Andrew L. Simon

To Catch the Wind

This chapter focuses on the power of wind. Wind power, available throughout the earth, is believed to be equivalent to 100 billion watts per year. Winds are stronger at sea than over the land surface. To convert the wind energy into mechanical energy—and subsequently into electricity—is relatively easy. Of all natural energy sources, wind is the most capricious. Wind power at suitable windy sites can be used and it can play an important role in the development of an individual area. Even if extensive utilization of wind is technically feasible, the danger of possible modification of the weather can retard its full-scale application. Wind generators are commercially available in Australia as well as in several European countries. The cost of one of these products is between

AN OPTIMIZATION METHOD TO DESIGN HYDRAULIC NETWORKS

2000 and

Ways We Use Energy

5000. Like other intermittent energy sources, wind use can be more desirable if an effective method of large-scale energy storage can be developed.

CHAPTER 1 – The Historical Perspective

Nonlinear programming is applied to the solution of hydraulic network problems. The significant differences between the proposed optimization method and other conventional methods are that this method can solve problems with mixed unknowns (e.g. pipe sizes, discharges and pressures), it can optimize solutions involving unknowns defined by inequalities (e.g. specifled minimum discharge and pressure values), it can handle network control problems such as required valve adjustments or in-line booster pump needs, and it may solve problems of networks with continuous discharge distribution along the pipes.

The Heat Energy of the Underground

This chapter focuses on the ways by which energy is used. Efficiency is the energy (or power) output divided by the energy input, expressed as a percentage. Many home appliances use electricity. Much of the energy used for space heating is wasted because of the poor insulation of most buildings. Transportation also uses energy. Of all public and private transportation modes, the private automobile uses about half of the available resources. Recycling useful waste can cut the expenses of manufacturing. To manufacture low-grade paper from recycled paper instead of virgin pulp requires 70% less energy. Making steel from scrap metal instead of ore requires 74% less energy. Producing methane gas from the municipal, industrial, and agricultural wastes is one way to substitute the dwindling gas supplies. Municipal solid wastes are beginning to be used to produce steam by burning in specially designed facilities. After shredding, the waste is separated and some constituents, such as glass, aluminium, copper, and iron are recycled. The shredded burnable waste is burned in “semi-suspension firing,” which reduces the waste into a small amount of ash that is easily disposed of. The resulting steam and hot water affords savings of other fuels, such as coal and gas.

The Energy of Running Waters

This chapter discusses the historical perspective of energy and its use. Coal was introduced for heating and metallurgy in England during the 12th century and it spread rapidly to the continent. The need for pumping large amounts of water from deep mines provided the impetus for research. Petroleum was produced from shallow dug wells for many years in Poland, Romania, and Russia. The improvement of the internal combustion engine by Gottlieb Daimler, and the invention of the diesel engine by Rudolf Diesel, made oil the lifeblood of transportation within a few decades after the end of the 19th century. Energy use in transportation grows in the United States by a rate of 6.5% each year. Because of environmental considerations, pollution control, and public safety, the difficulty of producing enough raw energy is growing. International political difficulties create potential shortages in oil. Government regulations also have an adverse effect on oil and gas production. Air pollution and anti-strip mining regulations make the utilization of coal difficult. Lack of research support retards the development of new energy production schemes.

CHAPTER 13 – Other Techniques of Energy Conversion

This chapter discusses the heat energy of the underground. At a certain depth below the earths surface, the temperature and pressure reach a level at which the rocks are in a liquid, molten state. This molten rock is called magma. If the magma breaks into the solidified outer crust of the earth, it crystallizes and forms igneous rocks. The solid crust of the earth is broken up into rigid continental shields, forming the central flat parts of continents. Caused by extraterrestrial events, these shields tend to shift with respect to each other. In this process, the regions around the edges of the continental shields are weakened by faults and bends in the earths layers. Through these weakened regions, the hot molten magma of the earths depths can intrude toward the surface. The heat content of the earths depths can be extracted in several forms, depending on the underground geological conditions. The most developed form is the one that is easiest to tap, that is, the utilization of dry underground steam for power generation.

Power from Sunshine

This chapter discusses the energy of running waters. The energy of the flowing water is lost through friction among the water molecules and between the rocks and the water. The stored water in the reservoir behind the dam contains a potential energy that can readily be utilized by allowing the water to flow through the dam, through an efficient modern water wheel, called a hydraulic turbine. The energy delivered by a turbine depends on the weight of water that flows through it in a second, and the height of the dam. While hydraulic power stations are expensive to build, the electricity supplied by them is very cheap. One of the advantages of hydroenergy production is its high efficiency. While over 60% of the fossil fuel energy is lost as waste heat in a thermal power plant, with hydraulic turbines the conversion efficiency is about 90%, which is a remarkable figure. An entirely different concept of energy utilization from water is based on the temperature differences in nearby water bodies, which is called hydrothermal energy.

Fusion, the Promise of Limitless Power

This chapter discusses other techniques of energy conversion. The bulk of electricity is produced by conventional energy converters that are based on mechanical, indirect conversion of energy. The chemical energy of our fossil fuels is first converted into heat energy. The heat energy is then converted by turbines into mechanical energy which, in turn, produces electricity by generators. The efficiency of these systems is low—the step involving the generation of mechanical energy results in a 70% loss of energy. The main groups of direct energy converters are the photoelectric, thermoelectric, thermionic, magnetohydrodynamic, and electrochemical devices. Photoelectric energy converters transform the energy inherent in light into electricity. A photoelectric or solar cell can be built by splitting a chemically pure silicon crystal into two extremely thin layers. One of these layers is treated with boron and the other is treated with phosphorus, then the two layers are fused together again. Thermionic converters operate on the principle that electrons can be emitted from the surface of a heated metal, if the heat energy absorbed is sufficient to overcome the bonding forces of the surface atoms.

CHAPTER 5 – Oil

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of power from sunshine. Light consists of bundles of energy called photons. The energy content of a photon is proportional to the frequency of the light—the higher the frequency, the higher is the energy content. The Earths atmosphere filters sunlight by absorbing most of the high-energy ultraviolet light and some of the infrared light. About 30% of the incident solar energy is directly reflected and scattered back into space as light, a short wavelength radiation. Another 47% is absorbed by the atmosphere, the land, and ocean surfaces and converted to the form of long wave radiation—heat. An additional 23% is utilized as the energy source of the hydrologic cycle, driving the processes of evaporation, precipitation, winds, ocean currents, and waves; in this form it is eventually dissipated by friction-generated heat. This is the energy source of hydraulic power stations, wind energy, heliothermal, and hydrothermal energy schemes. The amount of solar energy entering the environment—insolation, as it is called—along with the amounts of it that control the weather or turn directly into heat, is in precarious balance. Burning of fossil fuels and generating heat by the necessary cooling of nuclear reactors result in excess heat that enters waters and atmosphere. The most favorable sites for the direct utilization of solar energy or for large-scale development of solar-electric power are desert areas not more than 35° north and south of the equator.