In Hawaii, where 12 percent of the homes have solar panels, handling the surplus power is putting pressure on the state’s biggest utility, which is fighting to reduce what it pays for the energy.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1 How long has Joyce been waiting to have solar panels installed?
2 How much does Joyce’s neighbour pay for their electricity bill?
3 What kind of power does the American public want?
4 What problem does the traditional utility circuit power have?
5 How long did Michael John take to have the system installed and running in his home?
6 How much does he pay for electricity in June and July?
7 How much does the maintenance of the power system cost?
8 When will Joyce have her panels finally installed?
I have been waiting three years, three years, to have solar panels installed. My neighbour across has solar panels. The ones that already have solar panels, they just pay $18 a month. I pay 395, almost $400. They say that the grid is full and I have just to wait and so… I’m still waiting.
Hawaiians have some of the highest electric bills in the country, and so they have rushed to install photovoltaic or PV systems on their rooftops, so they can make their own power.
We’re not just talking about saving the planet here. We’re talking about saving the paying from being held hostage by the utility companies. The American public wants solar energy. I don’t care whether they’re in Oklahoma, New York, California or Hawaii. Whatever happens in Hawaii is gonna happen in the main land. It’s just a matter of waiting.
Nationwide, Hawaii is on the forefront of solar adoption, and other states are watching to see how HE Co, Hawaii’s main utility, reimagines its business.
We don’t have the luxury to look at another state and say how was it done there and instead we sort of have to figure out on our own. The traditional utility circuit power starts off at Hilla substation and flows power one way to each home that we serve.
And the challenges the grid was designed to handle the power flowing in one direction but now it’s going back and forth between our customers’ rooftops back into the rest of the grid.
The combined output of all of our rooftop solar systems up the circuit back into our substation feeding into the grid can really potentially bring the entire island’s system out.
Infrastructure upgrades to avoid that worst-case scenario are expensive and HE Co has moved slowly, some critics say too slowly.
What should have been a ninety-day project turned into five, four months to yet completely install, set up and running. And now I make more electricity than I use, usually June and July it’s free, so that was great.
But, of course, if you play the model business out to the end whereby you get full credit for every bit of electricity that you produce, then the utility company doesn’t make any money and they go out of business. And, of course, we don’t have the grid that we can have the solar energy.
Providing basic electric service, power at night, back-up power, all of that PV customers are not paying for fully and instead of being paid for by customers of ours who don’t have PV systems, and right now it’s to the tune of over $50 million.
Hawaiian Electrics wants to cut the rate it pays customers for their solar energy in half so that the solar customers will be paying their fair share of overall service costs.
Now I’m a total abdicate for this because what it does to us it allows the business model play out to the end. The utility companies, their job becomes store the energy, manage it, move it where is need it, let the public create generation facilities by benefitting everybody.
So it’s an extremely interesting time, you know, it creates a lot of burden for us, a lot of pressure. We have some customers who have been waiting for quite some time. We committed to caring 90% of them by April of this year.
I’ve waited, I’ve waited so long but when you say it’s April, and so I’m all excited. I’ll save lots of money, am I correct?
Key:
1 three years
2 $18
3 solar energy
4 the grid was designed to handle the power flowing in one direction
5 five, four months
6 nothing
7 $50m
8 in April
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Renewable energy. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Renewable energy. Mostrar todas las entradas
jueves, 25 de agosto de 2016
viernes, 2 de enero de 2015
We Welcome Nuclear Waste
Some people in Loving County, Texas, the second least populous county in the United States, think that storing the entire country’s nuclear waste would be a good thing for their community.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 There are no petrol stations in the area.
2 The fuel stored in the casks will generate power for all the US states.
3 The nuclear plant or facility will bring a tax cut for residents.
4 Everybody in Loving County supports the idea.
5 The best way to store the fuel is underground, according to recent studies.
6 Loving County is half the size of New York.
7 Some residents would rather the facility was installed in the neighbouring counties.
8 The decision about how and where to install the plant is imminent.
We got two taco stands. No café, no store. We got a gas station. You’re not going to see a whole lot of anything, but mesquite bushes and some run-down stuff, that’s about it. The nuclear waste plant or facility, I’m 100% for it if they do it the right way.
Welcome to Loving County in West Texas. According to the last census estimate, it’s the second least populous county in the United States. With 95 residents, the local government is proposing something unusual. It wants nuclear waste from power plants across the country to be stored here. The highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored in casks like these was once used to generate power.
With the money that this will generate for the county, we might even be able to pay the tax payers back. We can build some roads, we can bring in some more water and maybe even have a Wallmart.
Skeet Jones who heads the county government here is trying to gather support for the idea because it would mean hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Government to the state and the county. But there’s one person whom he just can’t seem to convince: his father.
It’s going to be a problem and some, some people are going to get hurt. Whatever that thing is at, is there, that’s where they should put their storage. They shouldn’t be dumping it out here on some place where there’s not many people because I know they’re gonna have some accidents.
Whenever you say nuclear waste, a big red flag goes up. And everybody throws up their hands and say oooh, no! Whenever a person really researches it and studies it, this fuel is not that dangerous.
Experts say that if stored carefully above ground, the casks would likely be safe for several hundred years, impervious to earthquakes.
The county is about twice the size of New York City and the proposed storage site is about 400 acres, about half the size of Central Park. Two other counties may be positioning themselves to accept the waste: Eddy and Lea Counties are just across the state line.
So what do you think about the used nuclear fuel interim storage coming in here?
Well, I’d put it here.
Wow, that’s what I say.
His uncle agrees with him.
If it’s going to be right across the land in New Mexico, if we turn it down and they put it right across the land, why not put it here and reap the benefits of it, because we’re going to be in the same situation with it across the land.
A decision on how and where to store the waste may be years away. In the meantime Skeet’s parents wonder what it can mean for their family if Loving is chosen.
I think it’s dangerous.
I’m 83 and he’s 86 and we’re not long for this world, and after we’re gone, who knows? I worry about my children and my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, what they’ll have to put up with.
Key:
1F 2F 3T 4F 5F 6F 7F 8F
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 There are no petrol stations in the area.
2 The fuel stored in the casks will generate power for all the US states.
3 The nuclear plant or facility will bring a tax cut for residents.
4 Everybody in Loving County supports the idea.
5 The best way to store the fuel is underground, according to recent studies.
6 Loving County is half the size of New York.
7 Some residents would rather the facility was installed in the neighbouring counties.
8 The decision about how and where to install the plant is imminent.
We got two taco stands. No café, no store. We got a gas station. You’re not going to see a whole lot of anything, but mesquite bushes and some run-down stuff, that’s about it. The nuclear waste plant or facility, I’m 100% for it if they do it the right way.
Welcome to Loving County in West Texas. According to the last census estimate, it’s the second least populous county in the United States. With 95 residents, the local government is proposing something unusual. It wants nuclear waste from power plants across the country to be stored here. The highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel stored in casks like these was once used to generate power.
With the money that this will generate for the county, we might even be able to pay the tax payers back. We can build some roads, we can bring in some more water and maybe even have a Wallmart.
Skeet Jones who heads the county government here is trying to gather support for the idea because it would mean hundreds of millions of dollars from the Federal Government to the state and the county. But there’s one person whom he just can’t seem to convince: his father.
It’s going to be a problem and some, some people are going to get hurt. Whatever that thing is at, is there, that’s where they should put their storage. They shouldn’t be dumping it out here on some place where there’s not many people because I know they’re gonna have some accidents.
Whenever you say nuclear waste, a big red flag goes up. And everybody throws up their hands and say oooh, no! Whenever a person really researches it and studies it, this fuel is not that dangerous.
Experts say that if stored carefully above ground, the casks would likely be safe for several hundred years, impervious to earthquakes.
The county is about twice the size of New York City and the proposed storage site is about 400 acres, about half the size of Central Park. Two other counties may be positioning themselves to accept the waste: Eddy and Lea Counties are just across the state line.
So what do you think about the used nuclear fuel interim storage coming in here?
Well, I’d put it here.
Wow, that’s what I say.
His uncle agrees with him.
If it’s going to be right across the land in New Mexico, if we turn it down and they put it right across the land, why not put it here and reap the benefits of it, because we’re going to be in the same situation with it across the land.
A decision on how and where to store the waste may be years away. In the meantime Skeet’s parents wonder what it can mean for their family if Loving is chosen.
I think it’s dangerous.
I’m 83 and he’s 86 and we’re not long for this world, and after we’re gone, who knows? I worry about my children and my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, what they’ll have to put up with.
Key:
1F 2F 3T 4F 5F 6F 7F 8F
jueves, 12 de diciembre de 2013
Germany’s coal mine 'ghost town'
Chancellor Angela Merkel has massively reduced Germany's dependence on nuclear power, but other forms of energy have had to be used more extensively to fill the deficit.
Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC clip and answer the questions below about it.
The activity is suitable for intermediate students.
1 What has happened to the cemetery in Immerath?
2 What source of energy has replaced nuclear energy in the last two years?
3 What result has Angela Merkel's energy policy had for consumers?
4 Where are the people standing in the new village built to replace Immerath?
5 What is the percentage of wealthy people in Germany?
To check your answers, you can read the transcript below.
Welcome to Immerath, or rather, what remains of it: A ghost town, where the streets have no life, where most of the graves in the cemetery have been dug up and moved elsewhere, moved because Immerath is to be destroyed to make way for a coal mine, itself the size of a small town.
When Angela Merkel abandoned nuclear energy two years ago she said renewable fuels would fill the gap. One day they should, but for now coal is still needed.
Angela Merkel has led a massive push in Germany to get it using more solar power and wind power, and yet her critics say her energy policy is a mess that has resulted only in higher energy prices for consumers across Germany, a country that is still dependent on coal.
A lot of windmills around here…
Green energy revolution has cost a fortune in subsidies, costs that are passed on to energy consumers like Georg. Will that affect how he votes?
All the persons who will need energy have to pay much more for the energy because of the change.
What do you think overall about the way Germany has been run at the moment?
It’s a good life, yeah.
People are happy, they want to continue with all they have?
Yeah. And therefore I think if you see the election, it wouldn’t change because they have no reasons.
In the village built to house those expelled to make way for the coal mine, they were blessing the ground where one day the new church will stand. Most are now positive about the move. Some, however, are less optimistic about their country.
They don’t care anymore, so in a lot of people are not choose not to go for vote, which I find this very… it’s a pity.
At the moment in Germany only a minority is wealthy, more and more people are becoming poor, and that’s building up problems for the country. Put simply, people won’t be able to survive on the minimum wage or on their pensions.
Back in abandoned Immerath, a solitary Angela Merkel poster hangs outside the old church. She’s likely to win this election, even though here there is no one to vote for her.
Matthew Price, BBC News, Immerath.
Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC clip and answer the questions below about it.
The activity is suitable for intermediate students.
1 What has happened to the cemetery in Immerath?
2 What source of energy has replaced nuclear energy in the last two years?
3 What result has Angela Merkel's energy policy had for consumers?
4 Where are the people standing in the new village built to replace Immerath?
5 What is the percentage of wealthy people in Germany?
To check your answers, you can read the transcript below.
Welcome to Immerath, or rather, what remains of it: A ghost town, where the streets have no life, where most of the graves in the cemetery have been dug up and moved elsewhere, moved because Immerath is to be destroyed to make way for a coal mine, itself the size of a small town.
When Angela Merkel abandoned nuclear energy two years ago she said renewable fuels would fill the gap. One day they should, but for now coal is still needed.
Angela Merkel has led a massive push in Germany to get it using more solar power and wind power, and yet her critics say her energy policy is a mess that has resulted only in higher energy prices for consumers across Germany, a country that is still dependent on coal.
A lot of windmills around here…
Green energy revolution has cost a fortune in subsidies, costs that are passed on to energy consumers like Georg. Will that affect how he votes?
All the persons who will need energy have to pay much more for the energy because of the change.
What do you think overall about the way Germany has been run at the moment?
It’s a good life, yeah.
People are happy, they want to continue with all they have?
Yeah. And therefore I think if you see the election, it wouldn’t change because they have no reasons.
In the village built to house those expelled to make way for the coal mine, they were blessing the ground where one day the new church will stand. Most are now positive about the move. Some, however, are less optimistic about their country.
They don’t care anymore, so in a lot of people are not choose not to go for vote, which I find this very… it’s a pity.
At the moment in Germany only a minority is wealthy, more and more people are becoming poor, and that’s building up problems for the country. Put simply, people won’t be able to survive on the minimum wage or on their pensions.
Back in abandoned Immerath, a solitary Angela Merkel poster hangs outside the old church. She’s likely to win this election, even though here there is no one to vote for her.
Matthew Price, BBC News, Immerath.
jueves, 27 de junio de 2013
Renewable energy: Why burn US trees in UK power stations?
American wood is brought to Europe to burn in European power stations.
Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC video clip explaining the process which allows American wood to be brought and used as fuel in Europe and say whether the statements below are true or false.
The activity is suitable to intermediate students.
1 Not everybody agrees with the process.
2 All of the pine trees will be used as fuel.
3 Environmentalists object to the trees being turned into wood chips.
4 The sawdust helps take water out of the wood chips.
5 Environmentalist disagree with this energy policy.
You can read the transcript below.
It’s hard to believe but trees like this are being felled in the southern United States to be burned to make electricity in the UK. The process is controversial. Let me take you through it. And here where it starts with baby trees like this just a month old. These will grow into towering pines. Parts of them will be used for construction in the United States and parts for creating power in the United Kingdom. And these are the trees in their teenage years. The best specimens will be cut to be used in the plank industry and the poor quality ones, twisted or small, will be used either for wood pulp or in the wood fuel industry. Next stage is for the trees to be turned into wood chips and dumped, here on this mountain of wood. And it’s the massive scale of this operation that so alarms environmentalists. The wood chips are then again mixed in with sawdust from sawmill thanks to this extraordinary machine. The chips and the sawdust mixed together get fed into this piece of equipment that looks like a washing machine drum, except it is not putting water in it, it’s taking water out, and here’s what comes out at the back end of the process: Billions and billions of tiny wood pellets to be burned in power stations in the UK. Now environmentalists say that it is madness to be growing trees in the USA to keep the lights on in Britain. This industry is helping the UK meet its targets on renewable energy and rightly or wrongly it is here to stay.
Key:
1T 2F 3F 3F 4T 5T
Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC video clip explaining the process which allows American wood to be brought and used as fuel in Europe and say whether the statements below are true or false.
The activity is suitable to intermediate students.
1 Not everybody agrees with the process.
2 All of the pine trees will be used as fuel.
3 Environmentalists object to the trees being turned into wood chips.
4 The sawdust helps take water out of the wood chips.
5 Environmentalist disagree with this energy policy.
You can read the transcript below.
It’s hard to believe but trees like this are being felled in the southern United States to be burned to make electricity in the UK. The process is controversial. Let me take you through it. And here where it starts with baby trees like this just a month old. These will grow into towering pines. Parts of them will be used for construction in the United States and parts for creating power in the United Kingdom. And these are the trees in their teenage years. The best specimens will be cut to be used in the plank industry and the poor quality ones, twisted or small, will be used either for wood pulp or in the wood fuel industry. Next stage is for the trees to be turned into wood chips and dumped, here on this mountain of wood. And it’s the massive scale of this operation that so alarms environmentalists. The wood chips are then again mixed in with sawdust from sawmill thanks to this extraordinary machine. The chips and the sawdust mixed together get fed into this piece of equipment that looks like a washing machine drum, except it is not putting water in it, it’s taking water out, and here’s what comes out at the back end of the process: Billions and billions of tiny wood pellets to be burned in power stations in the UK. Now environmentalists say that it is madness to be growing trees in the USA to keep the lights on in Britain. This industry is helping the UK meet its targets on renewable energy and rightly or wrongly it is here to stay.
Key:
1T 2F 3F 3F 4T 5T
miércoles, 13 de marzo de 2013
Talking point: Renewable energies
This week's talking point focuses on the environment and renewable energy. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, you may decide to think about the questions below, so that you deal with vocabulary difficulties beforehand.
What are the main threats to the environment these days?
What environmental disasters can you think of?
Is Spain protecting the environment enough?
How green are you?
How big is your ecological footprint?
In what ways does the destruction of the environment affect us directly?
Are renewable energies (solar, hydroelectric, wind energy) the solution to environmental problems?
What are the advantages of the traditional energy (petrol, gas, coal) over the renewable one? Comment on the following aspects:
• Pollution (air pollution, acoustic pollution, and so on)
• Impact on the environment and landscape
• Influence on the economy
• Solutions to the energy crisis (individual, institutional, political)
Discuss these environmentally-related issues:
Is recycling the only way to be green?
Is public transport a real alternative to the problems of transport these days?
Congestion charges in big cities.
Buying locally produced goods.
There’s too much unnecessary packaging in supermarkets these days.
Global warming: a reality or a threatening political weapon.
Hybrid and electric cars.
To gain further insight into the topic you may wish to watch this Guardian video on the Chinese desert province of Gansu, which is at the front line of China's efforts to reinvent its economy with a massive investment in renewable energy. You can find the transcript below.
You may also be interested in watching this 2002 video intended for students in Seconday School, in which geographer Daniel Raven-Ellison visited a coal fired power station, a hydro-electric power station and a wind farm to find out which might be best.
Something very remarkable is happening in Gansu, a desert province that once marked the far western border of China. The Great Wall starts here. The silk road passes through these plains, but for most of the past 30 years this region has been most notorious for remoteness, dryness and a dirty fossil fuel industry.
This is where China’s first oil fields were drilled, where many coal mines opened and where steel makers sighted some of their biggest factories. But that image is now undergoing a stunning transformation. The deserts around Jojuen city are now a key asset. The cluster of wind farms here has expanded from almost nothing three years ago to now being the largest in China, and are on course to becoming the biggest in the world.
The capacity of Jojuen’s mills is now 6 gigawatts, roughly equivalent to the entire wind energy capacity of the UK, and the plan in the future is to more than triple that by 2015.
China is also experimenting with solar power, as I found when I drove farther west.
(1’40”-2’10” someone talking in Chinese)
There are still major challenges. Cleaning the photovoltaic of dust requires considerable amounts of water, no small matter in a desert. More importantly, solar and wind power prices are also significantly higher than those of coal.
But thanks to hefty government support and technology improvement, the gap is closing and it will close more in the future. China is determined to dominate the global renewable sector. It’s motivated by economic, strategic and environmental reasons.
Here in the desert of Gansu China is trying to reinvent itself. The world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide is moving to become a leading force in renewable energy. It’s not yet a green superpower. The country will remain heavily dependent on coal and other fossil fuels for decades to come, but if giant demonstration plots like this one in Dongguan can succeed and be expanded upon, China could provide a model, a development that is cleaner and greener and that other countries around the world could follow.
What are the main threats to the environment these days?
What environmental disasters can you think of?
Is Spain protecting the environment enough?
How green are you?
How big is your ecological footprint?
In what ways does the destruction of the environment affect us directly?
Are renewable energies (solar, hydroelectric, wind energy) the solution to environmental problems?
What are the advantages of the traditional energy (petrol, gas, coal) over the renewable one? Comment on the following aspects:
• Pollution (air pollution, acoustic pollution, and so on)
• Impact on the environment and landscape
• Influence on the economy
• Solutions to the energy crisis (individual, institutional, political)
Discuss these environmentally-related issues:
Is recycling the only way to be green?
Is public transport a real alternative to the problems of transport these days?
Congestion charges in big cities.
Buying locally produced goods.
There’s too much unnecessary packaging in supermarkets these days.
Global warming: a reality or a threatening political weapon.
Hybrid and electric cars.
To gain further insight into the topic you may wish to watch this Guardian video on the Chinese desert province of Gansu, which is at the front line of China's efforts to reinvent its economy with a massive investment in renewable energy. You can find the transcript below.
This is where China’s first oil fields were drilled, where many coal mines opened and where steel makers sighted some of their biggest factories. But that image is now undergoing a stunning transformation. The deserts around Jojuen city are now a key asset. The cluster of wind farms here has expanded from almost nothing three years ago to now being the largest in China, and are on course to becoming the biggest in the world.
The capacity of Jojuen’s mills is now 6 gigawatts, roughly equivalent to the entire wind energy capacity of the UK, and the plan in the future is to more than triple that by 2015.
China is also experimenting with solar power, as I found when I drove farther west.
(1’40”-2’10” someone talking in Chinese)
There are still major challenges. Cleaning the photovoltaic of dust requires considerable amounts of water, no small matter in a desert. More importantly, solar and wind power prices are also significantly higher than those of coal.
But thanks to hefty government support and technology improvement, the gap is closing and it will close more in the future. China is determined to dominate the global renewable sector. It’s motivated by economic, strategic and environmental reasons.
Here in the desert of Gansu China is trying to reinvent itself. The world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide is moving to become a leading force in renewable energy. It’s not yet a green superpower. The country will remain heavily dependent on coal and other fossil fuels for decades to come, but if giant demonstration plots like this one in Dongguan can succeed and be expanded upon, China could provide a model, a development that is cleaner and greener and that other countries around the world could follow.
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