ES102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Base Load Power Plant, Nuclear Reactor, Steam Engine
Lecture 1: Energy; Non-Renewables
● Human systems use all kinds of energy → eg nuclear powered steam turbine, energy in
dead biota, transforming kinetic energy to electricity
● Energy sources harnessed by pre-industrial human systems
○ Human labour (slaves, potters, farm labourers)
○ Animals
○ Wood fire
○ Sunlight
○ Whale oil - california shore whalers late 1800s
○ Wind
○ Moving water
● Human energy use
○ Traditionally renewable, low impact on carbon cycle
○ Significant impact on forest/land cover, abundance of certain animal species
○ Air pollution was local
● Steps in industrial energy use
○ Steam engine 1700s
○ Use coal to burn water, create pressurized steam that turns a shaft
○ Allows creation of factories away from watercourses
○ Permits steamships, railways
○ Coal was first fossil fuel used in england and other industrializing countries
○ Steam powered factory
○ Late 1800s internal combustion engine
○ Transition from wood to coal
○ Natural gas 1800s - less portable than coal and oil - takes infrastructure to be
able to use, burns cleanly and efficiently
○ Electricity 1800s highly efficient way of transmitting energy captured at fixed
source and distributed thru wider system
● Use non food energy → transportation, charging gadgets etc
● Most common energy options for each task (in ontario)
○ Heating home - electricity, furnace
○ Heating water - electicity, natural gas
○ Heating food - natural gas, electricity, propane
○ Storing food - electricity
○ Doing household tasks - electricity
○ Transportation - self-powered, bus/train, auto; electricity also possible
● One common denominator
○ Electricity can potentially be used for all our household energy applications
○ Key qs: how is electricity generated and distributed? How much does it cost
relative to other choices?
● Our electricity distribution model - single point distribution - large amounts of energy
generated in one place, distributed thru network of wires
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● Base load - bare minimum, peak load - maximum electrical power expected for
sustained period of time
● Poor choices - can’t be turned on/off can’t remain consistent over long periods of time -
good ones can stop and start quickly (dams etc)
● Generating capacity: in a well functioning grid system…
○ Electricity suppliers must be able to maintain a continuous base supply all the
time 24/7, and be able to respond to daily, weekly, monthly variations in demand
● Possible sources of energy to turn an electrical turbine:
○ Nuclear reactor, thermal, flowing water, wind
● Generating baseload electricity’
○ Reliable choices = large hydroelectric dams, coal fired or natural gas fired
generators, poor choices = wind turbines, solar, nuclear generators
● Sources of electricity in canada (most to least)
○ Hydro
○ Nuclear
○ Conventional steam (coal)
○ Combustion turbine (natural gas)
○ Wind
○ Other
● Ontario electricity generation by type most to least
○ Nuclear
○ Gas
○ Hydro
○ Wind
○ Biofuel
○ Solar
○ No coal burning plants
● Darlington nuclear station provides 20% of ontarios energy
● The real economics of nuclear power:
○ Least efficient for producing electricity
○ Value of electricity produced does not recover total costs to build, operate
○ Exist only with govt subsidies
● Reality of ontario’s nuclear program
○ Crown corp that built ontario’s nuclear plants closed in 1988 with 20bill debt
● No effective solution for disposal of nuclear wastes
● Nuclear wastes in ontario
○ High level wastes: stored in pools for up to 10 years then loaded into concrete
steel containers - rods cooled then buried in bedrock
● Nuclear accidents - chernobyl and fukushima
● Europe uses the most nuclear, followed by north america
Benefits/costs of nuclear
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Benefits
Costs
Can produce a lot of electricity at one spot
Hugely expensive to construct
Once the plant is operating it provides a nice
baseload
No one has a durable solution for the
dangerous wastes
Minimal greenhouse gas emissions
You don’t ever want an accident
A little uranium goes a long way
Technology can be a gateway to nuclear
weapons
Electricity it generates can be used for wide
range of purposes
Not easy to start/stop
Where is the conventional natural gas?
● Highest concentrations of natural gas in russia etc
Benefits/costs of conventional natural gas
Benefits
Costs
Globally abundant
Still produces some carbon dioxide, methane
Cheap
Explosive (more care needed)
High energy yield per unit burned
Not the best choice for transportation fuel
Lowest GHG emissions of all fossil fuels
Once pipelines are in place is easily
transported
Great for heating homes
Can be burned to generate electricity with
steam turbines
Where is the coal?
● Coal - china and india - no enviro regs or standards means no stopping, coal is
abundant and cheap
Benefits/costs of coal
Benefits
Costs
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Document Summary
Human systems use all kinds of energy eg nuclear powered steam turbine, energy in dead biota, transforming kinetic energy to electricity. Energy sources harnessed by pre-industrial human systems. Whale oil - california shore whalers late 1800s. Traditionally renewable, low impact on carbon cycle. Significant impact on forest/land cover, abundance of certain animal species. Use coal to burn water, create pressurized steam that turns a shaft. Allows creation of factories away from watercourses. Coal was first fossil fuel used in england and other industrializing countries. Natural gas 1800s - less portable than coal and oil - takes infrastructure to be able to use, burns cleanly and efficiently. Electricity 1800s highly efficient way of transmitting energy captured at fixed source and distributed thru wider system. Use non food energy transportation, charging gadgets etc. Most common energy options for each task (in ontario) Heating food - natural gas, electricity, propane. Transportation - self-powered, bus/train, auto; electricity also possible.
