To Save Energy, Popping Socket Unplugs Plugs

This Red Dot award winner might be the answer for some consumers, but probably not for me.

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Geothermal Energy – What’s in a Name?

Recently, use of the term “geothermal energy” has become somewhat confusing. For the longest time, geothermal energy implied deep-seated, super hot (+180˚C) water, brought to the surface to provide heat for space heating or electricity generation. It is the energy behind geysers and hot springs. Think Old Faithful and Banff Hot Springs.

But with the advent of heat pumps, shallower, much cooler water could be used for space heating. Purists insisted on calling the new technology “earth energy”, or “geo exchange” or “ground-source energy”. The debate intensified to just short of rioting in the streets, but new subdivisions, advertised as economical and environmentally friendly due to “geothermal heating”, sprang up across the country. And people oblivious to the debate began to see geothermal only as a method of home heating that involved heat pumps and a bit of tubing.

So which side is right? Etymologically speaking, they both are. The term geothermal is derived from two Greek words: geo, meaning earth; and thermos, meaning heat. Earth heat. There is no reference to either temperature or depth.

Practically speaking, there is a big difference. In most parts of Canada, deep geothermal requires wells more than five kilometres deep, and that is prohibitively expensive for someone who just wants to heat their home. And shallow geothermal can’t deliver the heat required to create steam to drive turbines, so it won’t be used by utilities.

Regardless of what you consider is the real geothermal, both are among the cleanest sources of energy, and, over the long term, economical.

Energy BOT Squad’s Newest Member

Energy doesn’t get much more underground than geothermal power, which unlocks the heat trapped below the surface of the earth. But when it comes to Canada, geothermal energy is still “underground” in more than a few ways — just ask GeothermalBOT.

At the moment, GeothermalBOT mainly has to keep himself warm using the heat pumps that use the differences in temperature between the ground and the air to cool or heat homes. They’re small and localized, and the only game in town for a BOT that wants to keep nice and toasty. In fact, there aren’t currently any large geothermal power plants in Canada. But that doesn’t mean that GeothermalBOT will be stuck in Canada’s energy underground for the rest of his days.

In fact, Canada has considerable geothermal potential, with near-surface resources found across the country in areas as far apart as British Columbia and Saskatchewan. There has even been talk of developing these resources — just look to the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA) — though so far Canada still has no geothermal plants. Around the world, though, it’s a slightly different story.

To find areas where geothermal power has already heated up, GeothermalBOT would need to take a look at Iceland, where geothermal plants produce almost a quarter of the country’s total electricity. Because of the area’s high concentration of volcanoes and other heat sources near to the surface of the earth, the country has a natural wealth of geothermal energy that it’s used since 1908, when a farmer piped in water to heat his home. Other countries that use geothermal energy include the US, the Philippines and Indonesia.

But GeothermalBOT’s not likely to be heading to Reykjavik any time soon. For now, he’s fine being part of Canada’s energy underground, because a nice hot water tank is still a fine place to spend your time.

Energy BOT Squad’s Newest Member

This week just got a little brighter with the introduction of SolarBOT, an energy dynamo who can soak up the rays and heat up the town. Add in his ability to generate electricity and you’ve got a BOT who can take it easy and stay powerful at the same time.

One of the most familiar uses of solar energy comes with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. Disturbed around the country on rooftops, ground-mounted installations and anywhere that sunlight can reach them, these panels can provide power to locations and devices that wouldn’t otherwise be able to reach the grid. Certain locations provide more sunlight for these panels, making areas including southern Ontario, Quebec and the prairies the best places in Canada for SolarBOT to kick back and absorb.

But SolarBOT does more than just keep power flowing, he also keeps Canadians warm. Active solar thermal systems use mirrors or metal plates to focus the sun’s energy, transferring the heat to air or water. And once that air or water has been heated, it can be distributed throughout a house, keeping it toasty warm.

And not all solar heating is active either. Passive solar heating simply involves constructing a home so that the sunlight naturally finds its way into the home and its heat is trapped by insulation. After all, what’s a nice sunbeam if you can’t relax?

In Canada, the solar industry is represented by the Canadian Solar Industries Association (CanSIA), which provides public information on solar power and industry information for companies in the business of harnessing the sun’s energy. Governments have also stepped into the business of promoting solar power, with Ontario’s Feed-In Tariff (FIT) program and its guaranteed prices for solar power being the most prominent example.

Around the world, solar power has been able to provide emission-free energy in a variety of locations, including large facilities like the 40-megawatt solar farm in Sarnia, Ontario. Globally, facilities like the US’s Solar Energy Generating Systems (SEGS) are providing megawatts of installed capacity, from North America to Europe and beyond. So even if SolarBOT occasionally likes to kick back, he’s always a powerful BOT.

HAWTs and VAWTs

There are two basic types of wind turbines defined by the orientation if the axis or drive haft that turns the generator – horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) and vertical axis wind turbines (VAWT).

Horizontal axis wind turbines are the oldest, most efficient and therefore, the most common of the two types. They consist of two or more vertical blades (three is the most common) attached to a hub which is in turn attached to the horizontal drive shaft and the generator. This whole assembly sits on top of a tower. The blades face into the wind on the windward side of the tower to avoid any disturbance the tower may create. The tower is designed to elevate the blades into the strongest and most consistent wind. Currently, the longest blades are 82 metres long (269 feet) and the tallest towers reach 180 metres or 590 feet.

There are many different vertical axis wind turbine designs, ranging from the Darrius “egg beater” configuration to bladed turbines. Like HAWTs, vanes or blades turn a shaft connected to a generator , although in this case the shaft is vertical and the generator on the ground. There is no tower, and VAWTs  are generally much shorter than HAWTs, The prime advantage of  VAWT configuration is that it faces always faces into the wind, and is therefore better suited to areas where the wind is continually changing direction. Because of their more compact design, VAWTs are commonly used for microgeneration by home, cottage and small business owners and farmers to provide power for their own use or to sell back to grid.

A new development combines a VAWT with solar cells to provide electricity from wind power and solar power at the same time.

Rating Nuclear Accidents

Graphic: International Atomic Energy Agency

Earthquakes have the Richter Scale; nuclear mishaps have the INES – International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale.

The purpose of INES is to provide a means of “communicating to the public in a consistent way the safety significance of nuclear and radiological events.” There are seven levels to the scale which are applied to three “areas of impact”:

• People and the Environment considers the radiation doses to people close to the location of the event and the widespread, unplanned release of radioactive material from an installation.
• Radiological Barriers and Control covers events without any direct impact on people or the environment and only applies inside major facilities. It covers unplanned high radiation levels and spread of significant quantities of radioactive materials confined within the installation.
• Defence-in-Depth also covers events without any direct impact on people or the environment, but for which the range of measures put in place to prevent accidents did not function as intended.

The seven levels are defined such that each level is ten times more severe than the previous level. Unlike the Richter Scale, where intensity of an earthquake is determined by a mathematical formula, the INES is based on a series of definitions. For example, under People and the Environment, Level 2 is defined as “exposure of a member of the public in excess of 10 millisieverts or exposure of a worker in excess of the statutory annual limits.” Level 3 is defined as “exposure in excess of 10 times the statutory annual limit for workers and non-lethal deterministic health effects from radiation (e.g. burns).”

Similarly, a Level 6 event is defined as a significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures, whereas a Level 7 event is defined as a major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects requiring implementation of planned and extended countermeasures.

Fukushima Dai-ichi is currently considered a Level 6 event while Chernobyl is considered a Level 7 event.

While this may seem somewhat subjective, there is a very comprehensive, 218-page INES Users Manual developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency in cooperation with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Nuclear Energy Agency. The manual removes a lot of ambiguity. Media reporting on a nuclear accident should consult the manual.

Where is My Electricity Coming From at This Hour?

If you live in Ontario and want to know where your electricity is coming from at this hour, the Canadian Nuclear Society hosts a website called Where is My Electricity Coming From at this Hour?

All you have to do is go to the website and it not only tells you from whence your electricity comes, but also how many tonnes of CO₂ have been avoided by not burning coal, the number of homes being supplied by each electricity source, from whence your electricity came in past 48 hours and the capabilities and output of pretty much every generating unit in Ontario, be it nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydro, wind or other. The source for the generation data is Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator.

We’re pretty excited about this service, not only because of the transparency it provides, but also of its false-impression-busting capabilities. For example, the amount of CO₂ Ontario’s coal-fired generating plants emit gets a lot of coverage, and from this we get the impression that coal is one of the major sources of Ontario’s electricity, but in consulting Where is My Electricity Coming From at this Hour, we find that currently only four per cent is coming from coal. Forty-nine per cent is coming from nuclear power, 23 is coming from hydro, 18 from natural gas, five from wind and one from other, chiefly wood biomass.

And 16 hours ago, 4.6 per cent was coming from coal, and that was about as high as it got in the last 48 hours.

In fact, the website points out that 13,210 tonnes of CO2 that would have been emitted in the past hour if all the electricity in Ontario was coal-fired, have been avoided due to the use of other energy sources.

We wonder how many Canadians coast to coast know and understand where their electricity comes from, not only by the hour, but in general. Knowing where our electricity comes from may be useful in deciding how much we’re going to use and how we’re going to use it.

All in the Family

Natural gas. Propane. Butane.

Three common fuels with common uses. There are natural gas barbecues, propane powered cars, natural gas and propane furnaces, propane and butane stoves and torches, but, there aren’t any butane cars or natural gas lighters.

What makes them interchangeable is they are all closely related. Very closely. In fact, propane and butane are components of natural gas, accounting for one to five per cent. The other components are methane (75 to 95 per cent), ethane (five to 15 per cent), pentane (less than 0.5 per cent) and traces of nitrogen, water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulphur.

Methane, propane et al. consist solely of carbon and hydrogen in simple chains; the relative proportions are given in the accompanying table.

What makes them not so interchangeable is their physical properties and relative abundances.

Name	Formula	Melting Point	Boiling Point	Heating Value (MJ/kg)
Methane	CH4	-182.5	-161.6	55.5
Ethane	C2H6	-181.8	-89.0	51.9
Propane	C3H8	-187.7	-42.1	50.2
Butane	C4H10	-138.4	-0.5	49.2
Pentane	C5H12	-129.8	36.1	45.35

Processed natural gas, which is about 90 per cent methane, is used as fuel for space and water heating, generating electricity and powering vehicles. When used for heat or electricity or a barbecue, it is delivered as a gas via pipeline. Powering a vehicle is a different story. The natural gas has to be either compressed (CNG) or liquefied (LNG). CNG is the most common. It involves pressurizing the gas  to 20,000 to 24,000 kilopascals or 200 to 240 times the normal pressure at the earth’s surface.

At that pressure, the natural gas occupies less than 1/100 of its original volume. Liquefying natural gas involves cooling it to a temperature less than -162 °C at which point it occupies less than 1/600 of its original volume. Because of these requirements, natural gas lighters would be prohibitively expensive and far too large to carry in your pocket.

Propane makes a effective vehicle fuel because it is a liquid a lower pressures and higher temperatures than natural gas. It’s portable enough for barbecues and camp stoves, but still not enough for lighters. And it’s reasonably plentiful.

Butane is less plentiful than propane and much, much less plentiful than natural gas. Consequently, it isn’t used as vehicle fuel, but because of its low boiling point, it’s ideal for torches, cook stoves and lighters.

If It’s So Green, Why Does It Burn Blue?

We’ve all been told that natural gas is the greenest of the fossil fuels. Greener than coal and greener than petroleum products. So why is this?

It’s all a matter of carbon, or hydrogen depending on how you look at it. Natural gas is primarily methane with lesser amounts of ethane, propane, butane, pentane and heavier hydrocarbons, nitrogen, water vapour, sulphur and carbon dioxide. Processing removes most of these other components so by the time the natural gas is actually heating our homes, it’s almost totally methane.

Methane is composed of  four hydrogen atoms surrounding one carbon atom – CH₄ – which means there’s four times as much hydrogen as there is carbon.

Other fossil fuels are made of more complex carbon and hydrogen molecules. Gasoline, for example, is made of molecules containing from five to 12 carbon atoms, arranged in linear chains, branched chains and rings. As more carbon atoms are added, the relative proportion of hydrogen decreases. The chemical formula for ethane, the two-carbon molecule, is C₂H_6, giving a hydrogen to carbon ratio of 3:1. In a 12-carbon chain, C₁₂H₂₆, the hydrogen to carbon ratio is 2.4:1.

Carbon dioxide is a by-product of burning fossil fuels. It is also a greenhouse gas which has been linked to climate change. The less carbon there is in a substance, the less carbon dioxide it produces when burned. Natural gas, being mostly methane, has the least carbon of all the fossil fuels.

On average, natural gas emits 53.06 kilograms of CO₂ per million British thermal units (kg CO₂ per MMBtu). Gasoline emits 71.62 kg CO₂ per MMBtu and diesel emits 73.15 kg CO₂ per MMBtu. Bituminous coal emits 93.28 kg CO₂ per MMBtu.

Because of its relative greenness, natural gas has been replacing coal as fuel for heat and power generation in both Canada and the United States.

And to answer the question: natural gas burns with a blue flame when well oxygenated. This results in more complete combustion.

Energy BOT Squad’s Newest Member

Things are starting to heat up for the Energy BOT Squad. This week’s BOT is powered by Canada’s primary heating fuel: natural gas.

But GasBOT is no hothead (even if her pigtails are pretty bright) — natural gas is also a low-emission fuel source for electricity across the country. And, when it comes to natural gas-powered vehicles, she’s no slowpoke either. In fact, there are as many uses for natural gas across the country as there are places to find it.

Conventional? Sure: if you want to find conventional natural gas production you only have to go as far as Alberta, where Canada produces more than 75 per cent of its natural gas. But GasBOT’s also fuelled by unconventional sources like coal and shale, which can be found across the country. Together, all those natural gas resources keep Canada well supplied.

So whether she’s heating your house or burning rubber, GasBOT is a BOT to watch, which is why we’re going to spend the next week taking a look at natural gas across the country. So, GasBOT… activate!

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