EIA’s New Interactive Maps: State Energy Portal

According to the the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), its state energy portal is “the most comprehensive, dynamic, and interactive view of the U.S. government’s national and state energy data and information currently available to the public.”

The profile/map for NC can be found here. By clicking on the “Layers/Legend” tab and selecting one of five available base maps, educators can customize maps and charts for classroom use. Maps can be created to show availability of energy sources, transmission lines, major power plants as well as renewable energy potential for North Carolina.  Electricity, nuclear, natural gas and renewable energy profiles for the state are also available along with supporting data tables in Microsoft Excel. Also, by clicking on a specific power plant, the portal links users directly to that plant’s data in EIA’s electricity data browser (see corresponding blog post).

This tool also shows how NC ranks in comparison to the other 49 states in terms of energy production, consumption, prices for electricity and natural gas, and carbon dioxide emissions.

Electricity data browser from EIA

The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently posted an electricity data browser to show generation, consumption, fossil fuel receipts, stockpiles, retail sales, and electricity prices. The data appear on an interactive web page and are updated each month; annual, quarterly and monthly data are available from 2001-2011. All images and datasets are available for download.  Furthermore, data sets can be filtered by fuel type, geographic region or state, or energy sector, enabling you to customize data sets and graphs for your state or region.

I encourage you to check out this tool to get up to date US energy data and to create customized graphs for use in the classroom. For example, this tool can be used to quickly get data and corresponding graphs to answer a variety of questions such as:

How much of NC’s electricity generation comes from biomass? natural gas? coal?

How does NC’s consumption of biomass compare the US as a whole?

How has NC’s consumption of natural gas changed since 2001?

Which region of the US is generating the most electricity from natural gas?

Teacher Resources from KidWind.org

I featured the Windwise curriculum from The KidWind Project in a previous post but KidWind recently updated its website to include a comprehensive set of teacher resources pertaining to wind energy.  Check out the free resources available to support classroom instruction of wind energy:

Powerpoint presentations on wind energy, solar energy and electricity fundamentals.

Energy-related Activities (pdf format) designed to be quick and easy to integrate into the classroom.

How to Videos to support use of KidWind products as well as wind energy instruction.

Portland’s Electric Avenue

I am excited that the creators of Earth The Operators’ Manual have just released two new PBS episodes, Powering the Planet and Energy Quest USA.  I just watched an excerpt from Energy Quest USA titled Portland: the “Trip Not Taken” and learned about many of the things happening in the city of Portland, Oregon to promote “green” transportation including something called Electric Avenue, a street of electric charging stations.  Furthermore, all Electric Avenue charging stations are powered with 100 percent renewable energy and the charging is free!  Check out this August 2011 New York Times article about Electric Avenue and its solar powered charging stations and perhaps encourage your students to plan and design what an electric avenue might look like in their town.  What additional city planning strategies can your students come up with that would enable residents to move about town and commute to and from work without relying on gasoline powered cars? Perhaps invite local government officials to hear your students’ ideas!

Additional resources about Electric Avenue including a map can be found here.  A March 2012 Forbes article summarizes 10 lessons learned from Portland’s Electric Avenue thus far.

Comparing finite and renewable planetary energy reserves

This figure can be used to visually engage your students on the topic of the world’s energy reserves.  Published in the April 2009 issue of The Solar Update, the newsletter of the International Energy Agency’s Solar Heating and Cooling Programme, this figure shows total recoverable reserves for finite energy resources (fossil fuels and uranium) and yearly potential for renewables. Ask your students what information they think the authors are trying to convey in this visual as they compare finite energy reserves to renewables.  A key point the authors convey in this article, titled The world’s energy reserves: a fundamental look, is that the amount of energy available from the sun is more than 200 times larger than all the others combined.

Your students could then critically evaluate the authors’ conclusion that “logic alone would indicate that the planetary energy future will be solar-based. There will of course be challenges, managing this locally variable — but globally stable and predictable — resource, in particular developing the necessary storage technologies and infrastructures. However, solar energy – as embodied by dispersed [photovoltaic] and [concentrated solar power] — is the only quasi-ready-to-deploy resource that is both large enough and acceptable enough to carry the planet for the long haul.”

NASA Images: Solar Insolation across the Globe

These images from NASA show the average solar insolation, or rate of incoming sunlight at the Earth’s surface, over the entire globe for the months of January and April. Such images are particularly useful to engineers and entrepreneurs who develop new technologies for converting solar energy into electricity. To attain best results, most devices for harvesting sunlight require an insolation of greater than 3 to 4 kilowatt hours per square meter per day.

 NASA’s Surface Meteorology and Solar Energy website contains global solar energy data for 1195 ground sites, including Greensboro and Raleigh NC.  You can also retrieve meteorological and solar energy data for your location -choosing from a variety of parameters.

Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) Technology

I just read about the The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada which, when complete, will be the world’s largest commercial concentrated solar power (CSP) plant. CSP plants use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect the sun’s heat and transfer it to a fluid that holds heat well.  This fluid is then used to heat water, creating steam, which is used to generate electricity. By incorporating  thermal storage, concentrating solar power technologies can provide power during periods (up to 15 hours) when the sun isn’t shining. There are three main types of concentrating solar power systems: linear concentrator, dish/engine, and power tower systems.  The American Southwest, with its abundant sunlight and warm daytime temperatures is ideal for these systems.

You can learn more about CSP technologies by visiting NREL’s Concentrating Solar Power webpage which includes a 2 minute video about CSP and the US DOE’s Concentrating Solar Power webpage.

A milestone in the The Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a power tower system, was reached earlier this month when construction of the 540 foot tower was completed.  A short, 1 and 1/2 minute time-lapse video highlighting the tower’s construction is available.

 

Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Solar Set for 60% Growth in North America in 2012

Solarbuzz, a solar market research and analysis company, announced in its latest quarterly report that “sharp reductions in market prices combined with the impact of regional and national policies pushed the North American photovoltaic market to a new quarterly peak with 0.93 GW installed in Q4’11.” The report states that utility-scale photovoltaic solar is set for 60% Growth in North America in 2012.

We are already seeing more utility scale solar projects in North Carolina, one of which is highlighted below.  The company behind many of these solar installations is Southern Energy Management and you can read about their commercial solar projects here.  Chances are there is a large scale solar project near you that would be worthwhile to investigate with your students.

Have you heard about solar double cropping?

This one of a kind project is currently being tested right here in NC! The new solar double cropping project in Pittsboro, NC is an experiment designed to show that you can have a solar photovoltaic system and grow sustainable crops that thrive in partial shade at the same time!  A 3 and ½ minute video is available that describes the project, discusses the significance of double cropping, and showcases the construction of the photovoltaic system.  If you teach anywhere near Pittsboro you may want consider taking a field trip to Piedmont Biofarm and the sustainable industrial complex of which it is a part. I can tell you from first-hand experience that students enjoy seeing the sustainable innovations that are evident here.

Generation Technologies Assessment from EPRI

When I address the topic of electricity generation with teachers and students, a key message I aim to to convey is that every energy source used to generate electricity has its advantages and disadvantages.  This knowledge is key to evaluating both renewable and non-renewable energy sources for their potential to provide electricity to a growing population and in doing so  promotes critical thinking about electricity generation in the 21st century.

Coal, coal w/carbon capture and storage (CCS), natural gas, nuclear, hydro, wind, biomass, geothermal, and solar, are all sources for electricity generation.  The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) recently published  an Assessment of Relative Benefit / Impact webpage that visually ranks each energy source from more favorable to least favorable with regards to the following criteria:

Construction Cost
Electricity Cost
Land Use
Water Requirements
CO2 Emissions
Non-CO2 Emissions
Waste Products
Availability
Flexibility

Details are also provided about each of the above criteria and, by clicking on the energy source of interest, the user is taken to a summary page that further details the extent to which this energy source is used to generate electricity.  The Electric Generation Technologies by Region page shows the energy sources used to generate electricity in your region compared to the national average.  You can also compare the energy sources used to generate electricity in your region to those of other regions of the country.