L+Squared+Group

= =  ** The Reliability Issue: Storage of Wind and Geothermal Power**


=By Lillian Nelson and Lindsay Trudeau = 

__**Table of Contents**__
 * I. Wind Power
 * What is Wind Power?
 * Where is Wind Power Most Common?
 * Pros of Wind Power
 * Cons of Wind Power
 * Solutions by Wind Power
 * How Can Wind Power Help Solve Global Warming?
 * How is Wind Energy Stored Until Needed?
 * How is Technology Going to Improve Wind Power?
 * II. Geothermal Power
 * What is Geothermal Power?
 * Where is Geothermal Power Most Common?
 * Pros of Geothermal Power
 * Cons of Geothermal Power
 * Solutions due to Geothermal Power
 * How is Technology Going to Improve Geothermal Power?
 * Where is Geothermal Energy Stored Until Needed
 * III. Works Cited

//"Today an American consumer uses 13 times the electricity he or she did a half-century ago, and there are twice as many of us," James Hoecker//
 * __What is Wind Power?__   **

Wind is available both day and night, and wind gets it's energy from the sun, so it will never run out like fossil fuels.


 * __ Where is Wind Power most common? __**

Wind is most consistent and strong in areas that are flat and heated by sunlight, such as in the desert or prairie.

 __ ** Pros Of Wind Power ** __  __** Cons of Wind Power ** __
 * The United States could use available midwest land to meet all of its energy needs with wind turbines.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Wind turbines and farms can easily be on the same land.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Wind can be used on a large scale and connected to a grid, or used on a small scale in windy, rural areas to provide power.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Wind power is a good investment. If one turbine cost $20,000 to install, it easily pays for itself in ten years. The overall return is electricity ata lower cost and reduction of greenhouse gases.[|Wind Power]
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">The wind is not always blowing.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Weather must be carefully watched in areas where wind farms are connected to the grid, to avoid a drop in available wattage if the wind stops blowing.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Wind farms must be built in windy areas, often far away from densely populated areas that need the most electricity.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Wind turbines can cause noise pollution from the spinning blades.
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 90%; color: #000000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Birds often fly into the blades and die, so wind turbine farms are now being built around bird migration patterns.
 * __ Solutions by Wind Power __**
 * 1) Wind Farms: Solar and Wind power combined produce only 1% of the United State's total electricity. Other countries have been able to expand this, like Denmark, which produces 10% of its power needs from wind turbines. [|Wind Power]
 * 2) Pickens Plan: T. Boone Pickens is an oil man who saw the benefits of wind power. He has created a wind farm in Sweetwater, Texas that not only produces enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes, but creates extra income for the farmers who lease their land to the company that owns the turbines. This means that farming and grazing continue, but electricity is also made. It is a economically and enviromentally responsible situation that could work in many parts of the United States. [|Pickens Plan]
 * 3) Off Shore Wind Farms: In Northern Europe, off shore wind turbines are becoming common. There is more space, the winds are stronger and more reliable, and there are no buildings to disrupt wind patterns. Although it is more expensive during construction, the amount of power these offshore turbines can create makes the very worthwhile. [|Vestas]

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__ **How is wind energy stored until needed?** __ __ **How is technology going to improve wind power?** __
 * __ How can wind power help solve global warming? __**
 * It is a carbon neutral way of creating large amounts of electricity. [|LAT]
 * Demand for electricity is expected to grow 30% by 2020.[|LAT]
 * It promotes farming and letting land remain open for wildlife below the turbines.
 * It is possible for the United States to generate all needed electricity through wind power if the necessary grid changes are made and wind farms are built on the available windy areas in the Midwest. This would eliminate the need for burning fossil fuels to produce electricity for Americans, which would significantly reduce the global emissions of CO2.
 * The spinning of the blades rotates magnets around coiled wire in a generator to induce electrical flow. The use of high temperature superconducting wire in generators makes them more powerful, meaning less turbines are needed to create a set amount of energy. [|Physics Today]
 * Geothermal- by pumping air into underground caverns at high pressure can store wind energy that would otherwise be lost if not used right away.
 * The Bonneville Power Administration is able to produce 20% of it's peak demand with wind by working with CAISO, a Portland, Oregon facility that uses spinning fly wheels to store excess electricity through brief gusts. (Renewables)
 * President Barack Obama's stimulus alots $4.5 billion dollars for "smart grid" development. The current electrical grid in the US is not flexible enough to easily accomodate renewable resources like wind that can have power fluctuations with the weather.
 * The Electric Power Reasearch Institure has been selected to receive a $1.3 million contract to create a broader range of generation and storage options that is more resiliant against blackouts due to power input fluctuations, disasters, and have enhanced power quality. EPRI will be responsible for ensuring different vendors work together to create industry standards, driving down the overall cost of wind power. [|EPRI]
 * In order to take full advantage of wind power, the electrical grid will have to be adapted for fluctuations. The use of hydoelectric power, solar power, geothermal power as well as more traditional sources of energy such as nuclear and coal must be balanced so that supply equals demand. This is the biggest problem with the current grid, because changes in weather in areas that rely on wind power can have extreme drops in wattage quickly, which can lead to blackouts.(Renewables 173)



__ Geothermal Power __

=__What is Geothermal Power?__= The word Geothermal comes from the Greek words Geo, which means Earth, and Thermal, whi ch means heat, so it is defined as the heat coming from the earth. Usually the steam and and hot water produced inside the Earth to generate electricity and/or used for heating. ([|EIA])

=__Where is Geothermal Power most common?__= <span style="font-size: 80%; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Most geothermal resources are usually found along major plate boundaries where earthquakes and volcanoes are located, such as the edges of the Pacific Ocean, which is commonly called "The Ring of Fire." ([|EIA])



=__Pros of Geothermal Power__= = =
 * <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source, and we will never run out of it since it comes from the center of the Earth.
 * <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">To use Geothermal energy, it doesn't affect the look of your home, because you put coils underground to collect the energy, unlike solar powered energy which needs solar panels on the roof of your house.
 * <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Since we have used Fossil Fuels for so long, we are eventually going to run out or have a hard time finding them, but Geothermal energy will most likely be available to us since it is considered a renewable.
 * <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Geothermal energy can be used for both heating and cooling.
 * <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Some "Geothermal facilities" can reduce sulfur emissions that would have occurred from the Earths natural venting if these sites had been left alone.
 * <span style="line-height: normal; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Geothermal has the smallest land use of all major power generation technology.

=__Cons of Geothermal Power__=
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Geothermal energy systems do emit CO2 and other pollutants to the atmosphere because the fluids from the Geothermal energy contain dissolved gases.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">Geothermal plants are often noisy which can disturb the environment around it.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">When installed, and the drilling is done improperly, the Earth can release dangerous minerals and gases.
 * <span style="font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;">The technology used today to intake resources to make Geothermal Energy may limit the amount of energy we can use.

=__Solutions by Geothermal Power__=
 * 1) **Direct use of Geothermal Energy** has been used for many years. In Ancient times, the hot springs have been used for bathing. Now, hot springs are still used for bathing, but also for heating. The hot water can be piped directly to buildings through "District Heating Systems." In Reykjavik, Iceland, they use a "Distract Heating System," which heats approximately 95% of buildings.
 * 2) **Geothermal Power Plants** use hydrothermal resources which can vary from dry steam wells to hot water wells. It is also used by drilling wells into the earth about a mile to two miles deep, and piping the hot water and/or steam up to the surface of the earth. There are 3 types of Geothermal Power plants: dry steam plants, flash steam plants, and binary power plants. ([|GEO]) The United States generates more Geothermal Energy than any other country, but it only consists of "1/2 of a percent of electricity used in the United States." ([|EIA]) But only four states in the US have Geothermal Power plants, which include California, Nevada, Hawaii, and Utah. ([|EIA])
 * 3) **Geothermal Heat Pumps** use the Earth's constant temperatures to heat and cool buildings. It is known that when temperatures are cooler in the winter the soil is warmer than the air, and when the temperatures are warmer in the summer the soil is cooler than the air. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) these heat pumps are most energy efficient, cost-effective, and environmentally clean. ([|EIA])



//Explanation of Geothermal Power:// media type="youtube" key="7EDy6v5q2Io" height="364" width="445"

=__Where is Geothermal Energy stored until needed?__=
 * Geothermal Energy is kept in the earth, or a hot water spring/resevoir until it is needed. Unlike other sources of renewable energy, such as wind and solar power, which is taken in when it is avaliable because it is not always around, unlike the resources used for Geothermal Power.

= __Possible Technological Improvements__ =
 * Much more power will become available with the improvements of Geothermal technology.
 * As drilling technology improves, scientists could drill deeper into hot rocks, allowing Geothermal energy to be used everywhere.
 * "In 2006 the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released a report, The report estimates that 26,000 MW of geothermal power could be developed by 2015, with direct use and heat pumps contributing another 20,000 MW of thermal energy. The report suggests that by 2025 more than 100,000 MW of geothermal power could be in production, with direct use and heat pumps adding another 70,000 MW of thermal energy." ([|GEA])
 * __

Works Cited __** "Alternative Energy Sources - What are the Most Common Sources of Alternative Energy." __Save Energy - Tips and Advice for Saving Energy__. 15 May 2009 [].

Charles, Dan. "Renewables Test IQ of the Grid". 10 April 2009. SCIENCE, Vol 324.

Cole, Rebecca. "Power and Pitfalls of an Electrical Smart Grid". 27 April 2009. Los Angeles Times. 14 May 2009. []

"Geothermal Energy." __Energy Information Administration - EIA - Official Energy Statistics from the U.S. Government__. 15 May 2009 [].

__Geothermal Energy Association__. 15 May 2009 <http://www.geo-energy.org/default.asp>.

Perry, Clay. "EPRI News Release" 8 April 2009. EPRI. 14 May 2009. [|http://my.epri.com]

"Pickens Plan". 2008. Pickens Plan.com 14 May 2009. []

"Power From the Earth's Heat." __Geothermal Education Office__. 15 May 2009 [].

"Pros of Using Geothermal For Your Home." __EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints__. 15 May 2009 <http://ezinearticles.com/?Pros-of-Using-Geothermal-For-Your-Home&id=139618>.

"Superconductors to Boost Wind Power". April 2009. Physics Today. [|www.physicstoday.org]

"Why Offshore?". 2007. Vestas. 14 May 2009. [|www.vestas.com]

"Wind Power". Science Clarified. 14 May 2009. []