RER and NRER
Sam Jansen and Cole Leighton
Solar
"Solar energy is found in the sun." Overcast days can affect solar energy collection. The clouds cover the sun and then the sun cannot reach the panels.
How was the resource formed?
"As the material drew together, gravity caused it to spin. The spin caused the cloud to flatten into a disk like a pancake. In the center, the material clumped together to form a protostar that would eventually become the sun. The young protostar was a ball of hydrogen and helium not yet powered by fusion."
How is the resource used?
Solar energy has many uses. On buildings the panels are connected to the building and the energy they collect is a fraction of what the building uses to provide energy. Workplaces use solar as a small fraction because they use so much to power the lights and computers they only have so much solar.
Cool facts and stats:
Solar energy is inexhaustible.
.5 percent of the United States' energy is solar
What is one innovative alternative energy form you discovered?
Since solar energy (the sun) is inexhaustible there is an endless supply. In the desert there is limited room with no access to cities there must be a different place to put all these panels. We can put them in farms and fields but there is only so many. So what could be helpful is right off the shoreline on the ocean we can make solar panel islands!
Oil
A common misunderstanding of the oil business is what a "reservoir" is. The term "pool of oil" conjures up images of underground caves filled with oil. In fact oil and natural gas are found in the pore spaces surrounding grains comprising sedimentary rocks. In this demonstration students will see what porosity is by observing the filling of pore space by a liquid. Oil was formed from layers of sediments rich in the remains of tiny (microscopic) plants and animals. As the layers were buried deeper and deeper below younger layers of sediment, the plant and animal remains were heated and squeezed, and altered into crude oil. This "high pressure cooking" expelled the oil from the "source rocks", the layers in which the microscopic plants and animals originally were deposited.
How was the resource formed?
"Oil floats on water because is is lighter (less dense). The newly formed oil migrates through pores and cracks in surrounding rocks upward toward the surface. The oil will float on the groundwater within porous layers of rock. Oil was formed from layers of sediments rich in the remains of tiny (microscopic) plants and animals. As the layers were buried deeper and deeper below younger layers of sediment, the plant and animal remains were heated and squeezed, and altered into crude oil. This "high pressure cooking" expelled the oil from the "source rocks", the layers in which the microscopic plants and animals originally were deposited." Oil was formed millions of years ago.
How is the resource used?
Gasoline and motor oil come from refining crude oil. That oil is then used to power cars, boats, and airplanes.
Cool facts:
"The crude oil continues to migrate until it reaches the surface at an "oil seep" (a famous example is La Brea Tar Pits in California). Many times, though, the oil is trapped underground by impermeable layers (such as shales), in which the pores are too fine to allow the crude oil to flow through. It is this trapped oil that explorers seek. Oil wells are drilled into these traps and the oil can then be brought to the surface and transported to an oil refinery for processing. Gasoline and motor oil come from refining crude oil."