Electricity Options for Rolling Blackouts & Environmental Impact
What happens when there is a blackout?Copyright U.S. Department of Homeland Security http://www.dhs.gov/power-hungry-prototyping-replacement-ehv-transformers
Through this activity, students come to understand the environmental design considerations required when generating electricity. The electric power that we use every day at home and work is usually generated by a variety of power plants. Power plants are engineered to utilize the conversion of one form of energy to another. The main components of a power plant are an input source of energy that is used to turn large turbines, and a method to convert the turbine rotation into electricity. The input sources of energy include fossil fuels (coal, natural gas and oil), wind, water, nuclear materials and refuse. This activity focuses on how much energy can be converted to electricity from many of these input sources. It also considers the impact of the by-products associated with using these natural resources, and looks at electricity requirements. To do this, students research and evaluate the electricity needs of their community, the available local resources for generating electricity, and the impact of using those resources.
Creating power plants, harnessing input energy and distributing energy to power the devices in our world is important to us everyday and requires many types of engineers to accomplish it. Mechanical, structural, chemical, and electrical engineers design power plants to supply energy. The input energy necessary for power plants is worked on by mining, petroleum, ocean, and environmental engineers. These engineers from different fields combine their specialty expertise to find solutions to our energy challenges.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Make an assessment of systems to meet needs.
- Explain the role of society in the development and use of technology.
- Follow the steps of the engineering design process to brainstorm, research, develop a model and communicate the results.