Alternative Energy
Introduction:
Last year for my science fair project I personally invented my own version of a sun tracking solar panel. The solar panel was able to produce three watts of power per hour regardless of its small three-inch by three-inch size, showing me that having direct access to the sun can increase the amount of watts gained multifold. This year, instead of researching over the topic of solar panels, I instead inquired alternative methods of producing energy from economical sources. In this experiment I chose to use a water turbine to produce electricity which in the long run was much more difficult to do.
Background:
My goal for this project was to make a semi or fully portable source of energy. Upon analysis I found
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To create a more realistic project I added a pump to pump the water from the lower end of the turbine over to the elevated end and had them connected to the same source, a battery pack. The water turbine supposedly would pour electricity into the battery pack faster than the pump was able to withdraw it, and have a overall positive amount of change in the total amount of electricity in the battery …show more content…
The law states that energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed. Energy transformation, also known as energy conversion is the process of changing one form of energy to one other. More simple forms of energy include motion, heat, light and sound, yet even more basic forms of energy are kinetic and potential energy forms. To improve upon this project, I decided to add another form of energy to the mix. I decided to use movement as the secondary source of energy, which contains energy of the kinetic form. The way I was able to add this supplementary source of energy is utilizing gravity. By having the water drop from a certain height, I was able to use the gravitational pull on the water, increasing the falling speed of the water. The water falling at a quicker pace increases the amount of energy the water turbine collects, increasing the amount of electricity, the type of energy, it can
1. tidal water trapped behind coastal barriers in bays and estuaries can be used to turn turbines and generate electrical energy.
Dabiri of California Institute of Technology associated with aquatic bio forms. Wind turbines are the Colossus of the modern landscape and the blades can sweep up to a football field in diameter. Critics call this particular invention unsightly while the blades clobber unsuspecting birds. There is also an a efficiency problem while the blades become more powerful, but they’re size requires that they be spaced apart, this means they take up a lot of land. John Dabiri of Caltech also found a solution underwater and also built an experimental wind farm-(FLOWE). In which the location of turbine relative to each other takes advantage of air flow among them” Dabiri 1. “The turbine placement was determined by studying the wake vortices produced by schools of swimming fish” Dabiri 1. Dabiri’s 30 ft. tall wind turbine has blades that gather energy generated as wind flows through the wind farm. The blades take advantage of the wind’s behavior, for energy production, the way fish take advantage of water’s behavior for forward
The energy pathway of tidal energy would begin with having gravitational potential energy that is caused by the celestial bodies and their gravitational pull. The water would then have acceleration and kinetic energy from the wind. As the water makes contact with the turbines kinetic energy is released to propel the turbine. The
In today’s world, there are many different sources of energy that can be used to generate electricity. When you think of the word energy, what comes to mind? For me, I think of having the ability to do wok, whether it is moving an object from one place to another, compressing a gas, producing heat, sound, or light, and having the ability to power something. One very important source of energy that has become very popular in todays world for a means of power generation is wind energy, wind power, or also known as a wind turbine.
One resource that is essential to produce electricity is renewable energy. Providing one’s own energy consists of utilizing solar panels, wind turbines and micro hydroelectricity. Solar panels absorb energy from the Sun to produce solar energy. A great number of people who live off the grid use solar power. Wind turbines generate electrical power from the wind and functions in the reverse manner as a fan does. Micro hydroelectricity is another source of energy, which fascinatingly “uses a source of running water, like a stream, to generate electricity” (Dunn 3). Between all three sources of renewable energy, micro hydroelectricity is the most efficient, reliable and commonly used form.
"Numerous engineers contributed to the refinement of waterwheel construction, and by the middle of the 19th century new designs made possible increases in the speed of revolution of the waterwheel and thus prepared the way for the emergence of the water turbine, which is still an extremely efficient device for converting energy." (Buchanan 3).
Humans have made significant discoveries in utilizing the countless benefits of water, one of the most important being the ability to use water to perform work. This is the concept of hydropower. Hydropower is using the energy of moving water to create power. This clean and renewable method of power generation is used all throughout the globe, and accounts for a small percentage of global electricity demand. Hydropower hasn’t always existed as the large scale dams that are abundant today. Hydropower technologies have been slowly evolving for many centuries.
Hydroelectric power works but having a turbine placed in moving water. The water that rushes past the turbine forces the turbine to move and spin this creates electricity and the fast or bigger the turbine the more electricity that is created. Once the power is created by the turbines turning it is sent out through power lines to either power plants to store the electricity or to homes and building to power them.
Hydroelectric power plant is one of the major power plants all over the world in order to create electricity. It is also one of the best renewable energy sources on the planet earth. In ranking, Canada is the third largest country to produce hydroelectricity power. The efficiency of this power source is 90% and this is very impressive as the percentage of efficiency is very high. Hydro power plants generate 24% of the world’s electricity. More than 1 billion people are associated with hydro power plants as they use the power supply from hydro power plants.
Similar to a dam, overtopping gadgets (see fig. 4) feature basins into which inward bound waves enter and cause a small upsurge of pressure. After it is released, water streams back into the sea through gravity. The retreating water releases energy that is utilized to rotate hydro turbines and to create power. By channeling waves through in-house turbines that later release water into the ocean, special floating podiums may as well generate electricity.
Renewable energy is crucial to the future of human society, as it takes from sources that cannot be depleted, such as the wind , waves, and the sun. However, the production of renewable energy is not steady and often exceeds its demand. The excess energy created is often wasted, while renewable energy would prove most effective if it were able to be stored. This would allow renewable energy to be used less in times of low demand and saved for greater use in times of high demand. A recent innovation has been developed to solve this problem: the wind bag. Using compressed air, the wind bag will store and conserve renewable energy, maximizing the productivity of using the water and wind as sources of energy. By analyzing newton 's second law of motion and centripetal acceleration, mathematical equations for wind turbines, offshore wind farms in Belgium, the use of compressed air to store energy, and the aspirations of RWE Power in Germany and the European project AA-CAES for the future of using wind bags for the storage of renewable energy, it is conclusive that wind bags are beneficial to the future of human society and are personally significant to each and every one of us.
As the water level inside the chamber raises and lowers, the difference air pressure turns a low resistance turbine, generating power. The turbine spins in one direction no matter if the air is pulling or pushing. The collectors have been design in this manner to obtain the maximum output of power out of the machines. Most of these wave collectors, also known as oscillating water columns are still experimental. This device is regarded as the world most advanced wave-to-electricity generators. An oscillating water column in Norway is being tested and can produce 500 kilowatts of electricity.
Gas turbines, internal combustion engines methods for small generators have been perfected and are widely practiced and others renewable resources like water, wind solar energies are also finding wider application in recent years.
Similarly, hydrokinetics has a very long history as a green energy source. It was first used in the year 200 BCE when watermills and water wheels were created. Presently, hydrokinetics is used for generation of clean energy from river and ocean currents with any harm on the natural life of aquatic animals. Wind energy also has
In order to generate electricity from the kinetic energy in moving water, the water has to move with sufficient speed and volume to spin a propeller-like device called a turbine, which in turn rotates a generator to generate electricity. Roughly speaking, one gallon of water per second falling one hundred feet can generate one kilowatt of electricity.