Electric Power Generation

1. Electric Power Generation Some of the materials in this document have been used with permission from the KidWind Project.

2. Why Isn’t Electricity Listed In This Table?

3. Electricity Is An Energy Carrier Black Rock Solar Array at Pyramid Lake Museum Lump of Coal Spring Valley Wind Farm in Nevada

4. Common Energy Carriers

5. Electric Power Generation Plant Frank A. Tracy Generating Station Natural Gas-Fueled Power Plant 17 Miles East of Reno.

6. How Does Electricity Get To Your Home?

7. Step 1- Power Plant and Generator Mohave Generating Station, Coal-Fueled Power Plant in Laughlin, Nevada Generator

8. Thermal (Steam) Turbine Power Plant 1. Heat is made when fossil fuels are burned. 3. The steam makes turbine blades and shaft spin. 5. Before reusing, the water must cool. It is pumped to the top of a cooling tower, broken into drops. Up to 2% of water evaporates. 4. The generator converts mechanical energy into electrical energy using magnetic fields around a metal conductor. 2. Heat turns water into steam.

9. Transforming Energy – Thermal Power Plant

10. Step 2 – Step-Up Transformer

11. Step 3 – High Voltage Transmission Lines

12. Step 5 – Step-Down Substation

13. Step 6 – Distribution Lines

14. Step 7: Service Drop

15. Step 8 – Service Panel

16. Step 9 – Home Wiring, Outlets and Switches

17. Electricity Is An Energy Carrier

18. Does All of Your Electricity Come from Your Local Power Plant?

19. Other sources of steam for thermal power plants Nuclear Geothermal

20. Solar Thermal Collector These high-temperature collectors concentrate sunlight using mirrors or lenses and are used for electric power production with steam turbine power plants.

21. Hydro and Wind Turbines

22. Solar Power Numana Fish Hatchery array built by Black Rock Solar TMCC solar array built by Black Rock Solar

24. Electricity Consumption By Economic Sector 2010 U.S. Energy Information Administration / Annual Energy Review 2009

26. Tradeoffs: Environmental Impact ofNon-Renewable Energy Sources

27. Hydropower Lake Mead has provided water for Hoover Dam since 1935. Does this look like a renewable or non-renewable energy source?

28. Coal Mining Surface mining for coal – look familiar? Coal companies also mine coal from mountains through a process called mountaintop removal mining where the top of a mountain is removed to extract the coal. Waste is disposed in nearby valleys and streams.

29. Coal Burning China’s air pollution has cut life expectancy by an average of 5.5 years in the north of the country and caused higher rates of lung cancer, heart attacks and strokes. Great Smog of 1952 in London killed 4,075 people. Most victims died from respiratory or cardiovascular problems. Reno, with an unhealthy layer of smog.

30. Natural Gas and Hydraulic Fracturing or “Fracking” A homeowner in Granville Summit, Pennsylvania, holds up a glass of tap water containing high levels of methane, a concern for those who live near fracking sites.

31. Natural gas fire in San Francisco, CA in 2010. Killed 4 people, injured dozens of others, and leveled 37 homes. This natural gas rig burning out of control in the Gulf of Mexico caught on fire July 23rd 2013.

32. Tar Sands The price of oil sands – devastated landscapes in Canada.

33. Nuclear Power This is what happens to nuclear waste. Following a major earthquake, a 50 ft. tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three Fukushima Daiichi reactors in Japan, causing a nuclear accident on March 11, 2011. All three cores largely melted in the first three days. Nuclear reactors were leaking into the ocean after this disaster.