Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Energy Project
Energy Project
By Jackson Glover
Figure 1:
The above image shows a
example of a flour mill
which was powered by
water.
Figure 2:
The above image shows a
current Hydropower plant
made using a dam.
Hydropower Usage
Figure 3:
The above graph shows
electricity production of
Australia as of 2015.
Coal power plants run on coal which is found in the ground. When
plants die and fall into a swamp or other low lying areas, the plants
decompose and then become coal. To become coal this plant matter
Figure 4:
needs to be under the ground and in there for millions of years.
The above image
After a while in the ground, the plant become peat which then can shows a major coal
be further turned into brown coal, then sub-bituminous coal, then
power plant in
bituminous coal, and finally anthracite.
Victoria.
When coal is to be producing electricity in a coal plant it bets
crushed into a fine power, allowing it to burn faster and hotter. This
fine powder is pumped into a fire box where is burns and produces
heat well over 500 degrees Celsius. The heat from the burning coal
then boils water and turns it into steam. This steam has so much
force that it then is used to turn a turbine which is connected to a
generator, producing electricity. This method is quite inefficient and
only has an energy efficiency of around 50%.
Figure 6:
The above graph shows electricity
production of Norway as of 2015.
Figure 5:
The above graph shows
electricity production of
Australia as of 2015.
Figure 6:
The above diagram
shows the
infrastructure of a
hydropower plant.
The production of Electricity via Coal requires a large amount of infrastructure for a small job.
The first piece of infrastructure needed in a coal power plant. Inside this plant you will need
the coal supply which will travel on a conveyer belt. This conveyer belt will need to take it to
a mill or pulveriser to be turned into a fine coal powder. The coal powder will be blown into
the fire box of the boiler where it is burned. There is a stack or chimney which vents of
pollution cased by the burning of coal and also a system which removes excess ash. A pump
is used to pump water through pipes of which run through the boiler, turning to steam inside
the pipes. This steam continues traveling through pipes where a turbine is rotated by the
force of the steam. The steam then continues to move through pipes until it reaches a
chamber where it is cooled by a condenser (cold water pumped through a pipe into the
chamber) and turned back into water where it is pumped into a water purifier and back
around the cycle. Just like in Hydropower plants, the turbine is connected to a shaft which is
connected to a generator sending electricity through a transformer and into power lines.
Figure 7:
The right diagram
shows the
infrastructure of a Coal
power plant.
Just like Hydropower plants, Coal power plants are also varied in
size and out put in watts. Coal power plants arent varied in size
because of land reasons as much as Hydropower plants though
they still are varied in size. Coal power plants do not produce as
much electricity, per plant, as Hydropower plants but they also
dont cost as much either. Large Coal power plants can produce
from around 1,000 mega watts to about 5,000 mega watts. Coal
power plants can cost from hundreds of millions to a maximum
of 10 billion.
Comparison
Hydropower
Coal power
Energy efficiency
95%
50%
Percentage of
electricity
production (Aus.)
14%
73%
Environmental
effect
Energy transfers
and
transformations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Causes major air pollution and is the largest producer of CO2 emissions.
Plants use a lot of water in the production of electricity.
Plants pollutes water in the process and pumps it back out into steams.
Generates a large amount of solid waste such as ash which is disposed in
land.
Surrounding land becomes heavily polluted.