Energy 1
Energy 1
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Outstanding Points from Fig. 5.1
• Incident radiation is 1741015 W
• this is 1370 W/m2 times area facing sun (R2)
• 30% directly reflected back to space
• off clouds, air, land
• 47% goes into heating air, land, water
• 23% goes into evaporating water, precipitation, etc. (part of weather)
• Adds to 100%, so we’re done
• but wait! there’s more…
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Energy Flow, continued
• 0.21% goes into wind, waves, convection, currents
• note this is 100 times less than driving the water cycle
• but this is the “other” aspect of weather
• 0.023% is stored as chemical energy in plants via photosynthesis
• total is 401012 W; half in ocean (plankton)
• humans are 7 billion times 100 W = 0.71012 W
• this is 1.7% of bio-energy; 0.0004% of incident power
• All of this (bio-activity, wind, weather, etc.) ends up creating heat and
re-radiating to space
• except some small amount of storage in fossil fuels
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Q2
Energetics of the hydrologic cycle
• It takes energy to evaporate water: 2,250 J per gram
• this is why “swamp coolers” work: evaporation pulls heat out of environment,
making it feel cooler
• 23% of sun’s incident energy goes into evaporation
• By contrast, raising one gram of water to the top of the troposphere
(10,000 m, or 33,000 ft) takes
mgh = (0.001 kg)(10 m/s2)(10,000 m) = 100 J
• So > 96% of the energy associated with forming clouds is the
evaporation; < 4% in lifting against gravity
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Let it Rain
• When water condenses in clouds, it re-releases this “latent heat”
• but this is re-radiated and is of no consequence to hydro-power
• When it rains, the gravitational potential energy is released, mostly as kinetic
energy and ultimately heat
• Some tiny bit of gravitational potential energy remains, IF the rain falls on terrain
(e.g., higher than sea level where it originated)
• hydroelectric plants use this tiny left-over energy: it’s the energy that drives the flow of
streams and rivers
• damming up a river concentrates the potential energy in one location for easy exploitation
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How much of the process do we get to keep?
• According to Figure 5.1, 401015 W of solar power goes into evaporation
• this corresponds to 1.61010 kg per second of evaporated water!
• this is 3.5 mm per day off the ocean surface (replenished by rain)
• The gravitational potential energy given to water vapor (mostly in clouds) in the
atmosphere (per second) is then:
mgh = (1.61010 kg)(10 m/s2)(2000 m) = 3.21014 J
• One can calculate that we gain access to only 2.5% of the total amount (and use
only 1.25%)
• based on the 1.8% land area of the U.S. and the maximum potential of 147.7 GW as
presented in Table 5.2
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A dam is not needed at smaller power stations. Water is diverted from a river and re-
directed along a canal to a turbine before re-joining the river.
Potential
• THEORETICAL- The maximum potential that exists.
• TECHNICAL- It takes into account the cost involved in exploiting a source
(including the environmental and engineering restrictions)
• ECONOMIC- Calculated after detailed environmental, geological, and other
economic constraints.
Continent Wide distribution
KARNATAKA 652.51
MAHARASHTRA 599.47
Sites (up to 3 MW) identified by UNDP
Hydropower
Technology
Pumped
Impoundment Diversion
Storage
Impoundment facility-uses a dam to store water. Water may be
released either to meet changing electricity needs or to maintain a
constant water level
Dam Types
• Arch
• Gravity
• Buttress
• Embankment or Earth
Arch Dams
• Face is held up by a
series of supports
• Flat or curved face
Embankment Dams
• Earth or rock
• Weight resists flow of
water
Dams Construction
Diversion Facility
• drum-shaped
• elongated, rectangular-section nozzle
directed against curved vanes on a
cylindrically shaped runner
• “squirrel cage” blower
• water flows through the blades
twice
Cross Flow Turbines (continued…)
• First pass : water flows from the outside of the blades to the inside
• Second pass : from the inside back out
• Larger water flows and lower heads than the Pelton.
Reaction Turbines
• Combined action of pressure and moving water.
• Runner placed directly in the water stream flowing over the blades
rather than striking each individually.
• lower head and higher flows than compared with the impulse turbines.
Propeller Hydropower Turbine
The growing demand for energy was largely met by the fossil fuels – coal and petroleum.
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Process 3-4: The dry saturated vapor expands through a turbine, generating power. This decreases
the temperature and pressure of the vapor, and some Schematic representation of an electric power
plant;
Process 4-1: The wet vapor then enters a condenser where it is condensed at a constant pressure
and temperature to become a saturated liquid. The pressure and temperature of the condenser is
fixed by the temperature of the
cooling coils as the fluid is
undergoing a phase-change.
General Layout of Modern Thermal Power Plant
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