PDS AP Environmental Science 8th Period 2010-11

After watching Who Killed the Electric Car (2006), we took a look at some of the new plug-in electric cars from Chevy, Ford, Nissan, and Tesla now on the market.  Are electric cars really the answer for ending our dependence on foreign crude oil? Could it be that simple? This Daily Show clip (8 minutes) [...]

Jim Thompson is currently the head of young biodiesel production company called Southeast Biodiesel, and Mr. Thompson is also a strong advocate for the potential biodiesel has as a fuel source in automobiles. To start his presentation, Mr. Thompson outlined the differences between a standard gasoline engine and a diesel engine. While gas engines mix [...]

Hydrogen Energy Hydrogen energy uses hydrogen ions and a process called electrolysis to create electrical energy. Heres a diagram and  two short videos describing this process: How Electrolysis Works What this video doesn’t show you is that the energy needed to break apart these molecules must come from another source (e.g. coal, natural gas, or renewables like [...]

1) Energy and Power Calculations E=P x T   (that’s   Energy in Joules= Power in Watts multiplied by Time in time units   ) Like wise   P=E/T example: How much energy (J) does a 30 W bulb use if on for 10 minutes?            E=PT  —>  E=30W x 10 [...]

If you thought the photo by Richard Box of the “leaky” high voltage transmission lines was neat, you can check out more of his photography here. I thought that was an interesting intro to a subject your book seems to ignore-how the electricity gets from all those different types of power plants to your home: [...]

-Solar energy has become a very popular way to provide energy or electricity for many different buildings and homes. There are two main ways to make use of solar energy: 1. Passive Solar Energy – Uses the light and heat from the sun without using and collectors or solar panels. This technology mainly deals with [...]

Wind energy is considered a distant form of solar energy because wind is caused by the sun’s uneven heating of the earth. It is, therefore, perpetually renewable. We are able to use wind as a form of energy by utilizing wind turbines. In a very basic sense, wind turbines use the wind to generate kinetic energy [...]

Geothermal Energy is essentially using the earth’s natural heat for power. The way the process works is the heat from the earth warms water, which evaporates to steam. The steam is then used to turn turbines that then generate electricity. Geothermal energy is a good clean way to power and heat the world’s towns and [...]

China began planning to build the Three Gorges Dam along the Yangzi River in 1919 by Sun Yatsen. Although planning took decades, this monumental dam (the world’s largest hydroelectric dam) is finished with most construction, and hopefully it will be in maximum use within a couple of years. In a hydroelectric dam, the flow of water [...]

NUCLEAR POWER Nuclear Power is often talked about as the new “clean” energy to replace some of our dependencies on fossil fuels. But people are also afraid of nuclear power. The word nuclear carries associations with bombs, disasters, cancer, and danger. Neither of those previous statements are fully accurate, and it is important to understand [...]