhere in the country. However, because these turbines aren't centrally-located, Germans are burdened with costlier taxes to support the country's extensive national grid.

The country has also undertaken many other opportunities to utilize renewable energy. For example, solar energy will largely be obtained by way of Italy from their solar panels in the deserts of North Africa. However, like the wind turbines in the North,
transporting and dispersing this energy from the South will entail additional high costs.

Because renewable energy sources aren't always consistent (i.e. it isn't always windy and/or sunny), there still needs to be a focus on maintaining "old-fashioned" and reliable ways of producing energy. Bringing green energy to large, centrally-located cities such as Frankfurt proves to be too costly on taxpayers. In my own opinion, German officials should focus more on finding equilibrium between cost-effectiveness and energy sustainability. There simply seems to be too much hype surrounding the concept of utilizing renewable energy without regard to fiscal practicality.

Sources:
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/03/new-record-for-german-renewable-energy-in-2010??cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-March30-2011

http://www.spiegel.de/international/crossing-the-20-percent-mark-green-energy-use-jumps-in-germany-a-783314.html

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2009/04/germany-the-worlds-first-major-renewable-energy-economy?cmpid=WNL-Wednesday-April8-2009

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2007/12/germany-to-require-renewables-for-new-homes-in-2009-50746