Lesson 1 Reflection: Introduction to Energy

1. In this lesson, I have learnt that the energy consumption is divided unequally in the
world. The big cities would consume more energy while the rest would not. It is
interesting to know that there are 17% of the world lack access to electricity. Next, I
have learnt about the reasons to focus on energy. There are five main reasons,
which are finite supply, human health, environment, national security and
geographic distribution. The third thing that I have learnt is the measurement of
energy. I’ve learnt about the BTU, measuring energy density by mass, energy density
by volume and also the cost of energy.

2. The article is about lowering the cost of wind energy by applying advanced
technology to the wind farm in the future. As stated by National Renewable Energy
Laboratory (NREL), turbines will be used in the wind plant to boost up its power
production. This new wind turbine can be produced with the supercomputing
technology. According to the report, new wind power plants will be more precise in
terms of electricity production estimation, more reliable, longer lifetime, has better
energy capture, more grid resilience and stable. Wind energy is really important in
the US. The drop of the cost of wind turbine is important to the country as the
subsidization of the wind energy will no longer be available in 2019.

Title of article: How to cut the cost of wind energy in half – A national lab report
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2017/08/how-to-cut-the-cost-of-
wind-energy-in-half-a-national-lab-report.html

3. I am still in pre major currently but I am interested in chemical engineering. My

expected date of graduation would be in Fall 2020.