Lpez Pablo Lpez Professors: Mara Anglica Kaulen, Consuelo Gajardo English Language III 25 May 2011 Energy

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TYPE OF ENERGY Solar tower

HOW IT IS PRODUCED Air is heated by sunshine and contained in a very large greenhouse-like structure around the base of a tall chimney, and the resulting convection causes air to rise up the updraft tower. This airflow drives turbines, which produce electricity.

ADVANTAGES Carbon dioxide is emitted only negligibly while operating. Like other renewable power sources there would be no cost for fuel. It would have relatively low operating cost.

DISADVANTAGES The solar updraft tower has power conversion rate considerably lower than many other designs in the (high temperature) solar thermal group of collectors. 1000-metre-high tower and a collector of 7 kilometres in diameter (38 km) in order to produce energy to 200,000 typical households. It requires a large initial capital outlay. It requires a larger collector area and leads to higher cost of construction and maintenance. The electricity cannot possibly be cheaper. It degrades the land. A single solar panel can only produce a limited amount of power. These need a cost of mechanical complexity and need for maintenance. The actual voltage output of the panel changes as lighting, temperature and load conditions change, so there is never one

Solar panels

Solar panels use light energy (photons) from the sun to generate electricity through the photovoltaic effect. A photovoltaic system typically includes an array of solar panels, an

These produce clean, renewable energy.

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inverter, may contain a battery and interconnection wiring. The circular Solar Islands with a diameter of 5 kilometres and a height of 20 meters consists of a torus, which is the steam storage, carrying the term solar panels placed on a membrane. The whole platform adjusts its position to the course of the sun, to assure a maximum yield rate. To enable the platform to move, electric hydrodynamic motors will be fixed every 10 metres along the circumference. The platform can be situated floating on high sea, on remote cost lines and even on shore. Electricity is generated by hydropower whose production of electrical power is through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. specific voltage at which the panel operates. These produce clean, renewable energy. The active area of panels can be more than 95% of the available area The thermal principle allows to store energy, so energy can also be supplied at night It requires a large initial capital outlay. It requires a larger collector area and leads to higher cost of construction and maintenance.

Solar islands

Hydroelectric plants

It is the most widely used form of renewable energy. The project produces no direct waste, and has a considerably lower output level of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) than fossil fuel powered energy plants. There is an elimination of the cost of fuel. Reservoirs created by hydroelectric schemes often provide facilities for water sports, and become tourist attractions themselves.

Large reservoirs required for the operation of hydroelectric power stations result in submersion of extensive areas upstream of the dams, destroying biologically rich and productive lowland and valley forests, marshland and grasslands. Hydroelectric projects can be disruptive to surrounding aquatic ecosystems. Some reservoirs can become completely full of sediment and useless or over-top during a flood and fail. There is a need to relocate the people living where the reservoirs are planned. Dam failures have been some of the largest

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man-made disasters in history. The reservoirs of power plants in tropical regions may produce substantial amounts of methane. Changes in the amount of river flow will correlate with the amount of energy produced by a dam. Nuclear power plants typically have high capital costs for building the plant. There are threats which include the problems of processing, transport and storage of radioactive nuclear waste, the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation and terrorism, as well as health risks and environmental damage from uranium mining. Reactors themselves are enormously complex machines where many things can and do go wrong, and there have been serious nuclear accidents. The construction of wind farms is not universally welcomed because of their visual impact. As the proportion of total demand rises, increased costs. It has a high capital cost per turbine. Danger to birds and bats has been a concern in some locations. A decline of wind speeds would reduce energy yield. Noise can be a serious problem. Turbines are much less accessible when offshore (Access to turbines is by helicopter or service access vessel). A maintenance organization performs maintenance and repairs of the

Nuclear plants This is the use of sustained nuclear fission (in which the atom is split into two or more smaller nuclei with kinetic energy) to generate heat and do useful work (heating water and producing steam). Nuclear power is a sustainable energy source that reduces carbon emissions. These have low fuel costs. Nuclear power is the only viable course to achieve energy independence for most Western countries.

Wind power

This is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity.

Off-shored wind power This refers to the construction of wind farms in bodies of water to generate electricity from wind.

Wind farms are used to provide electricity to isolated locations. Wind energy, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. It does not have problematic effects on the environment. Wind power has negligible fuel costs. Better wind speeds are available offshore compared to on land, so off-shore wind powers contribution in terms of electricity supplied is higher.

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components, spending almost all its resources on the turbines. The planning and permitting phase can cost more than $10 million, take 57 years and have an uncertain outcome. Thermoelectric generators are usually used for small applications. In order to get a significant output voltage a very high Seebeck coefficient is needed (high V/C). It has historically been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Only a very small fraction of the Earth's geothermal resources may be profitably exploited. Drilling and exploration for deep resources is very expensive. The thermal efficiency of geothermal electric plants is low, around 10-23%, because geothermal fluids do not reach the high temperatures of steam from boilers. Fluids drawn from the deep earth carry a mixture of gases, notably carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulphide (H2S), methane (CH4) and ammonia (NH3). These pollutants contribute to global warming, acid rain, and noxious smells if released. Its capital costs are significant. Most of this energy flow is not recoverable.

Thermoelectric generator

Geothermal power

These are devices which convert heat (temperature differences) directly into electrical energy, using a phenomenon called the "Seebeck effect" (or "thermoelectric effect"). This is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth, such as radioactive decay of minerals, from volcanic activity, and from solar energy absorbed at the surface. This drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in the form of heat from the core to the surface in order to produce electricity.

The use of waste heat in combustion engines promises to be a high volume application field. Thermoelectric modules can be used for energy recovery of otherwise wasted heat. Geothermal power is cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly. Geothermal power has the potential to help mitigate global warming if widely deployed in place of fossil fuels. Geothermal power requires no fuel (except for pumps), and is therefore immune to fuel cost fluctuations.