Monday 31 August 2020

Week 7 - Using natural energy sources

Using natural energy sources

 

Have you ever thought about reducing the cost of maintaining your home? Did you think that your daily activities can contribute to improving the ecological environment?

Renewable energy is becoming more and more popular by increasing demand of energy. The main energy sources are water, sun, wind and biomass. Increasing demand for ecological energy sources, foster building wind farms or photovoltaic farms with huge capacities, which are completely self-sufficient and supply the nearest farmhouses.

Poland, as a member of the EU, is obliged to implement modern technological solutions in the field of energy, which involves ecological methods of energy production. In Poland we can already see increasing popular windmills and photovoltaic farms. Their development helps to modernize our power industry and reduce emissions of harmful substances into the atmosphere.

 

WIND

Wind energy is an inexhaustible source of energy, turbines used in windmills convert wind energy into mechanical energy. Energy obtained from wind farms is considered to be one of the most ecological. Wind energy complements with solar energy, due to the more frequent occurrence of winds in autumn, winter and spring, when the electric energy produced from the sun is lower than in summer. Such an optimistic is idea of building an offshores wind farm, that is farm built at the sea. The construction of offshore wind farms has many advantages, one of them is the use of sea areas excluded from shipping, due to shallows and shoals. We also get rid of social protests, which could block the construction of these farms on land, and I leave you the visual aspects to subjective evaluation.

 Source: https://www.pacificskysolar.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/shutterstock_759730900-1000x640.jpg


WATER

Poland, due to its geological conditions, has forced the Polish engineering to develop hydroelectric power plants that are able to produce electricity from terrain elevations of several metres, it was quite a challenge, because other countries such as those located in Scandinavia using tides, for egzample from mountain streams, which have much higher elevations than Poland.

Water is also used as an energy storage in periods of higher energy production from renewable energy sources, which are less stable than conventional energy sources. An example is the pumped-storage power plant Żarnowiec in Poland. This power plant is designed to store energy during periods of it’s increased production, for example from photovoltaics. During the period of excessive production of energy from photovoltaic panels, water is pumped into the upper reservoir, and at night or on cloudy days by pumping water into the water reservoir we can recover stored energy. This is one of the most ecological and highly efficient forms of energy storage, without the need to produce other less ecological energy storage.

Source: https://www.pkl.pl/data/posts/362/2.jpg

SUN

Solar energy is obtained through photovoltaic panels, which convert stored energy into electricity, while solar panels heat water in our farmhouses. Did you know that 40 sq meters of roof with photovoltaic panels can cover the electricity demand for a 4-person family? Another 8 meters with solar heat pipes will provide hot water for a significant part of the year without unnecessary burning of non-renewable fuels and environmental pollution.

Budowa farmy fotowoltaicznej - Corab - fotowoltaika, anteny, Hi-Fi i multimedia

Source: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/qiH4bXe2jptyV64NdFEUHZvmPqUIE4xEl5SBvjq4vzEcARYvQlzdKVDIvh6fsmyWA3VXpwxylplNEd0o_0JK5wUkersBHWf6Kd2GWM4TsgTzDAKGT5-gAW5-VVlvhdT_jhLBsZCRSY-Q

Electric vehicles are increasingly used by EU locals, which has a decisive impact on technological progress and environmental protection. EU countries are introducing special government programs, which support electric mobility, additionally Smart Grids allow for much better integration of renewable energy sources with the power system.

The main problem of non-renewable energy is its instability, so it is necessary to store it, which creates a huge challenge for Polish engineers. A perfect supplement of energy mix in the conventional power industry is atomic energy, which has a small inertia, and modern forms of storage of waste from the surface of the power plant are more and more optimistic, as the safety of their storage is increasing.


  1.  If you had the financial possibility to use a renewable energy source, which one would you choose?
  2.   Are these solutions beneficial for the environment?
  3.  What do you think the ecological house will look like? Will any of the above solutions be a standard in the future?
  4.   Why do you think the world is switching to green/ecological energy sources?

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