Switch
(10 points)
Coal
1.
2.
3.
4.
How much of the United States’ electric generation comes from coal? How much supply remains?
The power plant shown uses five trainloads of coal per day, every day. Why is coal such an attractive source of electricity?
What are the external problems caused by burning coal for electricity?
Clean coal is a technology that captures and sequesters the pollutants released by burning it. Why isn’t this technology
used in all coal plants?
Oil
5. What are two factors that can influence the price of oil?
6. What is a spar platform?
7. How long does it take to set up a spar drilling rig?
8. What happens at an oil refinery?
9. Gasoline is described in the documentary as a “miracle” fuel. Why is it so ideal for transportation?
10. How much U.S. oil demand is represented by the large oil tanker?
11. What advantage do biofuels have within our current system?
12. What is the most commonly used source of biofuel?
13. What is the advantage of using plants high in cellulose like sorghum and switchgrass instead of corn?
14. Switchgrass can be grown on “marginal land”. What is marginal land?
15. The biggest problem with using biofuels is “scale”. Explain what this means.
Compressed Natural Gas
16. Explain how natural gas is a cleaner fuel than diesel.
17. Natural gas is a cheaper fuel than diesel, but it has higher capital costs. What does this mean?
Oil Sands
18. Compare the consistency of oil present in the tar sands of Canada with typical petroleum.
19. Explain how oil is extracted from the sands.
20. If oil from the Canadian sands is so difficult to extract, why does Conoco Phillips bother?
Hybrid
21. Why are we transitioning into hybrid cars instead of jumping straight to all-electric?
22. What is the base price of the Tesla model shown?
23. How much more electricity would need to be generated if all our vehicles were converted to electric?
Geothermal
24. Explain how geothermal plants produce electricity.
25. What waste product(s) are given off by geothermal plants?
26. Explain how geothermal energy is a regional resource and dependent on geology.
Solar
27. How long does it take homeowners who install solar panels to recover their investment?
28. Solar energy is described as regional. What three variables must be at high levels in order for it to be economically viable?
29. Diablo Valley College has a solar array above one of its parking lots. How much energy is produced by this array per year?
30. How does concentrated solar heating
work differently than photovoltaic
cells?
Wind
31. What advantage does wind power
have over other renewable resources?
32. The biggest problem with wind power
is its intermittence. What does this
mean?
33. Explain why so many transmission
lines have to be constructed to
support wind farms.
34. Based on the graph shown, when are
the peak times for electricity
consumption?
35. What is wind power supplemented
with in Texas to overcome its
intermittence?
Hydrofracking
36. Natural gas within shale formations normally cannot escape. How does hydrofracking change this?
37. Name two big advantages of tapping into these deep shale formations.
38. What is the single biggest problem with hydrofracking?
39. Is water contamination more likely to occur from the deep well operations, or surface operations? Give an example.
40. Natural gas is very difficult to store. How is the gas captured at sea between Iran and Qatar transported?
Nuclear
41. What kinds of external damage can nuclear containment buildings withstand?
42. What is the bigger hurdle in developing nuclear power: the cost of the plant, or the fuel?
43. France gets 80% of its electricity from nuclear power. What do they do with the waste – the spent fuel rods?
Conclusion
44. Scott Tinker discusses a 50-year “crossover”, where our use of alternative fuels for energy overtakes foundational fuels.
What does he include in the foundational fuels graph? What does he include in the alternative fuels graph?
45. Meeting the challenge of the 50-year crossover will require a tremendous amount of construction of renewable, nuclear,
and gas-powered plants. What does Scott suggest is the best way to deal with this?
46. The Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) on Alaska’s North Slope is frequently in the news because petroleum
geologists estimate that there are billions of barrels of economically recoverable oil beneath the surface of its frozen
tundra. According to a 1998 United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimate, ANWR could contain up to 10 billion barrels
of technically recoverable oil. Oil company officials advocate opening the refuge to oil exploration and the subsequent
development of its petroleum resources. Environmentalists argue that oil exploration and development will damage this
fragile ecosystem and urge Congress to protect ANWR by designating it as a wilderness area.
(a) The United States consumes approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day. According to the USGS estimate, for how many
days would the technically recoverable oil resource in ANWR supply the total United States demand for oil?
(b) Describe TWO characteristics of arctic tundra that make it fragile and explain how these two characteristics make the tundra
particularly susceptible to damage from human impacts.
(c) Identify TWO activities that would be associated with the development of ANWR petroleum resources and describe a
substantial environmental impact of each in ANWR.
(d) Identify and describe TWO major end uses of the 20 million barrels of oil that the United States consumes each day and for
each use describe a conservation measure that would substantially reduce United States consumption.
47. West Fremont is a community consisting of 3,000 homes. A small coal-burning power plant currently supplies electricity for
the town. The capacity of the power plant is 12 megawatts (MW) and the average household consumes 8,000 kilowatt hours
(kWh) of electrical energy each year. The price paid to the electric utility by West Fremont residents for this energy is $0.10 per
kWh. The town leaders are considering a plan, the West Fremont Wind Project (WFWP), to generate their own electricity using
10 wind turbines that would be located on the wooded ridges surrounding the town. Each wind turbine would have a capacity
of 1.2 MW and each would cost the town $3 million to purchase, finance, and operate for 25 years.
(a) Assuming that the existing power plant can operate at full capacity for 8,000 hrs/yr, how many kWh of electricity can be
produced by the plant in a year?
(b) At the current rate of electrical energy use per household, how many kWh of electrical energy does the community consume
in one year?
(c) Compare your answers in (a) and (b) and explain why you would or would not expect the numbers to be the same.
(d) Assuming that the electrical energy needs of the community do not change during the 25-year lifetime of the wind turbines,
what would be the cost to the community of the electricity supplied by the WFWP over 25 years? Express your answer in
dollars/kWh.
(e) Identify and explain TWO environmental benefits to West Fremont of switching from coal to wind power and TWO
environmental costs to West Fremont of switching from coal to wind power.