Learning Guide Unit 5

Overview

Unit 5: Sustaining Energy Resources

Topics:

Challenges and Impacts of Energy Use

Non-Renewable Energy Sources

Renewable Energy Sources

Combined Heat and Power as an Alternative Energy Source

Hydrogen and Electricity as Alternative Fuels

Electricity Grid and Sustainability Challenges

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this Unit, you will be able to:

1. Outline the history of human energy use.

2. Understand the challenges to continued reliance on fossil energy.

3. Outline environmental impacts of energy use.

4. Understand the global capacity for each non-renewable energy source.

5. Evaluate the different energy sources based on their environmental impact.

 6. Understand the key factors in the growth of renewable energy sources.

Tasks:

Peer assess Unit 4 Written Assignment

Read the Learning Guide and Reading Assignments

Participate in the Discussion Assignment (post, comment, and rate in the Discussion
Forum)

Make entries to the Learning Journal

Take the Self-Quiz

Introduction

We derive our energy from a multitude of resources that have varying environmental
challenges related to air and water pollution, land use, carbon dioxide emissions,
resource extraction and supply, as well as related safety and health issues.

Each resource needs to be evaluated within the sustainability paradigm.

Coal (45%) and gas (23%) are the two primary fossil fuels for electricity production in
the United States. Coal combustion produces nearly twice the carbon emissions of gas
combustion. Increasing public opinion and regulatory pressure to lower carbon emissions
are shifting electricity generation toward gas and away from coal.

Oil for transportation and electricity generation are the two biggest users of primary
energy and producers of carbon emissions in the United States.

Transportation is almost completely dependent on oil and internal combustion engines

for its energy. The concentration of oil in a few regions of the world creates a
transportation energy security issue.

Nuclear electricity offers the sustainable benefit of low carbon electricity at the cost of
storing spent fuel out of the environment for up to hundreds of thousands of years.
Reprocessing spent fuel offers the advantages of higher energy efficiency and reduced
spent fuel storage requirements with the disadvantage of higher risk of weapons
proliferation through diversion of the reprocessed fuel stream.

Strong interest in renewable energy arose in the 1970s as a response to the shortage and
high price of imported oil, which disrupted the orderly operation of the economies and
societies of many developed countries. Today there are new motivations, including the
realization that growing greenhouse gas emission accelerates global warming and
threatens climate change, the growing dependence of many countries on foreign oil, and
the economic drain of foreign oil payments that slow economic growth and job creation.

There are three ultimate sources of all renewable and fossil energies: sunlight, the heat
in the earths core and crust, and the gravitational pull of the moon and sun on the oceans.

Renewable energies are relatively recently developed and typically operate at lower
efficiencies than mature fossil technologies.

Like early fossil technologies, however, renewables can be expected to improve their
efficiency and lower their cost over time, promoting their economic competitiveness
and widespread deployment.
 The future deployment of renewable energies depends on many factors, including the
availability of suitable land, the technological cost of conversion to electricity or other
uses, the costs of competing energy technologies, and the future need for energy

Selected Key Terms

Combined Heat and Power (CHP)An integrated system, located at or near the building or
facility, that generates utility grade electricity which satisfies at least a portion of the electrical
load of the facility and captures/ recycles the waste heat from the electric generating equipment
to provide useful thermal energy to the facility.

Biofuels--Liquid fuels and blending components produced from biomass materials, used
primarily in combination with transportation fuels, such as gasoline.

Biomass--Organic, non-fossil material of biological origin that is renewable because it can be

quickly re-grown, taking up the carbon that is released when it is burned.

fossil fuels--Oil, gas and coal produced by chemical transformation of land plants (coal) and
marine animals (oil and gas) trapped in the earth's crust under high pressure and temperature and
without access to oxygen.

geothermal energy--Hot water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs in the earth's
crust. Water or steam extracted from geothermal reservoirs can be used for geothermal heat
pumps, water heating, or electricity generation. Geothermal heat or cooling may also come from
ground source heat exchange taking advantage of the constant temperature in the ground below
the surface.

geothermal plant--A power plant in which the prime mover is a steam turbine. The turbine is
driven either by steam produced from hot water or by natural steam that heat source is found in
rock.

industrial revolution--The transition from simple tools and animal power for producing
products to complex machinery powered by the combustion of fuels. The Industrial Revolution
began in England in the mid-18th Century initially centered around the development of the steam
engine powered by coal.

non-renewable fuels--Fuels that will be used up, irreplaceable.

photovoltaic cells--An electronic device consisting of layers of semiconductor materials that are
produced to form adjacent layers of materials with different electronic characteristics and
electrical contacts and being capable of converting incident light directly into electricity (direct
current).

renewable fuels--Fuels that are never exhausted or can be replaced.

Discussion Assignment

Your posts should cover the questions below in full, and be at least 300 words long. Then
reply to and peer-review at least three other posts by next Wednesday 11:59PM UoPeople
Time, and rate the posts and replies.

This week, please look online and read the weeks learning guide and the textbook chapters.
Then, research different forms of alternative (renewable) energy forms available.

Choose two, and then answer the following questions:

1. What does the term renewable mean?

2. Which two renewable energy forms did you choose?

3. For each, describe two benefits.

4. For each, describe two drawbacks.

5. Which of these you feel would best serve your community? Why? Explain.

6. According to The WWF Energy Report prepared by WWF and Ecofys, by 2050, we
could get all the energy we need from renewable sources. What is your response to this
statement?

Some links to help you get started:

Energy.gov: Wind Energy Renewable Energy Geothermal Basics

United States Environmental Protection Agency - renewable energy

World Bank: Sun Rises on the Solar Sector

Energy Information Administration (EIA) on renewable energy in the USA

Any materials cited should be referenced using the style guidelines established by the American
Psychological Association (APA).

Renewable means a source of energy that is not depleted by use, such as water,
wind, or solar power.
Two renewable energy forms I chose were solar power and wind power.

Partly because Sun is the meaning of my Vietnamese name. But primarily

because it is the hottest renewable energies on earth. Solar power is the
motherlode! Other forms of renewable power are an indirect function of solar
radiation.

Its benefits are numerous. Sunlight provides the largest contribution to renewable
energy (like) , its energy also has minimal impact on the environment (double like).
In the cool kids language: If solar power has an official Facebook fanpage, it can
surpass the millions-like popularity of the Kim Kardashian family.

What not to like? Well Except for the efficiency, solar photovoltaic modules only
operates at 20% efficiency. Its conversion is more expensive. Not a budget-friendly
that you can add to your factory or house system.

Wind as a renewable energy is also cool (see what I did there). According to
(energy.gov, 2017) It is the largest renewable generation capacity in USA. In 2016, it
surpassed 82 gigawatts, powering 20 million homes annually. Its price is rock-
bottom too, at 2 cents per kilowatt-hour.

But wind energy does not exist without its sins. The wind turbines may kills innocent
bird and bat on their migratory paths, for example. Another example is hmm, the
aesthetic aspect, but one might agree that a field of white wind turbines seems
much more pleasing than a black factory, right?

(UNDP, 2016) said Vietnams renewable energy has tremendous potential. As far
as I can see, solar power costs too much investment. Wind power has not yielded
favorable results. The best of them all is hydropower, which utilized the country
area of mountainous landscape.

The WWF Energy Report prepared by WWF and Ecofys is interesting with an
ambitious vision: By 2050, we could get all the energy we need from renewable
sources. But Im a pessimistic. Heres my response:

In the 1980s, there were more than 60,000 nuclear warheads in the world at all
times. The total destructive power amounted to 1 million times that of the
Hiroshima A-bomb.
In January 1993, START2 was signed and the United States and Russia agreed to
reduce the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 3,000 to 3,500 in
each nation by December 31, 2000.

However, as of 1998, there still exist 26,000 nuclear warheads in the world.

Which means that with a wrong button pushed, and the Earth will be destroyed by
2050.

References
energy.gov. (2017, Feb 13). Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Wind Power.
Retrieved from energy.gov: https://www.energy.gov/articles/top-10-things-you-
didnt-know-about-wind-power

UNDP. (2016, May 04). Renewable Energy Vietnam's Power Future. Retrieved from
UNDP Vietnam:
http://www.vn.undp.org/content/vietnam/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/
2016/05/24/renewable-energy-viet-nam-s-power-future.html
Learning Journal

1. Summarize, in Your own words (do not copy from the website) two of the methods for
sustainable agriculture from Solutions: Advance Sustainable Agriculture: Using science-
based practices, we can produce abundant food while preserving our soil, air and water
including all hyperlinks used.

2. List one method that you think would work well in your local village/town/region. Why
would it work well? Explain.

3. Please outline in your own words, one other new thing you learned this week in the
course. How does it apply to your life?

As I put down the book The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natural

Farming, by MASANOBU FUKUOKA sensei, the answers for sustainable agriculture
are flying in my brains, like butterflies flying on endless green fields.

He was a proponent of no-till, no-herbicide grain cultivation farming methods

traditional to many indigenous cultures, from which he created a particular method
of farming, commonly referred to as "Natural Farming" or "Do-nothing Farming.

Some of his methods are similar to the modern method that UC USA presented for
sustainable agriculture, which are:

1. Cover crops: grow different plants such as hairy vetch, annual ryegrass, or
crimson clover to protect and nurture the soil during off-season.

Link: http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/advance-sustainable-
agriculture/cover-crops.html

2. Crop rotation: grow a variety of additional crops including wheat, oats, alfalfa,
legumes, and sorghum in addition to the main crops such as corn, soybeans, or rice.

Link: http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/advance-sustainable-
agriculture/crop-diversity-and-rotation.html

After the Vietnam war ended in 1975, the government adopted a rice production of
3 seasons per year. It was not sustainable. While maximizing production, this
method also drained the soils. The soils were exploited so much, leading to a need
for chemical fertilizer and chemical pest to keep it alive for the next season. This
went on and On and ON for decades.

To counter this, I would propose the Natural Farming method of MASANOBU

FUKUOKA sensei. Fukuoka saw farming not just as a means of producing food but as
an aesthetic and spiritual approach to life, the ultimate goal of which was "the
cultivation and perfection of human beings". The system is based on the recognition
of the complexity of living organisms that shape an ecosystem and deliberately
exploiting it.

The five principles of Natural Farming, documented in his book, are that:

human cultivation of soil, plowing or tilling are unnecessary, as is the use of

powered machines

prepared fertilizers are unnecessary, as is the process of preparing compost

weeding, either by cultivation or by herbicides, is unnecessary. Instead only

minimal weed suppression with minimal disturbance

applications of pesticides or herbicides are unnecessary

pruning of fruit trees is unnecessary

If we can embrace this, then our soils will have a chance to return to its former glory
state.

Renewable energy is the hottest environmental topic in the world. Bearing the name
Sun, I cannot help but be fond of solar energy. It is surprising to know that less
than 10% solar energy is being used in the world. Yet most renewable energy is
quite expensive for personal application, I can only hope and pray that genius such
as Elon Musk will give us a solution, such as his self-driving electrical car, soon.