This week was the last course for our section titled Energy Conversion and Storage Systems. Our professor was Dr. Domanski from Warsaw Institute of Technology. This week's class focused on expanding the ideas of thermodynamics and adding context to renewable applications. The ideas were related to efficiencies and how they play into policymaking decisions. We learned that the true amount of energy that is lost in the conversion and storage process is staggering. Coal power plants, for example, are usually about 40% efficient. This means that of the energy contained in a piece of coal, only 40% of it is converted to electricity. An additional 7% of this value is lost in the grid transporting it to your home. Couple with this with a traditional incandescent lightbulb, which is only 5% efficient, and we can see that less than 2% of the original energy in our lump of coal has been converted into light energy. If this process seems wasteful, this is because it is. Closing the gap in these inefficiencies is one of the easiest and pain-free ways to get some easy electricity savings. The switch to fluorescent bulbs, which will become mandatory in 2012, increases this efficiency by 4 times and would cut electricity use, and thus the cost, by 75%.These ideas are especially important on the grand scale. It seems almost cliche to ask every household to switch just one lightbuld from incandescent to fluorescent. But it is less the act itself as the changing of minds. One fluorescent bulb is trivial compared to the lights used nightly at Fenway Park (btw opening day in a month!) It seems like fluorescent bulbs are simply a 'gateway' to other things. Changing opinions before implementing the big stuff.
The Krafla geothermal plant:
So with the end of this class days away, it was time to learn all the things that had eluded us during the lectures. Surprisingly, a large percent of the students had no thermodynamics background. The cross cultural educational differences were interesting to observe. Speaking generally, students from Eastern Europe tended to have a very numerical approach to studying, showing a quick mastery of equations and numbers. Other Europeans seemed to take a more analytical approach, easily understanding problems and working through solutions. Americans, on the other hand, seemed to have a grasp on the theory and ideology of the situations. Alltogether, this made the study sessions easier when different groups were naturally good at different topics. These subtle differences are one of the things that make our class amazingly compatible and cohesive.
Continuing with this topic of cultural differences, it is also interesting to show the influence of culture on Icelandic society.
The above picture of an Icelandic pizza with a fried egg on top shows a typical meal at a local restaurant. The invasion of fried eggs seems to extend to other dishes as well, notably pastas and hamburgers. This is presently inexplicable, but I'm sure there is some good reason for eggs invading other dishes. Other dishes laden with salt, such as fish jerky and smoked meats show how the Icelandic people adapted to the need to preserve food for the long winter months way back when. Use of salt even today shows this throwback to the old cultural need to preserve their food.
While preserving food was important, the fresh foods are also second to none. It is nice to find fish packaged in town the same day it was caught. Milk bottled within throwing distance from my apartment, and vegetables grown in geothermally heated greenhouses right up the Eyjafjordur valley. Not only is it much tastier than the less than fresh foods I have been used to at Dominick's for the past 4 years, locally sourced foods do not have to be flown in from all parts of the globe.
Wooowww!!
ReplyDeletePizza a la Joan!!