Introduction
"Water has become a highly precious resource. There are some places where a barrel of water costs more than a barrel of oil."
Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Minister of Canada (1999 - News Conference)
Purpose:
To find another technique for producing energy that can be considered a renewable energy source.
Introduction:
Water is one of the most beautiful resources in this world. Humans need water to survive; the earth needs water to survive. Now water is one of the most underrated ways of making energy because the truth is energy is becoming a major problem.
Energy in this world is slowly disappearing, used up by humans almost to non-existence. Fossil fuels are being depleted and exploited. Soon they will completely run out. They also emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which will soon destroy the ozone layer. Extracting the fossil fuels is also an extremely dangerous and expensive job. Many miners die every year and the equipment used to extract fossil fuels require an immense amount of money. That’s why many scientists are turning to wind energy. However wind energy is very inconsistence. Sometimes the wind is almost non-existent causing the energy to be varied. Also wind energy cannot produce a lot of energy. Imagine how many wind turbines are needed to power a town of 100,000 people? Solar energy is now rising and becoming extremely popular. However the cost of harnessing the sun’s energy is an incredibly costly procedure. With the poor economy solar energy seems like a distant thought. Also during the night when the sun isn’t shining zero energy is produced. With all these options having its disadvantages and limited advantages there is one option where the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. That option is hydroelectricity. The advantages are plenty. For example once you build a dam energy can be produced at a constant rate. Also water is reusable and environmentally friendly. The only disadvantage of hydroelectricity is the cost of building dams, which is very high. However not as high as solar energy. Considering how many advantages that hydroelectricity produces the cost seems like a small matter.
To demonstrate the energy that water can produce we will build a hydroelectric invention. There are many inventions and machines that use hydroelectricity. Turbines and dams all use hydroelectricity and produce it at the same time. A dam works when water is directed down the pipe where it acquires speed and kinetic energy. The water hits a turbine, which spins. That is connected to a generator, which outputs electric power. However the invention that we chose to demonstrate is a water wheel. A water wheel is a machine that converts the energy of free-falling water into useful forms of energy. How a waterwheel works is simple. The momentum of the water is transferred to the bottom of the wheel as the water strikes the bottom of the wheel thus creating energy. In other words the moving water propels the wheel into moving which like the turbine if connected to a generator will produce electricity. The turbine works much better than the water wheel however a water wheel is much easier to build.
Our science group hopes that this invention can showcase how energy can be produced by water and how it is the best option there is for producing energy.
Lloyd Axworthy, Foreign Minister of Canada (1999 - News Conference)
Purpose:
To find another technique for producing energy that can be considered a renewable energy source.
Introduction:
Water is one of the most beautiful resources in this world. Humans need water to survive; the earth needs water to survive. Now water is one of the most underrated ways of making energy because the truth is energy is becoming a major problem.
Energy in this world is slowly disappearing, used up by humans almost to non-existence. Fossil fuels are being depleted and exploited. Soon they will completely run out. They also emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, which will soon destroy the ozone layer. Extracting the fossil fuels is also an extremely dangerous and expensive job. Many miners die every year and the equipment used to extract fossil fuels require an immense amount of money. That’s why many scientists are turning to wind energy. However wind energy is very inconsistence. Sometimes the wind is almost non-existent causing the energy to be varied. Also wind energy cannot produce a lot of energy. Imagine how many wind turbines are needed to power a town of 100,000 people? Solar energy is now rising and becoming extremely popular. However the cost of harnessing the sun’s energy is an incredibly costly procedure. With the poor economy solar energy seems like a distant thought. Also during the night when the sun isn’t shining zero energy is produced. With all these options having its disadvantages and limited advantages there is one option where the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. That option is hydroelectricity. The advantages are plenty. For example once you build a dam energy can be produced at a constant rate. Also water is reusable and environmentally friendly. The only disadvantage of hydroelectricity is the cost of building dams, which is very high. However not as high as solar energy. Considering how many advantages that hydroelectricity produces the cost seems like a small matter.
To demonstrate the energy that water can produce we will build a hydroelectric invention. There are many inventions and machines that use hydroelectricity. Turbines and dams all use hydroelectricity and produce it at the same time. A dam works when water is directed down the pipe where it acquires speed and kinetic energy. The water hits a turbine, which spins. That is connected to a generator, which outputs electric power. However the invention that we chose to demonstrate is a water wheel. A water wheel is a machine that converts the energy of free-falling water into useful forms of energy. How a waterwheel works is simple. The momentum of the water is transferred to the bottom of the wheel as the water strikes the bottom of the wheel thus creating energy. In other words the moving water propels the wheel into moving which like the turbine if connected to a generator will produce electricity. The turbine works much better than the water wheel however a water wheel is much easier to build.
Our science group hopes that this invention can showcase how energy can be produced by water and how it is the best option there is for producing energy.
Wind turbines are not the answer. As shown in this picture birds are being killed by these wind turbines.
Solar energy is not the answer. As you can see in this picture it takes up too much space and too expensive.
Hydropower is the answer. As you can see in this picture it is natural, less expensive than any other energy sources and is the best way to produce energy.