Home work 5.

Energy Options and Policy

1.

What are the three main impact areas of energy use?

AnsThree main impact areas are environmental, economic, and security.
1. Environmental Impact:

Acreage for power plants and collecting fuels such as coal, crops for biomass, and
collectors for solar and wind energy.
Water used in power plants for cooling and for agricultural production of energy
crops.
Risks of oil spills,leaked nuclear radiation and other contaminants getting into the
water supply.
Air impacts caused by emission of particles and gases that affect human health and
induce climate change, acid rain, and smog.
Escalating concerns about carbon emissions.

Economic Impact:

Energy imports can be expensive.

Higher energy prices show up in the prices of food, plastic, chemical products, and
pharmaceuticals.

Security Impact:

Countries in the headlines are intertwined with the worlds energy system.
Iran is a major oil producer and exporter and has publicly expressed a desire to build
nuclear weapons.
North Korea would also like to build nuclear power plants.
Nigerias oil producing delta is in a state of open rebellion.
China constructs one or two new coal plants every week which do not conform to
environmental standards.

2. What is the ideal U.S. energy solution?

AnsThe ideal U.S. energy solution:
Is sufficiently abundant such that it enables the U.S. economy to prosper.
Does not pollute the environment beyond U.S. capacity to clean up.

 Does not undermine U.S. security by introducing vulnerabilities into the system
of energy delivery and does not enrich countries with interests opposed to the
United States.
For example, the United States has the largest coal reserves in the world.
However coal is dirty. Therefore it satisfies the economic concerns and national
security concerns, but it does not satisfy environmental concerns. Finding ways
to bridge these gaps is the key to finding a viable energy solution.
Energy Technologies of the Future
The critical energy technologies of the future are those that address the energy
problem while balancing the three key priorities.
There are four critical technologies that facilitate overcoming barriers to a
green energy transition:

3.What are four critical technologies that facilitate

overcoming barriers to a green energy transition?
Ans1. Energy storage, both large (wind & solar) and small scale (electric
cars).
2. Carbon capture (carbon scrubbers in coal generating plants) and
sequestration (underground storage).
3. Super grids (to connect remote sources of renewable power with
locations of demand).
4. Next generation bio-fuels (corn based ethanol, soy
based biodiesel, sugar cane ethanol in Brazil, grass and wood for
ethanol and algae for bio diesel).

Wind power AND SOLAR POWER

Airflows can be used to run wind turbines. Modern utility-scale wind turbines
range from around 600 kW to 5 MW of rated power, although turbines with rated
output of 1.53 MW have become the most common for commercial use; the
power available from the wind is a function of the cube of the wind speed, so as

wind speed increases, power output increases up to the maximum output for the
particular turbine.
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun harnessed using a range of
ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal
energy, solar architecture and artificial photosynthesis.
It is an important source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly
characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on the way they
capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power.

Electric cars:
An electric car is an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors,
using electrical energy stored in rechargeable or another energy storage device.
Electric motors give electric cars instant torque, creating strong and smooth
acceleration. They are also around three times as efficient as cars with an internal
combustion engine.

Carbon capture and sequestration:

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) (or carbon capture and sequestration) is the
process of capturing waste carbon dioxide (CO2) from large point sources, such
as fossil fuel power plants, transporting it to a storage site, and depositing it where
it will not enter the atmosphere, normally an underground geological formation.
The aim is to prevent the release of large quantities of CO2 into the atmosphere
(from fossil fuel use in power generation and other industries). It is a potential
means of mitigating the contribution of fossil fuel emissions to global warming
and ocean acidification.

Bio fuel:
A biofuel is a fuel that is produced through contemporary biological processes,
such as agriculture and anaerobic digestion, rather than a fuel produced by
geological processes such as those involved in the formation of fossil, such as coal
and petroleum, from prehistoric biological matter. Biofuels can be derived directly
from plants, or indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or
industrial wastes.

4.What are some non technical solutions?

Ans- Nontechnical solutions might include. Behavioral shifts, cultural shifts,

new policies, and innovative markets.

Behavioral and culture shifts:

According to international organizations such as UNESCO and the General

Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), cultural industries (sometimes also
known as "creative industries") combine the creation, production,
and distribution of goods and services that are cultural in nature and usually
protected by intellectual property rights. Cultural industries worldwide have
adapted to the new digital technologies and to the arrival of national, regional and
international regulatory policies. These factors have radically altered the context in
which cultural goods, services, and investments flow between countries.

New polices and innovation market:

The Technology Radar survey, launched at the start of the year, takes the pulse of
technical innovation in the sector and looks ahead to the future investment drivers. It
revealed the investment drives to be:

Safety improvements (45%)

Improving operational efficiency (44%)

Reducing costs (43%)

Accessing new reserves (29%)

Increasing asset lifespan (27%)

The Technology Radar survey is one of the largest polls on the issue of technology and
innovation in the oil and gas industry. It takes in to account respondents opinions and their
business strategies in the near term (before 2020).