GROUP4 PROJECT EDITION! THE Sep/Oct 2022 IB TIMES
Proofreading: p. Justyna Sawicka, p. Małgorzata Dubrawska;
Authors: Kinga Kuberska, Olga Ryczkowska, Oliwia Barbara Borowska, Hanna Winiarska, Oliwia Salwocka, Natalia Szymańska, Anna Wąsowicz, Julia Winowska, Aleksandra Karczewska, Aleksandra Mińko, Wiktoria Wysocka; Graphic design: Zofia Sakowicz, Oskar Baczar; Cover photo: Bartosz Kozłowski; Marketing: Bartosz Kozłowski; Group photo: Alexandra Tykocka Crow;
Editor: Amelia Schmalz Vice Editor: Oliwia Wilkowska
01 02 03 04 TABLEOF CONTENTS Physics (6) Chemistry (12) Computer Science (26) Biology (22) 3
FROM STUDENTS, FOR STUDENTS. 4
NOTEFROMEDITORS SCHMALZ & OLIWIA WILKOWSKA Ponieważ rok szkolny dobiega końca, a to wydanie jest naszym ostatnim w tym roku szkolnym, my, redaktorzy tegorocznego The IB Times, chcemy podziękować Wam, czytelnikom za bycie częścią The IB Times i wsparcie poprzez czytanie naszych artykułów Cały zespół IB Times jest niezmiernie wdzięczny za Wasz udział i mamy nadzieję, że praca, którą wykonaliśmy, podobała się Wam tak samo jak nam. Zachęcamy do czytania! With this school year is coming to an end and this issue being our last one of this school year, we the editors of this years’ The IB Times, want to thank you, the readers for being a part of The IB Times and support through reading our articles The entire team of IB Times is more than grateful for your participation and we hope that you enjoyed the work we have done just as much as we did. Enjoy your reading!
AMELIA
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Physics
Oliwia Salwocka, Wiktoria Wysocka
Today, alternative sources of energy became even more meaningful Besides the environmental issues, the war in Ukraine is the reason why we’re trying to cut off Russia’s gas and other supplies. That’s why, today more than ever, we should focus on alternative sources of energy in our country. In this article, as a part of our Group 4 project, we would like to explain to you the inner working of solar power, wind power, hydroelectric power and wave power Solar power is a form of nearly inexhaustible energy source. The energy come from nuclear fusion taking place in the Sun. 1400 W m 2 of solar energy reaches the Earth. But globally, only 2% of electricity produced came from solar energy. There are two types of extracting solar energy The first of them is solar heating panels. Solar panels are used in individual homes They convert solar energy into thermal energy, which is later used for heating water. The second type is photovoltaic cells Photovoltaic cells are made from semiconductors Photons from the Sun excite the electrons in the cell. When the electrons drop back to their orbits, they release a small amount of heat. The movement of electrons creates a current that runs through the material 6 An array of photovoltaic cells, commonly called a solar panel, can produce a reasonable amount of direct current electricity. There are also places called solar power stations, where mirrors direct solar energy onto a central tower where solar panels boil water that turns a generator. The amount of energy produced varies during the day as the angle at which solar rays arrive at the Earth’s surface changes. The biggest advantages of solar power are no extraction costs (extracting the energy costs nothing), unlimited supply of energy and being environment friendly. Unfortunately, solar panels and photovoltaic cells work only during the day and are highly dependable on the weather Moreover, initial costs are very high and it requires a big, empty area. According to Green Projects, only 058% of energy coming from renewable sources is from solar power. Portals like Business Insider and Clean Technical state that the majority of people support solar energy and more and more of them apply it in their homes. Unfortunately, in our country, solar energy isn’t very profitable as we don’t get much solar energy and have many cloudy days
I’m sure you’ve heard about renewable sources of energy a million times But do you actually know how they work and what are their advantages and disadvantages?
The biggest advantages of hydroelectric power are the fact that it’s clean, has an unlimited supply of the factor that produces energy, and the amount of energy produced can be changed within minutes or even seconds to adhere to the electricity needs. Unfortunately, dams cause a huge change in the environment and building one is very expensive. They are also location dependent as they require a large enough river and a large space for the water reservoir. According to the National Hydropower Association, 78% of Americans approve of hydropower According to Główny Urząd Statystyczny, 1.6% of electricity generated in Poland comes from hydroelectric power There aren’t many places with big differences in altitudes that would allow for high levels of water in water reservoirs. That’s why there aren’t many hydropower stations in Poland.
Wave power is generated by the up and down motion of ocean waves Most commonly it is produced by buoys which rise and fall along with the waves or by floating turbine platforms. As the next step in production, the movement caused by waves is passed on to the energy converter that transforms kinetic energy into electricity. The effectiveness of using wave power as a source for the production of energy is dependent on the location. Areas on Earth with the greatest potential for developing wave power are in the latitudes with the highest winds, which are latitudes from 40° to 60° north and south on the eastern shores of the world’s oceans. The first operational wave power generator in the world is located off the coast of Aguçadora, Portugal. Another type of renewable source of energy is hydroelectric power
According to the International Energy Agency, hydroelectric power generates almost 17% of the world’s electricity. Hydroelectric power plants are called dams Dams are built on rivers creating water reservoirs, which have higher water levels, hence higher potential energy. When the water falls to the other side through the dam, potential energy changes into kinetic energy. The kinetic energy of falling water is used to turn the turbines that activate the generator. When demand for power is lower, water is pumped back up using the power from the generators. Turbines fill the role of pumps
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Wind power is generated by turbines which convert the kinetic energy of wind into mechanical or electrical energy that is later used for power. As of 2018 the largest wind farm in the world was the Jiuquan Wind Power Base, which consists of more than 7,000 wind turbines located in China’s Gansu province. The advantage of wind power over fossil fuels is that it is clean As well as that, there is an unlimited supply of wind. Wind turbines do not require fuel and only rely on wind. Other advantages are no costs of extraction and the possibility to locate wind power plants in locations away from other energy sources. There are also some disadvantages of wind power The most popular complaint about wind power plants is that they are noisy. Wind turbines can be quite loud and disruptive to people living nearby. The low frequency noise that is made by wind farms can be unpleasant to some people. On top of that, they are visually intrusive. Another disadvantage includes high costs. Not only does building wind farms require a large amount of money invested, but the maintenance costs are also very high. Power stations relying on wind require wind that is fast enough if they are expected to achieve high efficiency. The infrastructure used for the extraction of wind power can also be disruptive and dangerous to some animals, such as birds and bats. Public opinion on wind energy has been consistent over the years Opinion polls show that the majority of the public across Europe is very supportive of wind energy. The exception to that in some cases are people living close to wind power plants, however even while considering these people, wind power has a large group of supporters.
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Choosing renewable energy as a source supplying the population with electricity is beneficial in many ways. This way we can use the resources more sustainably and make the Earth a cleaner and healthier place. Investing in clean energy can prove to be especially crucial in the current times of war started by Russia. Up until now, Russia was one of the biggest suppliers of crude oil in the world, which made other countries dependent on it Now however, many countries such as Germany, France, Austria and Poland are not looking forward to supporting Russia and choose to instead invest in the stations producing clean energy they have. The political situation in this case can be a factor that will push forward the dependence of the population on renewable sources of energy Except for benefits in the political field, switching to clean energy sources will definitely improve the environment and work in favour of decreasing the amount of CO2 produced by humans. This should be especially important to the society as a whole, because if we do not limit our dependency on non renewable sources of energy, the future of the Earth may not look too promising and we could end up being suddenly left with no energy source once we run out of fossil fuels. We can see an increase in the usage of clean energy over the years, which makes the situation look promising. In the future, we can expect an even bigger reliance on solar, hydroelectric, wave and wind power. 9
Tengus often appeared in stories told from generation to generation and collected by Japanese folklorists. The tales were often humorous and portrayed Tengus as creatures who were curious of humans and easily fooled by them. One of the most popular tales is about a Tengu’s magic cloak A boy looked through a piece of bamboo straw and pretended to see places that were very far away. The Tengu, being the curious creature that it was, offered the boy to exchange the bamboo for its cloak that makes one invisible. The boy managed to successfully trick the Tengu, and then continued to cause trouble in the village that he lived in. The story, however, ends with the Tengu regaining its cloak through a game of riddles and punishing the boy by turning him into a wolf. Later in Japanese history Tengus stopped being depicted as the evil spirits, but became protectors instead. In the 19th century the people of Min Province, living in a deep forest made rice cake sacrifices to Tengu in exchange for a successful day at work. It was, however, a very demanding deity and when new sacrifices didn’t come in on time, it was causing all sorts of mischief around the village. While making our decision whether a Tengu is a good or evil spirit, we must remember that no matter what their good deeds are, they still remain demons and ghosts of arrogant people. 10
Chemistry I n t h i s s e c t i o n w e w i l l b e e x p l o r i n g a n d c o m p a r i n g t h e d i f f e r e n t a v a i l a b l e e n e r g y s o u r c e s , b u t t h i s t i m e f r o m a c h e m i c a l p e r s p e c t i v e . Emilia Szydłowska, Aleksandra Karczewska, Dominika Wojskowicz, Gabriela Bernart, Karolina Rajczuk, Olga Ryczkowska
Fossil fuels come in many different types, structures and states ranging from simple gaseous molecules, through liquid mixtures, to complex solid molecules. The one thing they have in common is their primary component hydrocarbons (molecules containing both hydrogen and carbon) Let’s take a closer look at the structure and chemical composition of the main fossil fuels 12
Peat Peat is a dark brown, fibrous deposit similar to soil, created from partially decomposed matter in acidic conditions. Apart from hydrogen and carbon it contains nitrogen, phosphorus, oxygen, and mineral nutritional elements. It has a high water content (88% 92%) which makes it very fragile enough to be cut with a knife.
Fossil fuels
Coal Over time peat can transform into coal, which is one of the most widely used energy sources. Coal is also composed of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, and oxygen. There are many different types of coal all of them with slightly different structures, depending on their varying carbon content Anthracite is the type of coal richest in carbon (92%), and lignite is the one with the lowest amount of carbon (71%). Out of the two lignite is considered to be worse quality
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Natural gas is composed of methane (CH4) in about 70% 90%. However, gases coming from different places of the Earth will differ in composition. Most of types of natural gas have properties similar to methane – so colourless, odourless, lighter than air, and highly flammable Crude oil is a highly complex mixture of liquid hydrocarbons, lighter than water It ranges from colourless to black as its colour and consistency varies depending on the ratio of the components The most common hydrocarbons that can be found in crude oil and petroleum are paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics gas
The energy from the different types of fossil fuels can be harnessed in combustion (burning) reactions At homes they are burned to produce heat and in large power stations they are also used to produce electricity. The bonds between hydrogen and carbon atoms store energy by burning the fuels in presence of oxygen, the bonds are broken, and the energy released. Here is an example chemical reaction of combustion of methane (natural gas) in the presence of oxygen, showing the production of carbon dioxide (CO2):
CH4 + 2O2 → CO2 + 2H2O
Crude oil
Natural
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Fossil fuels are non renewable, this means that their supply is limited, and they will eventually run out. Another issue with burning fossil fuels is their effect on the environment As you can see from the reaction above – when hydrocarbons are burned in the presence of oxygen, they release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. CO2 is one of the leading greenhouse gases contributing to the effect of global climate change. The United States gets 81% of its total energy from oil, coal, and natural gas, all of which are fossil fuels. We depend on them to heat our homes, run our vehicles, power industry and manufacturing, and provide us with electricity Eventually, the degree to which we depend on fossil fuels will have to decline as the planet’s known supplies diminish, the difficulty and cost of tapping remaining reserves increase, and the effect of their continued use on our planet grows more critical. But shifting to new energy sources will take time In the meantime, how do we use fossil fuels in the most efficient and environmentally responsible way possible?
In large power stations as the fuel burns the heat energy is used to heat water, which produces steam that in turn rises and drives a turbine The energy conversion goes from chemical energy stored in the fuels, to heat energy, then transforms into kinetic energy as it drives the large turbines, which finally results in conversion to electrical energy and electricity. In all combustion reactions, however, there is a certain amount of energy loss – as the heat is transferred to the environment. The most energy efficient fossil fuel is natural gas It retains 92% of its energy content through combustion, while carbon has only 32% efficiency rate.
Biofuels are any fuels derived from biomass – plants, algae material, or animal waste. They are considered to be renewable energy sources, as opposed to fossil fuels, since its feedstock material (biomass) can be easily replenished. The two most commonly used biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel 15
Biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils, yellow grease, used cooking oils, or animal fats. The fuel is produced by transesterification—a process that converts fats and oils into biodiesel and glycerine Biodiesel provides cleaner burning and is used as a replacement for petroleum based diesel fuel or as a blend. It is biodegradable and non toxic.
Ethanol (CH3CH2OH)
Most ethanol is made from plant starches and sugars (particularly corn starch in the United States), but scientists are continuing to develop technologies that would allow for the use of cellulose and hemicellulose non edible fibrous material that makes up the bulk of plant matter. It is used as a blending agent with gasoline (usually 10% ethanol, 90% gasoline mix) to cut down the production of carbon monoxide (CO) and other smog causing emissions
Biodiesel
Biofuels
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Biofuels can be easily replenished. They are non-toxic and clean burning, which reduces the carbon impact. They also reduce landfills and waste, by using manure, waste from crops, sawdust, and used cooking oil for production. Relatively to fossil fuels, biofuels produce lower greenhouse gas emissions by both production and combustion (12% less with ethanol and 41% less with biodiesel). However, the production of biofuels can be inefficient as large amount of raw materials have to be used. The water demand for production is also high as are the initial investments required to start the production.
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Nuclear fission occurs when a neutron slams into a bigger atom, which as a result splits into two smaller atoms, releasing a huge amount of energy.
Nuclear fission
Nuclear energy
Nuclear fusion Fusion is the process in which two atoms slam together to form a larger one Nuclear fusion occurs for example in the Sun and produces far more energy than fission. It also doesn’t produce radioactive waste However, fusion reactions are difficult to sustain for long periods of time because of incredibly high pressure and temperature that is needed to force the nuclei of two atoms together.
Nuclear energy is the energy released during nuclear fission or nuclear fusion Both of the processes involve the splitting of atoms in a reactor. The most widely used fuel in nuclear power plants is uranium because it is easy to control and initiate reactions with. A single standard uranium atom contains 92 protons in its nucleus (the centre of the atom) and 92 electrons on the orbitals surrounding the nucleus but the number of neutrons in the nucleus can vary from 141 to 146.
18 In both reactions the energy is harnessed from the core of an atom. It is an exothermic (releasing heat) process similar to the combustion of fossil fuels. The energy generated during fission or fusion is used to heat water and turn it into steam which spins the turbine and is then used to generate electricity. Nuclear energy is a very clear source of energy compared to hydrocarbon fuels since it does not produce any greenhouse gases. Nuclear energy also has the highest capacity factor which means it produces maximum power 93% of the time (about 1.5 2 times more than coal or natural gas units and 2.5 3.5 more than wind or solar plants) and is so far the most chemically stable and reliable source of energy. The chemical components of harnessing the nuclear power, however, can be incredibly dangerous as the radioactive waste produces as a by-product of the reactions is a threat to human health and nature.
A fuel cell is built out of an anode and cathode (charged electrodes), and an electrolyte membrane. Hydrogen passes through the anode and oxygen through the cathode A catalyst breaks hydrogen molecules into protons and electrons, and the protons pass through the membrane and combine with oxygen to produce water molecules. The electrons pass through a circuit and generate and electric current and heat Hydrogen atom with one proton and one electron
Hydrogen is an energy carrier and can be used to store or transport energy from other sources. Hydrogen fuels are often produced by thermal processes (occurring at high temperatures) such as steam reforming. During steam reforming steam reacts with a hydrocarbon fuel and produces hydrogen. Hydrocarbon fuels that can be used for this are the fossil fuels that we have previously covered, for example natural gases, diesel, coal, or biomass. Other processes used to obtain hydrogen are solar driven processes, such as photobiological (photosynthesis of bacteria and green algae produce hydrogen), photoelectrochemical (specialized semiconductors to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen), and solar thermochemical (concentrated solar power splits water) processes, and biological processes (bacteria and microalgae break down organic matter like biomass or wastewater to produce hydrogen) 19
The obtained zero carbon hydrogen fuel can be combined with oxygen in a fuel cell to generate electricity, heat, and water.
Hydrogen fuels
Fuel cell is a mechanism uses an electrochemical reaction to produce energy. Because it does not use combustion, it is a clean power source that only produces water and no other emissions (like CO2).
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Not only are fuel cells clean, but they are also efficient, reliable and quiet, because there are no moving parts it them. They do not need to be recharged and produce energy as long as a hydrogen fuel is supplied. The fuels themselves are renewable and easily available since hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe. It is also very versatile which can be used in cars, domestic products, and heating systems. The energy content of hydrogen is the highest out of any common fuel and the efficiency of fuel cells is about 65% (almost twice as high than a combustion based power plant, and about 2/3 as efficient as a nuclear power plant). However, hydrogen does not exist on its own in the Universe and needs to be extracted to be used. The energy needed for those processes or additional extraction of fossil fuels does release carbon. It is still a relatively new and expensive technology, so a lot of investment is required to make hydrogen fuels a viable source for our future.
Biology Joanna Kuźmicka, Alexandra Tykocka Crow, Oliwia Borowska, Eliza Czyżewska, Kinga Kuberska, Aleksandra Mińko, Aleksandra Milewska, Anna Wąsowicz, Julia Winowska, Hanna Winiarska, Michał Lipski
Non renewable fuels, comprising of coal, gas and oil as well as other energy dense materials like peat and uranium are the world’s most popular fuel sources and are still heavily relied on to this day in many parts of the world. Despite their effectiveness, fossil fuels are not only the leading CO2 emitters, but can only last us a short time, due to the millions of years they take to form. Experts predict that we will run out of these materials in the upcoming decades, some predicting even as soon as 2050 to be the year we will run out of oil Though we are quickly running out of these incredibly useful resources, it is also important to know how these energy rich fuels form and why they’re so valuable to us 22 One of these treasured fuels is Uranium, an extremely sufficient metal as it is full of energy. Singular pellet, which weighs only about 10 grams can provide as much energy as one ton of coil or 147 gallons of gas. Uranium can be found in rocks and sometimes in seawater Canada, Kazakhstan Australia and Russia are one of the providers of that metal However before converted into nuclear energy uranium needs to go under four processes First uranium is mined, then it needs to be milled In this part of the process water is added to create a slurry of a fine uranium particles and needless mineral products The mixture is then leached using sulfuric acid or alkane solution in order to dissolve uranium and part it from remaining products. After filtration uranium is dried into concentrate, which is bright yellow. Usually uranium is being enriched to increase its concentration, which is achieved by converting it into gas form with low temperature Insignificant number of reactors around the world are fuelled by natural uranium, but the enriched one is way more efficient It then is processed into a black powder form that is called uranium dioxide and after, pressed and heated to create pellets. Those are ready to power a nuclear reactor, which emits Energy
23 Natural gas belongs to fossil fuels and mostly consists of methane, which is a hydrocarbon. Gas is an inexpensive method of producing energy, as its storage and mining is easy and gas doesn’t require any complex processing However conversion of gas into energy results in emission of products, which intensify greenhouse effect and cause other destructions of our environment Natural gas is formed the same way as oil is they both began to form millions of years ago. To outline this process: dead plankton, zooplankton and soft and hard organic matter tissues mix with inorganic ’’clay like” materials to create organic rich mud only formed in still waters Environments where gas is formed are anoxic, which means they don’t contain much oxygen, or else this above mentioned mud could be decomposed by bacteria The organic rich mud is then buried in sediment which traps in in sedimentary rocks. This forms organic shale going into Earth interior creating pressure and higher temperature, which converts it waxy kerogen. This product can transform into natural gas and oil, if its temperature is between 90 and 160 degrees The obtained gas can be displaced and trapped in reservoir rocks, if proper sealing exists they can be used to acquire both gas and oil This is the least complex type of source of natural gas, however there are another types of unconventional deposits that require more difficult assessing The process that creates oil is also very similar. However, the type of plant and animal debris that falls to the ocean floor may differ Oil is formed from organic material mainly deposited as sediments on the seabed and then broken down and transformed over millions of years If there is a suitable combination of source rock, reservoir rock, cap rock and a trap in an area, recoverable oil and gas deposits may be discovered there. Once extracted, oil can be refined into a number of fuel products gasoline, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas (such as propane), diesel and jet fuels and "residuals" that include industrial and electricity fuels. The oil is burned to heat water and produce steam This steam propels the blades of a turbine This is attached to a generator, which produces electricity. Burning oil pollutes the air, water and land but some of the worst environmental woes associated with oil are linked to drilling, transporting and refining For instance, oil result killing thousands of fish, birds, other wildlife, plants and soil
in catastrophic damage
transportation accidents can
Many of the fuels talked about undergo the process of carbon cycling, which is why we are able to access these precious energy sources without extracting them ourselves. Because the process the carbon has to go through in incredibly lengthy and takes millions of years, we have been accessing the carbon sinks and disrupting the long term carbon cycle by digging it out of the ground By depleting the carbon sinks, which were not accessible to us yet we have caused tremendous damage to the environment but also ourselves and more problems will arise if we do not revaluate our choices.
Finally, peat is an organic fuel, which in certain circumstances can be an early stage in coal formation Peat forms in highly acidic environments, such as bogs The largest of these boglands form in cold and wet climates, such as the UK and Canada. These wetlands, which are often referred to as “biological supermarkets”, due to their abundance of plants and animals play a crucial role in the formation of peat. As all organic fuels, the process which has to take place in order for peat to form takes millions of years, which is why it is such a valuable resource The process begins when a plant inhabiting these bogs begins decaying and due to the hardy conditions, such as the acidic pH, the plant matter cannot fully decompose Once enough of this partially broken down matter accumulates, peat forms. Due to the plants’ enhanced ability to collect atmospheric carbon, this peat makes up for a high energy fuel, but also releases enormous amounts of carbon into the atmosphere when harvested. Peat also takes an incredibly long time to form, growing only 1mm a year.
24 Coal is a solid, black, readily combustible fossil fuel that contains a large amount of carbon based material approximately 50% of its weight. Coal can be found in the underground formations called “coal seams” or “coal beds”. They exists on every continent The largest coal reserves are in the United States, Russia, China, Australia, and India Coal fired power plants burn coal to make steam and the steam turns turbines to generate electricity When the coal is burned, it reacts with oxygen in the air and all the stored solar energy is turned into thermal energy and released as heat However, this chemical reaction also produces carbon dioxide and methane, greenhouse gases which are harmful to the environment Releasing those gases (carbon dioxide and nitrous dioxide) into the atmosphere intensifies the greenhouse effect, increasing the Earth’s average temperatures.
Julia
Goryś, Natalia Szymańska, Oliwia Wilkowska, Amelia Schmalz, Zofia Sakowicz, Bartosz Kozłowski, Filip Pietraszewski, Oskar Baczar
Computer science
Traditional algorithms typically cannot handle these types of tasks, or their runtime is very long Artificial intelligence methods, which are often heuristic algorithms that are not guaranteed to produce a positive result, but very often produce results that are accurate and fast enough to be the best way to solve the problem. Their general characteristics include the ability to learn from examples (e.g., test data), ease in generalizing problem features Another advantage of artificial intelligence methods is that the model, once prepared and learned, runs subsequent simulations and predictions very quickly. Those advantages are used to create new advanced solutions to developing alternative sources of energy. There are numerous ways of how ANNs and AI can be implemented in that issue; to show how exactly such technology is applied in real life problems, here is an example of concepts that people involved in that field came up with According to Giuseppe Marco Tina in his essay “Special Issue on Applications of Artificial Neural Networks for Energy Systems”, one of them is “design of a power management system for a stand alone rural microgrid (collection of electric appliances providing energy and minimizing its costs) that is able to forecast both the local load demand and the generation from renewable sources in order to control the fossil fuel based generators using hybrid machine learning algorithm. It divides the task of power load prediction into two sequential sub models: the first model predicts the future weather conditions and the second model is trained to associate the predicted weather conditions with the load demand”.
Artificial Neural Networks
Artificial neural network (ANN) is a computing system inspired by the biological neural networks appearing in the animal brain They are often used in algorithms, where the input is some amount of data which the networks process, find patterns and learn how to predict the output Artificial neural networks are often associated with the artificial intelligence technology, in which ANNs are used They are characterized by the ability to solve complex problems that are potentially subject to large errors
Alternative sources of energy are undoubtedly the future of the energy sector When it comes to the use of computer science in alternative sources of energy, two main issues can be distinguished regarding this problem: artificial neural networks and software used in the field of renewable energy, which you will find out more about in this part. 26
Smart power systems, or Smart Grids, are electricity networks that allow a two way flow of electricity and data First officially defined in 2007, they are a modification to a current electrical system. Their main advantage is giving the customer an option to connect to the main energy grid through renewable energy powers (for instance solar panels), which is possible through two way distribution and decentralized distribution, meaning that the customer can become a more active participant in their electricity production and usage In addition, Smart Grids perform self monitoring and self repair, further using artificial neural networks, differently to traditional electrical grids that rely on manual practice
Moreover, Smart Grids have not as negative an impact on the environment as other technologies They implant more renewable sources of energy, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, pollutions and water waste. Although at first implementation of Smart Grids is quite expensive (about $338 to $476 billion), many experts ensure that the benefits outweigh the costs, and that Smart Grids are the future of electricity networks. Clearly, all those systems use the main property of artificial neural networks, which is learning from patterns and forecasting future outcomes 27 Programs –renewable energy We’ve all heard about Homer Simpson – a donut loving man who has been working as the nuclear safety inspector at the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant (in Sector 7 G) for the past 35 years The HOMER that we want to present to you today also helps in renewable energy systems. It’s a computer software used in over 190 countries to design microgrids, distributed generation and utility scale power systems which are the most effective, reliable and hybrid. HOMER uses technoeconomic modeling, analytics and optimization to simulate a viable system for all possible combinations of different equipment you may need to create the best power system. Today, HOMER is capable of customizing 9 individual modules biomass, hydro, combined heat and power, advanced load, grid and storage, hydrogen, Multi Year and MATLAB Link
28 As you can see, HOMER presents great versatility for different purposes, types of renewable energy It is used by many private companies in Poland, as well as large power plants. Another piece of software widely used in the renewable energy industry is RETScreen First released by the government of Canada in 1998 and programmed in C, it is still being updated, with its current version released in 2021 It is mainly used in assessing the financial and environmental costs and benefits of various renewable energy technologies and solutions These projections are available for any region on earth and have been used in many renewable projects to this day including the retrofitting of the Empire State Building with energy efficiency measures and multi year assessments and evaluation of photovoltaic performance in Toronto, Canada. It has a global climate data database with over 6000 ground stations (monthly sun irradiation and temperature data for the year), energy resource maps (ie windmaps), hydrology data, and product data such as solar photovoltaic panel specifications and wind turbine power curves The application is available in over 30 different languages
Energy Hippo is a web based program based in Alameda, California that has been widely used by public and private organizations (local governments, airports, higher education) for over 15 years It is a program designed to reduce energy usage, costs and greenhouse gas emissions by allowing the user to design better energy management strategies.
Both artificial neural networks and artificial intelligence have multiple applications in finding new, more sustainable solutions to developing alternative sources of energy.
1. Define Project planning, business solution planning, technical architecture planning 2. Design Business solution design, custom design, product installation and configuration planning, test design, training design 3. Develop Product installation and configuration, develop and QA custom functionality, business solution configuration, testing, training, production deployment cutover 4. Deploy Go live, project completion, post project solution support As of now, EEM suite offers four solutions for clients to aid in energy management and these include utility billing software(provides data managers need to process billing information), sophisticated energy analysis software (provides accurate analysis of energy information), utility billing and rebilling software (encourages clients to push actual costs to the appropriate owner) and comprehensive corporate sustainability solution (aids in meeting the requirements of sustainability initiatives)
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The software is defined by phases, high level activities and events. There are four high level activities intended to aid in creating a new project. Each high-level activity also has events that are used to ease the implementation:
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