Assignment:
Introduction:
Renewable energy is the key to a sustainable future. All other forms of non-renewable energy will eventually run out, whether it is oil within the next century or coal within the next several hundred.
Renewable energy has a smaller environmental impact. The largest impact for many renewable forms is the damage done in getting the materials to make the machinery to harvest the energy. For some, the only other impact is aesthetic (e.g., ugly solar panels, noisy windmills); for others, the impact can be fairly large (e.g., river ecosystem converted to lake by hydroelectric). However, the overall impact is much smaller than fossil fuels or nuclear energy, which has large extraction and waste problems.
The drawbacks to using renewable energy are availability and economics. Some forms of renewable energy are not readily available in certain locations, such as solar panels in a cloud forest. They might be available in other locations, but at a cost that makes them very uneconomical for the average user. Some forms of renewable energy are uneconomical no matter where they are placed.
Activity:
This activity will look at the availability and economics of solar power where you live. We will need maps of available sunshine provided by the U.S. government to do this. We are also going to need to know the price of commercially available solar panels. Foremost, though, we will need to know how much electrical energy you use before we estimate the cost of using renewable energy.
Question 1: Identify the major sources of energy used in your home today. For example, do you use electricity, natural gas, propane, and/or heat oil? Identifying what sources you use will come into the discussion later on. Need Assignment Help?
Question 2: Finding out how much electrical energy we use is actually quite easy. All that one needs to do is to either monitor their electric meter for some period of time or review their electrical bills. Either of these two methods will give you the exact amount for how much electricity you use. Using your utility bills or the best estimate, identify the annual costs for all of these energy sources combined. Note, this is how much money you spend over the entire year for energy supporting the operation of your home. For some students, this will be 100% electricity. You can decide to only calculate the value of replacing your current electricity use or instead putting a dollar value on all of the energy sources used in your home over a year (e.g., electric + natural gas).
Cost of energy = $ ________/yr
Question 3: Using the appropriate cost of electricity from the table below, calculate the annual usage of energy in your home. [For example, if your total annual spending on energy from question 2 was $2400 and you were located in the state of Georgia, then use the conversion 1 kwhr/$0.1395., so that $2400 * (1 kwhr/$0.1395) = 17,204 kwhr]. If your location is not listed, please select a neighboring state or use the national average of 1 kwhr/$0.23. Note the table is in cents, and you want to use dollars.
Annual Energy Use in Your Home = ____________ kwhr/yr
| State |
Cost |
State |
Cost |
State |
Cost |
| Arizona |
14.74 ¢ / kWh |
Maine |
21.82 ¢ / kWh |
Ohio |
13.90 ¢ / kWh |
| Arkansas |
13.26 ¢ / kWh |
Maryland |
14.74 ¢ / kWh |
Oregon |
13.58 ¢ / kWh |
| California |
28.38 ¢ / kWh |
Massachusetts |
28.36 ¢ / kWh |
Pennsylvania |
17.02 ¢ / kWh |
| Colorado |
14.61 ¢ / kWh |
Michigan |
18.88 ¢ / kWh |
Rhode Island |
21.94 ¢ / kWh |
| Connecticut |
25.90 ¢ / kWh |
Minnesota |
16.05 ¢ / kWh |
South Carolina |
13.46 ¢ / kWh |
| Florida |
15.48 ¢ / kWh |
Missouri |
13.16 ¢ / kWh |
Texas |
12.79 ¢ / kWh |
| Georgia |
13.95 ¢ / kWh |
Nevada |
14.54 ¢ / kWh |
Utah |
12.78 ¢ / kWh |
| Idaho |
10.35 ¢ / kWh |
New Hampshire |
27.54 ¢ / kWh |
Virginia |
14.11 ¢ / kWh |
| Illinois |
14.40 ¢ / kWh |
New Jersey |
17.76 ¢ / kWh |
Washington |
11.67 ¢ / kWh |
| Indiana |
16.28 ¢ / kWh |
New Mexico |
14.95 ¢ / kWh |
Washington D.C. |
12.81 ¢ / kWh |
| Iowa |
13.45 ¢ / kWh |
New York |
22.64 ¢ / kWh |
Wisconsin |
16.43 ¢ / kWh |
| Louisiana |
12.40 ¢ / kWh |
North Carolina |
12.50 ¢ / kWh |
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Question 4: Now that we have the approximate electrical energy usage per year, we are prepared to investigate the economics of using solar energy in your present location. Use the annual solar radiation map from the National Renewable Energy Labs to find out the average amount of solar energy that strikes a 1-m2 solar panel at your current location. In case the website goes off line, this map is also shared on the next page. Enter this value below as kwhr/m2/day. You can select the midpoint or the maximum of the range for ease of calculation.
Solar Energy per Day = ___________ kwhr/m2/day
Question 5: Now, multiply the value from response 4 by 365 days in order to calculate Average Annual Solar Energy (AASE) that is striking the surface in a year. State the AASE here in kwhr/m2/yr.
AASE = ________ kwhr/m2/yr
Question 6: Since most standard solar panels are only about 12% efficient, the AASE needs to be divided by 8 in order to calculate the Average Annual Solar Panel Output (AASPO) a 1-m2 solar panel per year in your area.
AASPO = ________ kwhr/m2/yr
Question 7: If the total energy needed for your home (response 3) is divided by the AASPO (response 6), you will have estimated the area of solar panels that you need to meet your energy needs for the year. So, calculate Annual Energy Use in Your Home (kwhr/yr) from response 3 / AASPO (kwhr/m2/yr) from response 6.
Area of solar panels needed = ________ m2
Question 8: Using current price estimates (they vary quite a bit, but $200/m2 from for solar panels allows you to calculate the price of putting in solar panels. Multiply the area of solar panels needed (m2) from response 7 * $200/m2.
Cost of solar panels = $ ________
Question 9: Now, go back to response 2 and determine the costs of energy using what you currently pay over the following time frames. To do so, multiply by the number of years.
10 years at current costs = $ ________ for 10 years
20 years at current costs = $ ________ for 20 years
30 years at current costs = $ ________ for 30 years
Question 10: Review the costs of the solar panels (response 8) to the cost estimates over 10, 20, and 30 years (response 9). How do they compare? Is there a time frame when solar panels cost less than paying the current electricity costs?
Question 11: Reflect back on responses to questions 1 and 10. Your home may run on 100% electricity today or you might use some combination of energy sources and in order to convert your home to solar panels, you would also need solutions for heating, appliances, and perhaps others. Also, consider how energy prices continue to increase year-over-year. How do these considerations impact the suitability of solar for you home? Why? (Be sure to offer a thoughtful, paragraph minimum response to this question.)