GRAN CANARIA'S POWER PLANT

    In Canary Islands we  have mainly thermal power plants.
   

    In Gran Canaria, there are two thermal power plant. One of them is in Jinamar, and the other is in San Bartolomé de Tirajana. Both of them, burn fossil fuels, that evaporate water, and this water move a generator. generators produce electricity, that is send to the cities. In the picture, you can see the thermal power plant of Jinamar.

     In the island of El Hierro, there is a hidroelectric power plant called Gorona del Viento. Concretly, it is a pumped-storage power plant. The plant uses turbines, pumps, and wind turbines to produce clean energy. Even, there are periods of the day that the entire island use only clean energy, without using fosil fuels.

BENEFITS OF RENEWABLE ENERGY

    Renewable energy — wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass — provides substantial benefits for our climate, our health, and our economy:

    Each source of renewable energy has unique benefits and costs.

    Human activity is overloading our atmosphere with carbon dioxide and other global warming emissions, which trap heat, steadily drive up the planet’s temperature, and create significant and harmful impacts on our health, our environment, and our climate.

    Electricity production accounts for more than one-third of U.S. global warming emissions, with the majority generated by coal-fired power plants, which produce approximately 25 percent of total U.S. global warming emissions; natural gas-fired power plants produce 6 percent of total emissions. In contrast, most renewable energy sources produce little to no global warming emissions.

    According to data aggregated by the International Panel on Climate Change, life-cycle global warming emissions associated with renewable energy—including manufacturing, installation, operation and maintenance, and dismantling and decommissioning—are minimal.

    Compared with natural gas, which emits between 0.6 and 2 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent per kilowatt-hour (CO2E/kWh), and coal, which emits between 1.4 and 3.6 pounds of CO2E/kWh, wind emits only 0.02 to 0.04 pounds of CO2E/kWh, solar 0.07 to 0.2,geothermal 0.1 to 0.2, and hydroelectric between 0.1 and 0.5. Renewable electricity generation from biomass can have a wide range of global warming emissions depending on the resource and how it is harvested. Sustainably sourced biomass has a low emissions footprint, while unsustainable sources of biomass can generate significant global warming emissions.

ENVIROMENT IMPACT

    All energy sources have some impact on our environment. Fossil fuels — coal, oil, and natural gas — do substantially more harm than renewable energy sources by most measures, including air and water pollution, damage to public health, wildlife and habitat loss, water use, land use, and global warming emissions.

Wind power

    Harnessing power from the wind is one of the cleanest and most sustainable ways to generate electricity as it produces no toxic pollution or global warming emissions. Wind is also abundant, inexhaustible, and affordable, which makes it a viable and large-scale alternative to fossil fuels.

    Despite its vast potential, there are a variety of environmental impacts associated with wind power generation that should be recognized and mitigated. For example, time life of wind turbine blades is between 20 and 30 years. After this, blades turn on useless waste, and enviromentals worker must face this problem.

Solar power

    Like wind power, the sun provides a tremendous resource for generating clean and sustainable electricity.

    The environmental impacts associated with solar power can include land use and habitat loss, water use, and the use of hazardous materials in manufacturing, though the types of impacts vary greatly depending on the scale of the system and the technology used — photovoltaic (PV) solar cells or concentrating solar thermal plants (CSP).

Geothermal energy

    The most widely developed type of geothermal power plant (known as hydrothermal plants) are located near geologic “hot spots” where hot molten rock is close to the earth’s crust and produces hot water.

    In other regions enhanced geothermal systems (or hot dry rock geothermal), which involve drilling into the earth’s surface to reach deeper geothermal resources, can allow broader access to geothermal energy.

    Geothermal plants also differ in terms of the technology they use to convert the resource to electricity (direct steam, flash, or binary) and the type of cooling technology they use (water-cooled and air-cooled). Environmental impacts differ depending on the conversion and cooling technology used.

Biomass for Electricity

     Biomass power plants share some similarities with fossil fuel power plants: both involve the combustion of a feedstock to generate electricity. Thus, biomass plants raise similar, but not identical, concerns about air emissions and water use as fossil fuel plants. However, the feedstock of biomass plants can be sustainable produced, while fossil fuels are non-renewable.

    Sources of biomass resources for producing electricity are diverse; including energy crops (like switchgrass), agricultural waste, manure, forest products and waste, and urban waste. Both the type of feedstock and the manner in which it is developed and harvested significantly affect land use and life-cycle global warming emissions impacts of producing power from biomass.

Hydroelectric power

    Hydroelectric power includes both massive hydroelectric dams and small run-of-the-river plants. Large-scale hydroelectric dams continue to be built in many parts of the world (including China and Brazil), but it is unlikely that new facilities will be added to the existing U.S. fleet in the future.

    Instead, the future of hydroelectric power in the United States will likely involve increased capacity at current dams and new run-of-the-river projects. There are environmental impacts at both types of plants.

ELECTRICAL POWER PLANTS

What is Power Plant?

    A power plant or a power generating station, is basically an industrial location that is utilized for the generation and distribution of electric power in mass scale, usually in the order of several Watts. These are generally located at the sub-urban regions or several kilometers away from the cities or the load centers, because of its requisites like huge land and water demand, along with several operating constraints like the waste disposal, etc.

Conventional sources : 

    Energy that has been used from ancient times is known as conventional energy. Coal, natural gas, oil, and firewood are examples of conventional energy sources. In the pictures, you can see an oil lamp and an oil station.

Non-conventional (or unusual) sources of energy include:

     These energy sources are not discovered recently, as photovoltaic panels. Other, as wind power, are used from ancient.

• Solar power
• Hydro-electric power (dams in rivers)
• Wind power
• Tidal power
• Ocean wave power
• Geothermal power (heat from deep under the ground)
• Ocean thermal power (the difference in heat between shallow and deep water)
• Biomass (burning of vegetation to stop it producing methane)
• Biofuel (producing ethanol (petroleum) from plants

ELECTRICAL ENERGY - STORAGE

     Energy is hard for storage. Batteries, as you have on your smartphone, have a limited capacity of storage. How many times a day you have to charge your phone? 
    Scientist are investigating about better batteries, that live long and storage more capacity. 

ELECTRICAL ENERGY - GENERATION

    In the photograph, you can see a generator of a power plant. These generators are bigger than generators you can find in town buildings. 

    In power plants, there are boilers, in which coal, fuel and natural gas are burned. This energy warm and evaporate water, and move turbines. Turbines produce electricity, and this electricity is send out the power plant.

ELECTRICAL ENERGY - TRANSPORTATION

    As you can see in the photograph, the electrical system has a lot of elements. The first of them is the electric generation. The generators use the wind power, fuel, coal and natural gas, among others, to produce electricity in the alternator.

    In a conductor, if current increase, the conductor get warm, and lose power. This is known as Joule heating. For this reason, in electrical substations, current level decrease, and voltage level increase, keeping the same level of power.

    So, long lines you see at periphery are called high voltage lines. These lines arrive to other electrical substations, and they adapts current and voltage level for domestic using.

ENERGY SOURCES

Solar Energy

Solar power harvests the energy of the sun through using collector panels to create conditions that can then be turned into a kind of power. Large solar panel fields are often used in desert to gather enough power to charge small substations, and many homes use solar systems to provide for hot water, cooling and supplement their electricity. The issue with solar is that while there is plentiful amounts of sun available, only certain geographical ranges of the world get enough of the direct power of the sun for long enough to generate usable power from this source.

Wind Energy

    Wind power is becoming more and more common. The new innovations that are allowing wind farms to appear are making them a more common sight. By using large turbines to take available wind as the power to turn, the turbine can then turn a generator to produce electricity. While this seemed like an ideal solution to many, the reality of the wind farms is starting to reveal an unforeseen ecological impact that may not make it an ideal choice.

Geothermal Energy

    Geothermal energy is the energy that is produced from beneath the earth. It is clean, sustainable and environment friendly. High temperatures are produced continuously inside the earth’s crust by the slow delay of radioactive particles. Hot rocks present below the earth heats up the water that produces steam. The steam is then captured that helps to move turbines. The rotating turbines then power the generators. 

    Geothermal energy can be used by a residential unit or on a large scale by a industrial application. It was used during ancient times for bathing and space heating. The biggest disadvantage with geothermal energy is that it can only be produced at selected sites throughout the world. The largest group of geothermal power plants in the world is located at The Geysers, a geothermal field in California, United States.

Hydrogen Energy

    Hydrogen is available with water (H2O) and is most common element available on earth. Water contains two-thirds of hydrogen and can be found in combination with other elements. Once it is separated, it can be used as a fuel for generating electricity. Hydrogen is a tremendous source of energy and can be used as a source of fuel to power ships, vehicles, homes, industries and rockets. It is completely renewable, can be produced on demand and does not leave any toxic emissions in the atmosphere. 

Tidal Energy
    Tidal energy uses rise and fall of tides to convert kinetic energy of incoming and outgoing tides into electrical energy. The generation of energy through tidal power is mostly prevalent in coastal areas. Huge investment and limited availability of sites are few of the drawbacks of tidal energy. When there is increased height of water levels in the ocean, tides are produced which rush back and forth in the ocean. Tidal energy is one of the renewable source of energy and produce large energy even when the tides are at low speed.

Wave Energy

    Wave energy is produced from the waves that are produced in the oceans. Wave energy is renewable, environment friendly and causes no harm to atmosphere. It can be harnessed along coastal regions of many countries and can help a country to reduce its dependance on foreign countries for fuel. Producing wave energy can damage marine ecosystem and can also be a source of disturbance to private and commercial vessels. It is highly dependent on wavelength and can also be a source of visual and noise pollution.

Hydroelectric Energy

    What many people are not aware of is that most of the cities and towns in the world rely on hydropower, and have for the past century. Every time you see a major damn, it is providing hydropower to an electrical station somewhere. The power of the water is used to turn generators to produce the electricity that is then used. The problems faced with hydropower right now have to do with the aging of the dams. Many of them need major restoration work to remain functional and safe, and that costs enormous sums of money. The drain on the world’s drinkable water supply is also causing issues as townships may wind up needing to consume the water that provides them power too.

Biomass Energy

    Biomass energy is produced from organic material and is commonly used throughout the world. Chlorophyll present in plants captures the sun’s energy by converting carbon dioxide from the air and water from the ground into carbohydrates through the process of photosynthesis. When the plants are burned, the water and carbon dioxide is again released back into the atmosphere. Biomass generally include crops, plants, trees, yard clippings, wood chips and animal wastes. Biomass energy is used for heating and cooking in homes and as a fuel in industrial production. This type of energy produces large amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Nuclear Power

    While nuclear power remains a great subject of debate as to how safe it is to use, and whether or not it is really energy efficient when you take into account the waste it produces – the fact is it remains one of the major renewable sources of energy available to the world. The energy is created through a specific nuclear reaction, which is then collected and used to power generators. While almost every country has nuclear generators, there are moratoriums on their use or construction as scientists try to resolve safety and disposal issues for waste.

Fossil Fuels (Coal, oil and natural gas)

    When most people talk about the different sources of energy they list natural gas, coal and oil as the options – these are all considered to be just one source of energy from fossil fuels. Fossil fuelsprovide the power for most of the world, primarily using coal and oil. Oil is converted into many products, the most used of which is gasoline. Natural gas is starting to become more common, but is used mostly for heating applications although there are more and more natural gas powered vehicles appearing on the streets. The issue with fossil fuels is twofold. To get to the fossil fuel and convert it to use there has to be a heavy destruction and pollution of the environment. The fossil fuel reserves are also limited, expecting to last only another 100 years given are basic rate of consumption. 

    It isn’t easy to determine which of these different sources of energy is best to use. All of them have their good and bad points. While advocates of each power type tout theirs as the best, the truth is that they are all flawed. What needs to happen is a concerted effort to change how we consume energy and to create a balance between which of these sources we draw from.