Define:
Fossil fuel
Energy waste
Environmental costs
Energy conversion
Energy conversion efficiencies
Net energy efficiency
Net energy yield
Sustainable
Sustainable energy
Renewable energy
Energy
Work
Power
Heat
Temperature
Amory Lovins
Negawatt programs
Cogeneration
Superinsulated homes
Solarium
Greenhouse
Solar energy
Passive solar systems
Active solar systems
Solar energy
High temperature solar energy
Parabolic mirror solar energy
Eutectic chemical
Photovoltaic cells
Solar cooker
Fuel cell
Renewable energy
Fuelwood
Manure
Dung
Methane
Ethanol
Hydropower
Turbines
Siltation
Low-head hydropower
Wind power
Geothermal power
Tidal power
Ocean thermal electric conversion (OTEC)
FROM CHAPTER 3, Energy Matter and Life
What is energy?
What are the different forms of energy?
List all the different forms of energy.
How is ‘heat’ related to ‘energy’?
What is ‘temperature’?
How is temperature related to heat?
What is the 1st law of thermodynamics?
What is the 2nd law of thermodynamics?
How is ‘energy’ contained in ‘molecules’?
How is ‘energy’ transferred from one molecule to the
next?
What is ‘useable energy’?
What is ‘high quality energy’?
What is ‘low quality energy’?
What happens to ‘useable energy’ when energy is
converted from one form to the next? Which ‘Law’ is this?
What kind of energy is carbohydrate?
What kind of energy is lipid?
What kind of energy is water stored behind a damn?
What kind of energy is flowing water or wind?
What kind of energy is in a battery?
Which resource does NOT cycle repeatedly through the
earths ecosystems?
How is metabolism related to energy transfer between
types of energy or storage locations?
Describe fossil fuels in terms of energy waste and
environmental costs.
Describe energy waste in terms of the 1st
and 2nd Laws of Thermodynamics.
Describe energy efficiency in terms of ‘work’.
Describe energy efficiency in terms of the ‘2nd
Law of Thermodynamics.
REVIEW: Chapter 23, Economics. Relate the economic
concepts of supply, demand, profit, scarcity, external costs, internal
costs, etc to energy resources and use.
From Chapter 19, Conventional Energy.
Consider why Americans use so much more energy than
people in other countries.
How does Economics explain this difference?
How does infrastructure explain this difference?
Describe the ‘infrastructure’. Think about how energy
is transferred from one place to the next. Think about how energy is
used to do ‘work’ and the machines we have in the US for doing that
‘work’.
How does ‘cost of energy’ explain this difference?
How does ‘infrastructure’ keep 3rd world
countries from using lots of energy?
What type of energy is most available to people in 3rd
world countries?
Where are the largest reserves of energy?
What do you expect are the energy use per person of
those countries with the largest energy reserves?
Describe the process of finding fossil fuel resources,
and getting that energy from its storage site in nature to the place
where it does ‘work’ for humans.
What is energy conversion efficiency?
Describe the energy conversion efficiency of each type
of fossil fuel.
What is ‘net energy yield’?
What is ‘energy efficiency’?
Compare and contrast the energy efficiency of: coal
fired generator, hydroelectric, oil burning generator, nuclear
generator.
Why are the energy efficiencies different?
How are these energy efficiencies explained by the 2nd
Law of Thermodynamics?
What is a ‘thermal conversion’ machine?
How does a ‘thermal conversion machine’ convert
petroleum or coal into ‘useable’ energy?
What is ‘sustainable energy’?
What is ‘renewable energy’?
Compare and contrast ‘sustainable energy’, ‘renewable
energy’, and ‘fossil fuel’?
Who is Amory Lovins?
What did Amory Lovins say about cars and pickups?
Is it possible for cars to get significantly better
gas mileage than they now get?
Describe the characteristics of vehicles that get the
best gas mileage.
Compare and contrast household energy use today vs a
house built in the 1970’s.
In what form is most energy ‘lost’?
Describe the different building construction
techniques that ‘conserve/save’ energy. Are these techniques ‘new’?
What is a ‘superinsulated’ home?
In which countries are ‘superinsulated homes’ more
often built?
Compare and contrast the energy use and quality of
life in those countries that build superinsulated homes.
How does a superinsulated home increase the energy
efficiency of a home?
Relate this to the 1st and 2nd
Law of Thermodynamics.
Compare and contrast the energy use of fluorescent
light bulbs and incandescent light bulbs.
Which is most energy efficient, fluorescent or
incandescent?
Which has the highest temperature, fluorescent or
incandescent?
What is ‘temperature’?
What kind of energy is ‘heat’?
Relate this to the 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics.
What is ‘cogeneration’?
How does cogeneration increase ‘energy use
efficiency’?
Percentage wise, by how much can cogeneration increase
energy use efficiency?
Describe Negawatt programs?
How are utility companies involved in the negawatt
programs?
Why are utility companies involved in the negawatt
programs?
How is this activity by the utility companies
explained by the Economic concepts in Chapter 23?
Compare and contrast Net Energy Efficiency with Net
Energy Yield.
What does net energy yield include that net energy
efficiency does not?
Describe the different forms of transportation in the
US, and describe the net energy efficiency of each.
Why is Net Energy Yield a good way to assess the
Energy Efficiency of nuclear power?
What is a ‘fuel cell’?
What type of energy is contained in fuel cells?
What are the different types of fuel cells?
With respect to vegetables, what does ‘in season’
mean?
With respect to vegetables, what does ‘locally grown’
mean?
Why is locally grown, in season food less expensive?
What is solar energy?
Where does solar energy come from?
(Where did the energy in fossil fuels come from?)
Compare and contrast Passive and Active solar energy.
List and describe the different types of passive solar
energy.
List and describe the different types of active solar
energy.
Why is active solar energy called ‘active’?
Describe an ‘earth-bermed’ house.
What is a ‘solarium’?
What is a greenhouse?
How would a solarium/greenhouse be used in a ‘solar
energy design’?
Which type of solar energy has been used by people for
thousands of years?
Which type of solar energy is used by a cat/dog
sleeping on a sunlit couch or floor?
Describe the use of parabolic mirrors in solar energy.
What is a eutectic chemical?
How are eutectic chemicals used in Solar energy
systems?
Which type of solar energy has been developed enough
to run industrial machinery? Describe the technology that captures
this solar energy.
What are photovoltaic cells?
How do photovoltaic cells ‘capture’ solar energy?
Compare and contrast the net energy efficiency/yield
of photovoltaic cells and coal or nuclear power.
What are the big Oil companies such as Exxon-Mobile,
Shell, British Petroleum, etc doing about solar energy?
What is TXU (Texas Utility) doing about solar energy?
Who owns many of the windmills in the US and TX?
What is the quickest and easiest way to save money on
YOUR energy bill?
What are the two largest energy users in the average
American home?
What is renewable energy?
What is the largest type of renewable energy?
Percentage wise, how much of the total world energy is
supplied by renewable energy?
What is biomass?
Describe the different types of biomass fuel.
How do plants store solar energy?
What type of energy is this?
What is fuelwood?
Where is fuelwood most used?
How much of the household resources/income is spent
obtaining fuelwood?
Why do these people spend so much of their income on
fuelwood?
Compare and contrast fuelwood use in Pakistan and
Haiti.
How do the ways that biomass is used as fuelwood in
Pakistan and Haiti affect the environment in those respective
countries?
What is the most common problem with using biomass/fuelwood
in the US and Canada?
Why have resort towns such as Vail, Aspen and Teluride
in Colorado banned wood stoves?
Describe the use of fuelwood in terms of Economic
concepts of ‘external costs’ and ‘internal costs’.
What is manure or dung?
How is manure or dung used as a biomass fuel?
What is methane production from manure or dung?
What is ethanol?
Describe the production of ethanol from biomass.
Describe the mixture of ethanol and gasoline.
What is hydropower?
What type of energy is hydropower? (kinetic,
potential, chemical, etc)
How much of the total potential hydropower is
currently being produced?
Why is so little currently being produced?
Discuss hydropower using net energy yield.
What are the major problems associated with huge dams
on major rivers?
What is siltation?
What is ‘low-head’ hydropower?
Where is low-head hydropower used?
What is the function of turbines in hydropower?
What are windmills?
What is the function of turbines in wind power?
What is moving that we ‘feel’ as wind?
Review Chapter 15, Weather –
What are convection currents?
What causes convection currens?
Which countries are the world’s largest wind power
producers?
What role did windmills play in settling the American
West?
Where are windmills located?
What is geothermal energy?
Where is geothermal energy widely used?
Why?
What type of energy is geothermal energy?
What is ‘tidal power’?
What ‘force’ produces tidal power?
What type of energy is tidal power?
What are the environmental problems associated with
building tidal power stations?
What are convection currents?
What produces convection currents?
Are tides a form of convection current?
What causes ‘tides’?
Are convection currents found in water?
What is ocean thermal electric conversion (OTEC)?
Where in the world would OTECs best function?
What are some of the problems with OTECs?
