1 00:00:00,012 --> 00:00:07,082 Hello, we're at Energy 101 and today were going to talk about the characteristics of 2 00:00:07,082 --> 00:00:11,233 electric power. We reviewed the, these different 3 00:00:11,233 --> 00:00:17,665 technologies that we used to generate electricity and now we're going to look at 4 00:00:17,665 --> 00:00:24,481 the characteristics of those technologies once they're in the field or new ones that 5 00:00:24,481 --> 00:00:30,617 are being installed. So the care, the technologies that we 6 00:00:30,617 --> 00:00:38,742 mentioned already, and we'll look at quickly today to look at the appropriate 7 00:00:38,742 --> 00:00:47,117 efficiency coal fired, steam, ranking cycles, we call that, natural gas 8 00:00:47,117 --> 00:00:51,204 turbines. They're simple cycles where the It's a 9 00:00:51,204 --> 00:00:55,525 simple gas turbine. And the exhaust heat is, is exhausted to 10 00:00:55,525 --> 00:01:00,579 the atmosphere and is lost. The natural gas turbines combine cycle 11 00:01:00,579 --> 00:01:07,130 where the exhaust is still hot of course. From the turbine is used in a boiler to 12 00:01:07,130 --> 00:01:12,698 boil steam and is put through the same cycle that a coal-fired power plant but 13 00:01:12,698 --> 00:01:18,440 this time, rather than using coal to boil the steam in the ranking cycle, you use 14 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:21,691 the hot exhaust gases from the gas turbine. 15 00:01:21,691 --> 00:01:27,507 It costs more, but that's essentially almost every thing in the gas turbine area 16 00:01:27,507 --> 00:01:32,648 that's being installed today are the combined cycle gas turbines. 17 00:01:32,649 --> 00:01:39,493 Nuclear, the nuclear plants are steam cycles and they boil steam by the nuclear 18 00:01:39,493 --> 00:01:44,682 fusion process. The hydro that we mentioned, wind turbines 19 00:01:44,682 --> 00:01:50,826 that take kinetic energy out of the air and convert it to a spinning shaft that 20 00:01:50,826 --> 00:01:57,066 can turn a generator and solar photovoltaics that's magic what we call 21 00:01:57,066 --> 00:02:00,727 direct energy conversion. It takes solar energy, the photons in the 22 00:02:00,727 --> 00:02:08,571 radiation from the sun. Is, strike a semiconductor service. 23 00:02:08,571 --> 00:02:15,105 And that gets, it produces electricity directly from the chip, with no moving 24 00:02:15,105 --> 00:02:18,290 parts. And then solar thermal, where we 25 00:02:18,290 --> 00:02:23,194 concentrate the sun's. Rays onto a, a central spot and heat or 26 00:02:23,194 --> 00:02:27,286 boil water in order to again run, run the steam cycle. 27 00:02:27,286 --> 00:02:31,971 Just as a cold fired power plant and as the nuclear plant does. 28 00:02:31,971 --> 00:02:35,596 It's just a different source of thermal energy. 29 00:02:35,596 --> 00:02:42,742 This time being the sun that heats the boiler as it concentrates the sun down to 30 00:02:42,742 --> 00:02:48,676 a very small surface. So let's look at the efficiencies first. 31 00:02:48,676 --> 00:02:55,890 The efficiencies are, are particularly important for the for the fossil fuel 32 00:02:55,890 --> 00:02:59,876 plants. And if we look at coal and biomass, 33 00:02:59,876 --> 00:03:08,464 because biomass is just used in the same way as coal the fire, the boiler, then the 34 00:03:08,464 --> 00:03:14,921 new plants are up a little above 35% and. Peak efficiency. 35 00:03:14,921 --> 00:03:22,865 If you look at the installed base of all of the steams, coal-fired plants out 36 00:03:22,865 --> 00:03:29,812 there, it's around 34%. So that's about, throws away about two out 37 00:03:29,812 --> 00:03:37,481 of every three ener-, BTUs that the coal gives off when you It burning. 38 00:03:37,481 --> 00:03:43,532 So it's a big source of heat that's thrown away in general to the rivers or to the 39 00:03:43,532 --> 00:03:45,936 atmosphere. Natural gas. 40 00:03:45,936 --> 00:03:51,348 A simple cycle gas turbine. I've already mentioned, that just is a gas 41 00:03:51,348 --> 00:03:56,508 turbine without Recovery of the exhaust heat in a stream cycle. 42 00:03:56,509 --> 00:04:02,103 New plants you can get around 35% and these are approximate numbers. 43 00:04:02,104 --> 00:04:08,608 But the install number are actual data, field data, from the energy information. 44 00:04:08,609 --> 00:04:15,970 Agency, there is about 29%, 29% for the simple gas turbine cycle. 45 00:04:15,970 --> 00:04:23,141 And then we have the combine cycle. The, they will go to 55 or even. 46 00:04:23,141 --> 00:04:28,400 Up towards 60 operating and a steady state at their peak efficiency operation. 47 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:34,610 Which once you get in the field, you don't operate it always at that steady state 48 00:04:34,610 --> 00:04:40,532 peak efficiency condition, and they throttle up and down and you have to get 49 00:04:40,532 --> 00:04:46,548 'em warmed up And plus, some of the technology of course, the plants in the 50 00:04:46,548 --> 00:04:52,977 field are older technologies that have been installed 10 years or 15 years ago. 51 00:04:52,977 --> 00:04:56,715 And those are around 45%. So you can see. 52 00:04:56,715 --> 00:05:06,127 At the combined cycle gas turbine utilizes natural gas at a much higher efficiency 53 00:05:06,127 --> 00:05:12,841 then the coal does, which is only 35%. Versus 45% for the natural gas combined 54 00:05:12,841 --> 00:05:16,309 cycle. That's one of the reasons that you have 55 00:05:16,309 --> 00:05:21,324 lower carbon emissions. Nuclear, nuclear power, as I mentioned, is 56 00:05:21,324 --> 00:05:26,022 just another heat source for the coal-fired steam rankine cycle. 57 00:05:26,022 --> 00:05:31,978 That boils the steam rather than coal, and that is around 35% new plants and around 58 00:05:31,978 --> 00:05:37,459 30% installed plants, it's hard to get data on those numbers becuase nobody 59 00:05:37,459 --> 00:05:43,375 worries too much about The fuel efficiency for nuclear plants because the fuel is 60 00:05:43,375 --> 00:05:49,030 very cheap, it's, it's not even close to the fuel costs to run a coal plant or a 61 00:05:49,030 --> 00:05:53,437 natural gas plant. But of course, the plant's more expensive 62 00:05:53,437 --> 00:05:58,603 to build and you have to amortize that capitol cost and interest on the money 63 00:05:58,603 --> 00:06:03,959 that, over the life of the plant for the kilowatt hours that is produced. 64 00:06:03,959 --> 00:06:10,942 And, the going on for the renewable power plant technologies, hydro. 65 00:06:10,942 --> 00:06:18,117 Hydro actually produce, ca, converts about 90% of the Of the energy in the water, 66 00:06:18,117 --> 00:06:24,858 that is behind the dam due to the depth of the, height of the dam that water the 67 00:06:24,858 --> 00:06:31,813 lower part of the dam is under high pressure, and that moves through a water 68 00:06:31,813 --> 00:06:36,347 turbine and spins the shaft. Produces electricity. 69 00:06:36,348 --> 00:06:42,496 That's not a heat cycle that's limited by the, the second law of thumb on an annex 70 00:06:42,496 --> 00:06:46,904 in that case. It is limited by the first energy that you 71 00:06:46,904 --> 00:06:51,082 can't get more. No more than 100%, because you can't get 72 00:06:51,082 --> 00:06:56,658 more energy out of it then you put in, then the water has when it goes in. 73 00:06:56,658 --> 00:07:03,088 Wind turbines of course extracts kenetic energy out of the, wind, and that extracts 74 00:07:03,088 --> 00:07:09,424 about 45 to 50% Of the kinetic energy that's in the wind, that's passing through 75 00:07:09,424 --> 00:07:13,722 the turbine blades is converted into electricity. 76 00:07:13,723 --> 00:07:17,643 There's a bet, there's a theoretical limit to that. 77 00:07:17,643 --> 00:07:22,407 You can't go to 100%. Even though that's not a heat cycle, 78 00:07:22,407 --> 00:07:28,772 that's limited by the ah[UNKNOWN] efficiency we call it or the heat equation 79 00:07:28,772 --> 00:07:35,137 on the, for the second law, but the best limit no matter what you do, you get rid 80 00:07:35,137 --> 00:07:41,692 of friction and do everything in an ideal manner is 58% so you can't Extract more 81 00:07:41,692 --> 00:07:45,170 than 58% of the kinetic energy in the wind. 82 00:07:45,170 --> 00:07:51,523 And convert it to shared power. This is the limits of, laws of nature. 83 00:07:51,523 --> 00:07:56,610 Then we get to solar. Solar, there's 2 kinds of solar, 84 00:07:56,611 --> 00:08:01,791 technology. Potovoltaic technologies in addition to 85 00:08:01,791 --> 00:08:07,101 the solar thermal technologies, that's. Get many. 86 00:08:07,101 --> 00:08:13,849 But you have the photovoltaic silicone and photovoltaic thin film. 87 00:08:13,850 --> 00:08:22,048 The thin film, the silicone chips thin, thin wafers Poly-crystalline will get 15 88 00:08:22,048 --> 00:08:27,655 to 20% at the peak radiation efficiency at noon typically. 89 00:08:27,655 --> 00:08:35,085 And converted into electricity so that's 15 to 20% of the sun's energy that's 90 00:08:35,085 --> 00:08:39,830 falling on. The on the moh, module, the suh, suh, 91 00:08:39,830 --> 00:08:47,356 collector module will PV module, will be converted to electricity under the best 92 00:08:47,356 --> 00:08:51,341 conditions. Thin films are much lower. 93 00:08:51,341 --> 00:08:57,861 But these are, can be done out of plastic, can be flexible, and their much cheaper 94 00:08:57,861 --> 00:09:04,990 per unit area to produce than the thin wafer polysilicon and polycrystalline, but 95 00:09:04,991 --> 00:09:11,538 the efficiency of converting the sun's energy that hits is lower, so you have to 96 00:09:11,538 --> 00:09:18,806 have on the order of twice as much area. Of the thin film collectors as you do the 97 00:09:18,806 --> 00:09:24,824 sulakin collectors. So that's a just the nature of the physics 98 00:09:24,824 --> 00:09:31,239 of the thin film technology. And it, its really an infancy, it's really 99 00:09:31,239 --> 00:09:37,639 come, be com, coming on strong through, and Or where it'll end up and how it'll 100 00:09:37,639 --> 00:09:43,612 compete yet to, is yet to be seen. And then the solar thermal, I mentioned 101 00:09:43,612 --> 00:09:49,052 the concentrating collectors, the power towers, or the troughs that we looked at 102 00:09:49,052 --> 00:09:52,653 and explain, talked about the technologies there. 103 00:09:52,654 --> 00:10:00,872 Those will convert about 25 to 35% of the solar energy to electriciyy, and again it 104 00:10:00,872 --> 00:10:09,872 goes through the steam cycle which limits it to about 35% because of some second law 105 00:10:09,872 --> 00:10:18,596 of thermodynamics, limitations, as well as the practical limitations of materials. 106 00:10:18,596 --> 00:10:26,061 And frictions and things. And so those are the fuel energy source to 107 00:10:26,061 --> 00:10:30,263 efficiency ranges of. New technology. 108 00:10:30,263 --> 00:10:33,796 And, for. By the way, I didn't talk about the 109 00:10:33,796 --> 00:10:39,902 difference between install technology, and the new technology with renewables. 110 00:10:39,902 --> 00:10:45,149 Because renewable's so young. Basically, there's not much difference 111 00:10:45,149 --> 00:10:48,742 between. What's already out there and what's being 112 00:10:48,742 --> 00:10:53,656 installed, because it's growing so fast the install base is basically in these, 113 00:10:53,656 --> 00:10:57,222 this range, which is where the new technology is too. 114 00:10:57,222 --> 00:11:03,430 So, that's the reason we don't have install versus, Versus the new technology. 115 00:11:03,431 --> 00:11:09,556 Now what about CO2 emissions? An important characteristic of any power 116 00:11:09,556 --> 00:11:16,696 plant in this day and time, are the carbon emissions or CO2 emissions and that's only 117 00:11:16,696 --> 00:11:23,224 a significant factor where we have fossil fuel plants or look at just coal and 118 00:11:23,224 --> 00:11:30,160 natural gas and, Now, the steam cycle puts out and on the right hand side I've got 119 00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:34,835 CO2 emmisions and units of pounds per kilowatt hour. 120 00:11:34,835 --> 00:11:39,227 And in parenthses, grams, per kilowatt hour. 121 00:11:39,227 --> 00:11:45,052 So, in the steam cycle, coal steam cycle, burning coal. 122 00:11:45,052 --> 00:11:50,532 Produce about 2.2 pounds of CO2 per kilowatt hour that's produced. 123 00:11:50,532 --> 00:11:56,318 That's in the field operation. Again, it comes from energy information 124 00:11:56,318 --> 00:12:03,218 agency, data right off their website. That's about 1,000 grams per kilowatt hour 125 00:12:03,218 --> 00:12:08,516 of carbon emissions per kilowatt hour in. The metric system. 126 00:12:08,517 --> 00:12:13,660 If it's new technology, it's not much difference, 10% or so better. 127 00:12:13,660 --> 00:12:18,281 At 2 pounds per kilowatt hour or 900 grams per kilowatt hour. 128 00:12:18,281 --> 00:12:23,926 Not much difference there between installed and New for the steam cycle. 129 00:12:23,926 --> 00:12:27,830 The stream cycle's been around for over 100 years. 130 00:12:27,830 --> 00:12:32,549 150 years, really. And the original steam engines that used 131 00:12:32,549 --> 00:12:38,486 to, on the, boats to power boats. Was 1 of the first broad application of. 132 00:12:38,486 --> 00:12:43,201 The old steam engine is essentially the same technology. 133 00:12:43,202 --> 00:12:48,611 So we've been working on it and trying to improve it for 150 years. 134 00:12:48,611 --> 00:12:54,653 And it's pretty well asymptote. The efficiency that we can get out of the 135 00:12:54,653 --> 00:12:59,709 coal fired steam cycle. When we go to natural gas, and i've only 136 00:12:59,709 --> 00:13:06,802 looked at combined cycle natural gas here. Because that's the dominant new technology 137 00:13:06,802 --> 00:13:10,673 that's been installed over the last several years. 138 00:13:10,673 --> 00:13:14,417 As well as the new stuff that's installed now. 139 00:13:14,417 --> 00:13:20,351 Very little, I don't know of any simple cycle gas turbines, I'm sure there are. 140 00:13:20,352 --> 00:13:25,236 But there's very, very few. Almost all of the plants installed today 141 00:13:25,236 --> 00:13:28,873 are combined cycle. And almost all of the electricity 142 00:13:28,873 --> 00:13:33,765 generated from natural gas is coming from combined cycle gas turbines. 143 00:13:33,765 --> 00:13:38,409 As you can see, the carbon emmisions from the natural gas cycle. 144 00:13:38,410 --> 00:13:45,324 Gas turbine plants is less than half of what it is for coal. 145 00:13:45,324 --> 00:13:51,661 Both with the install and the new,. It's about 0.96 pounds. 146 00:13:51,662 --> 00:13:56,087 Per kilowatt hour or 440 grams per kilowatt hour. 147 00:13:56,087 --> 00:14:02,620 And the new is about 0.8 pounds per kilowatt hour or 350 grams per kilowatt 148 00:14:02,620 --> 00:14:07,000 hour. So that's the reason that, from a global 149 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:14,102 warming viewpoint, and if you're worried about carbon emissions, where so many 150 00:14:14,102 --> 00:14:19,074 companies are. Are idling or shutting down totally, the 151 00:14:19,074 --> 00:14:25,931 coal plants, particularly the old ones. Some of these plants that are in operation 152 00:14:25,931 --> 00:14:31,405 today were built in the 40's or 50's even. And are still operating. 153 00:14:31,405 --> 00:14:37,742 So they're shutting down a lot of the old. Very old coal plants and efficiencies are 154 00:14:37,742 --> 00:14:42,761 lower and they're a lot more expensive to maintain because they are so old. 155 00:14:42,761 --> 00:14:48,527 And replacing them with combined cycle gas turbines, particularly today with the 156 00:14:48,527 --> 00:14:53,701 cheap natural gas that we have. How long that, that will remain with us is 157 00:14:53,701 --> 00:14:56,446 the $64,000 question. Anybody's. 158 00:14:56,446 --> 00:15:01,013 Gas in some respects. It'll certainly stay down, we expect it to 159 00:15:01,013 --> 00:15:07,139 stay down for the next year or two anyway. But that's the, the efficiency and the 160 00:15:07,139 --> 00:15:13,376 carbon emission characteristics versus the principle characteristics we're interested 161 00:15:13,376 --> 00:15:16,694 in, in these electric power plant technologies. 162 00:15:16,694 --> 00:15:17,456 Thank you.