Construction activities that may cause environmental impacts include ground clearing, grading, excavation, blasting, trenching, vehicular

and pedestrian traffic, and drilling. Typical activities during the solar energy facility construction phase include ground clearing (removal of vegetative cover), grading, excavation, blasting, trenching, drilling, vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and construction and installation of facilities. Activities conducted in locations other than the facility site include excavation/blasting for construction materials (sands, gravels) and access road construction. Potential impacts from these activities are presented below, by the type of affected resource. The following potential impacts may result from solar energy construction activities.

Acoustics (Noise)
The primary sources of noise during construction would be equipment (e.g., rollers, bulldozers, diesel engines). Other sources of noise include vehicular traffic and blasting for raw materials. Whether the noise levels exceed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines or local ordinances would depend on the distance to the nearest residence. If near a residential area, noise levels from blasting and some equipment operation could exceed the EPA guideline but would be intermittent and extend for only a limited time.

Air Quality (including Global Climate Change and Carbon Footprint)

Emissions generated during the construction phase include vehicle emissions; diesel emissions from large construction equipment and generators; VOC releases from storage and transfer of vehicle/equipment fuels, small amounts of carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulates from blasting activities; and fugitive dust from many sources such as disturbing and moving soils (clearing, grading, excavating, trenching, backfilling, dumping, and truck and equipment traffic), mixing concrete, storage of unvegetated soil piles, and drilling and pile driving. A permit is needed from the state or local air agency to control or mitigate these emissions; therefore, these emissions would not likely cause an exceedance of air quality standards nor have an impact on climate change.

Cultural Resources
Direct impacts to cultural resources could occur from construction activities, and indirect impacts might be caused by soil erosion and increased accessibility to possible site locations. Potential impacts include:

Complete destruction of the resource if present in areas undergoing surface disturbance or excavation;

Degradation or destruction of near-surface cultural resources on- and off-site resulting from topographic or hydrological pattern changes, or from soil movement (removal, erosion, sedimentation). (Note: the accumulation of sediment could protect some localities by increasing the amount of protective cover.); Unauthorized removal of artifacts or vandalism to the site could occur as a result of increases in human access to previously inaccessible areas, if significant cultural resources are present; and Visual impacts resulting from vegetation clearing, increases in dust, and the presence of large-scale equipment, machinery, and vehicles (if the affected cultural resources have an associated landscape or other visual component that contributes to their significance, such as a sacred landscape or historic trail).

HOW CAR ENGINES WORK The purpose of a gasoline car engine is to convert gasoline into motion so that your car can move. Currently the easiest way to create motion from gasoline is to burn the gasoline inside an engine. Therefore, a car engine is an internal combustion engine -- combustion takes place internally. Two things to note:

There are different kinds of internal combustion engines. Diesel engines are one form and gas turbine engines are another. See also the articles on HEMI engines, rotary engines and two-stroke engines. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. There is such a thing as an external combustion engine. A steam engine in old-fashioned trains and steam boats is the best example of an external combustion engine. The fuel (coal, wood, oil, whatever) in a steam engine burns outside the engine to create steam, and the steam creates motion inside the engine. Internal combustion is a lot more efficient (takes less fuel per mile) than external combustion, plus an internal combustion engine is a lot smaller than an equivalent external combustion engine. This explains why we don't see any cars from Ford and GM using steam engines. 1. Intake stroke: The first stroke of the internal combustion engine is also known as the suction stroke because the piston moves to the maximum volume position (downward direction in the cylinder). The inlet valve opens as a result of the cam lobe pressing down on the valve stem, and the vaporized fuel mixture enters the combustion chamber. The inlet valve closes at the end of this stroke. 2. Compression stroke: In this stroke, both valves are closed and the piston starts its movement to the minimum volume position (upward direction in the cylinder) and compresses the fuel mixture. During the compression process, pressure, temperature and the density of the fuel mixture increases. 3. A Power stroke: When the piston reaches a point just before top dead center, the spark plug ignites the fuel mixture. The point at which the fuel ignites varies by engine; typically it is about 10 degrees before top dead center. This expansion of gases caused by ignition of the fuel produces the power that is transmitted to the crank shaft mechanism. 4. Exhaust stroke: In the end of the power stroke, the exhaust valve opens. During this stroke, the piston starts its movement in the maximum volume position. The open exhaust valve allows the exhaust gases to escape the cylinder. At the end of this stroke, the

exhaust valve closes, the inlet valve opens, and the sequence repeats in the next cycle. Four-stroke engines require two revolutions.