Homework 1

Problem 1

The US generated 4494 Terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023. Do each of the unit conversions:

Quadrillion BTUs in 2023
Gigawatts (GW)
Number of average size (world) coal power plants at 878 MW each; use a capacity factor of 0.8.
Number of wind turbines at 3 MW; use a capacity factor of 0.3.
Number of olympic size swimming pools vaporized per minute (heated from 25 C, then boiled).
Number of cubic miles of oil (oil equivalent, that is, needed to produce the electricity).

Problem 2

Part A

Compute the number of nuclear power plants equivalent to 1 CMO per year of energy use. Use the size of the world’s largest nuclear plant. Use a capacity factor of 0.9

Part B

Do this again for hydrodynamic power plants based on the world’s largest hydro plant. Use a 35% capacity factor.

Problem 3

What is the rate of increase of world energy consumption over the last 50 years in units of CMO/year, and as %/year based on current use?

Problem 4

Some people are still arguing over whether global warming is man-made or not. What is one argument against global climate change made by skeptics. Of course, where there is an argument, there is a rebuttal. Find and describe a corresponding rebuttal to the argument. As usual, cite your sources. There are many sites online. Here are a couple:

Problem 5

The coal-fired Hunter Power Plant in central Utah has a capacity of 1577 MW and burns a bituminous coal from the Sufco mine. Assume a 35% thermal efficiency. How many train cars of coal per day is this? How many lbm of CO2 is emitted for every lbm of carbon burned? A proposal for carbon capture from fossil plants is to inject CO2 into underground reservoirs. Find an article on this, read it, and write a one paragraph summary. Include a link to the source in your homework submission.