Who wants to be an energy geek?

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Who wants to be an energy geek?
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What is energy?

• The ability to do work

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Where does energy come from?
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All energy comes from the sun (well, mostly all)
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Some energy flows constantly
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Like solar power, wind power and hydroelectric
power.
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Some energy is stored
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Like coal, oil and natural gas.
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In order for energy to be useful
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It has to be transformed.
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And every time energy is transformed, we waste
some.
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To understand this, lets trace energy use
through a system.
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Consider the banana.
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Bananas are nutritious and tasty, but

• Where do they come from?
• What kind of energy is used to get the banana
  from the grower into our kitchens?

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How many different kinds of energy were used to
get the banana from fields in Costa Rica to our
kitchens in Wisconsin?
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Many!

• Solar to grow the bananas
• Human labor to tend and harvest the bananas
• Petroleum to transport the bananas
• Electricity to cool the bananas

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Now lets think about electricity.
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Where does most of Wisconsins electricity come
from?

• Wind?
• Hydroelectric power?
• Nuclear power?
• Coal?

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Where does most of Wisconsins coal come from?

• Wisconsin?
• Illinois?
• Wyoming?
• West Virginia?

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How does it get from Wyoming to Wisconsin?

• Truck?
• Airplane?
• Fax?
• Train?

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How much energy does it take to get the coal from
Wyoming to your house?
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We have to mine the coal
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Transport the coal
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Burn the coal
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And transmit the electricity.
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You figure it out!
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To mine one ton of coal

• It takes the energy of about ten pounds of coal.
• So we have about 1,990 pounds left

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To transport one ton of coal

• It takes the energy of about 40 pounds of coal.
• So we have about 1,950 pounds left

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To burn one ton of coal to make electricity

• It takes the energy of about 1,350 pounds of
  coal.
• So we have about 600 pounds of coal left.

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To transmit the electricity to your house

• It takes the energy of about 160 pounds of coal.

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So in the end

• Only about 440 pounds of coal make it into useful
  energy!

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So what happened to the rest?

• Pollution!
• Air pollution
• Water pollution
• Solid waste

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So how should we use electricity?

• Carefully!
• Use efficient appliances
• Turn things off
• Design efficient buildings

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Well, what can I do?

• Its true parents make most of the decisions
  about energy consumption
• Educate them!
• Changing from incandescent to compact fluorescent
  light bulbs is one of the simplest things you can
  do to save energy.