Rachael Harris - Padlet Project: Energy Resouces by Rachael Harris https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8 1. Solar Energy 2. Hydropower 3. Coal 4. Biomass 5. Natural Gas en-us 2021-09-08 19:29:32 UTC 2021-09-14 19:42:26 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-uploads.storage.googleapis.com/1334297478/0e995e281a7a36eef657a20255d8f875/Man_chan.png Solar Energy rachaelharris557 https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725899854 1. Solar power is the most abundant energy source on Earth
2. Solar panel costs have fallen 99% since 1977 
3. Solar Energy is cheaper than fossil fuels
4. Solar power plants can last 40 years or more
5. 39% of new electricity production capacity installed in 2016 was solar.
6. Solar is the fastest energy source to deploy
7. Solar power plants can last 40 years or more
8. Solar energy has been used for more than 2,700 years for heating, cooking, and other essential applications that make our lives more efficient.]]> 2021-09-08 19:36:20 UTC https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725899854 Biomass rachaelharris557 https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725901574 1. The methane gas from cow manure can be used to create energy.
2.The main ingredient needed for ethanol is sugars.
3.All living things and organic matter are known as biomass. The energy released from biomass when it is eaten, burned, or converted into fuels is called biomass energy. This includes wood, wood waste, straw, manure, sugarcane, and many other by-products.
4. One way to release the energy from biomass is to burn it. The heat from burning biomass can be used to heat homes or to create steam which can then generate electricity. One example of this is burning a fire in your home. You burn the wood, which is the biomass, and it releases energy which heats your home.
5. Some crops, like corn and sugar cane, can be converted into a biofuel called ethanol. Ethanol can be used instead of gasoline in many cars. Another type of biofuel is biodiesel. Biodiesel can be made from vegetable oils and animal fats. Biodiesel can be used as heating oil and also to power cars and busses.
6. Biomass is renewable organic material that comes from plants and animals. ... Plants produce biomass through photosynthesis. Biomass can be burned directly for heat or converted to renewable liquid and gaseous fuels through various processes.
7. Nowadays biomass fuel is most commonly produced from sustainable and managed forest stock. Meaning each felled tree is replanted – keeping the forest alive and thriving. It is also produced from wood waste at factories and wood processing plants. By being compressed into pellets the fuel is designed to burn at a constant, consistent and stable output.
8. With the ability to create biomass fuels from plant waste as well as wood (for example during agricultural harvesting, even sewage sludge) there is the potential for billions of tons of bio-fuels to be created around the world each year.]]> 2021-09-08 19:37:19 UTC https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725901574 Natural Gas rachaelharris557 https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725903649 1. Methane, or CH4, is the primary component of natural gas. When it is found in nature, raw natural gas may also contain some mixture of butane, propane, and pentane gasses, as well as some nitrogen, 
carbon dioxide, and water vapor.
2. Natural gas costs less than electricity, so households that use gas-powered furnaces, water heaters, stoves, and dryers spend hundreds of dollars less per year than homes with electric appliances.
3. When cooled to -260 degrees F, natural gas becomes a liquid.
4. In its pure state, natural gas is odorless. However, because of its potentially explosive nature, utility companies add mercaptan to the gas to give it a rotten egg smell. This doesn’t affect the fuel’s performance, but it makes it easier to pinpoint a gas leak.
5. In the past decade, natural gas utilities have installed 30,000 miles of plastic pipelines per year. In total, more than 2.5 million miles of pipeline transport natural gas across the US. That’s enough to get to the moon and back five times!
6. In about 500 BC, the Chinese discovered places where natural gas seeped to the surface. They formed crude pipelines from bamboo shoots to transport the gas, using it to boil seawater. This separated the water from the salt, making the water palatable and providing salt to season food.
7. Natural gas was first used for cooking in Persia starting in the first century AD. Since pipes didn’t exist yet, the king of Persia built his royal kitchen next to a natural gas fissure to use as his own personal stove.
8. More than 72 million US customers rely on natural gas every day, including more than 66 million households. The average home uses about 196 cubic feet of natural gas every day.]]> 2021-09-08 19:38:21 UTC https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725903649 Hydropower rachaelharris557 https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725905859 1. Every state in the US uses hydropower
2. Hydropower, or hydroelectric power, is one of the oldest and largest sources of renewable energy, which uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity. Some may be very large, but they can be tiny, too, taking advantage of water flows in municipal water facilities or irrigation ditches.
3. Hydropower can harm the environment
4. Hydropower is clean. It prevents the burning of 22 billion gallons of oil or 120 million tons of coal each year
5. Reservoirs formed by hydropower projects in Wisconsin have expanded water-based recreation resources, and they support diverse, healthy, and productive fisheries. In fact, catch rates for game fish like walleye and smallmouth bass are substantially higher on hydropower reservoirs than natural lakes.
6. In the U.S., hydropower is produced for an average of 0.85 cents per kilowatt-hour (kwh). This is about 50% the cost of nuclear, 40% the cost of fossil fuel, and 25% the cost of using natural gas.
7. Hydropower does not experience rising or unstable fuel costs. From 1985 to 1990 the cost of operating a hydropower plant grew at less than the rate of inflation
8. Only 2,400 of the nation's 80,000 existing dams are used to generate power. Installing turbines in existing dams presents a promising and cost-effective power source. However, in the last 10 years the Department of Energy has spent $1.2 billion on research and development for other renewable sources like wind, solar, and geothermal, but only $10 million on hydropower.
]]> 2021-09-08 19:39:31 UTC https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725905859 Coal rachaelharris557 https://padlet.com/rachaelharris557/m72vi7jz4rnsjxc8/wish/1725910424 1. Coal is the world’s largest source of energy for the production of electricity.
2. Coal mining and the subsequent burning of coal can have many bad effects on both humans and the environment. Examples of this include waste products, acid rain, contaminated water, poisonous emissions, high levels of carbon dioxide and increased risks of lung cancer for coal plant workers.
3. Coal has long been burned to create electricity and heat. The use of coal is increasing every year, in 2006 the world consumed over 6,000,000,000,000 kilograms of coal!
4. Different types of coal contain different amounts of carbon. Lignite contains only around 60 to 75%, while anthracite contains more than 92%.
5. Anthracite is a hard, shiny, black coal that burns with a blue, smokeless flame. While most forms of coal are associated with sedimentary rock, anthracite undergoes metamorphism and is linked to metamorphic rocks.
6. Coal is converted to electricity by being burned in a furnace with a boiler. The boiler water is heated until it becomes steam, with the steam then spinning turbines and generators to create the electricity.
7. Coal mining and the subsequent burning of coal can have many bad effects on both humans and the environment. Examples of this include waste products, acid rain, contaminated water, poisonous emissions, high levels of carbon dioxide and increased risks of lung cancer for coal plant workers.
8. Coal starts off as plant matter at the bottom of water. It is eventually covered and deeply buried by sediments where over time metamorphosis (a change in form) takes place.
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