GEOS 24705 ENST 24705 ENSC 21100

Lecture 11

Electricity

Electricity generation is now > 1/3 of U.S. power use

Coal  usage  waning  in  parts  of  the  world  

https://nyti.ms/2p4h24q

EUROPE

For First Time Since 1800s, Britain Goes a DayWithout Burning Coal for ElectricityBy KATRIN BENNHOLD APRIL 21, 2017

LONDON — Friday was the first full day since the height of the Industrial Revolution that Britain did not burn coal togenerate electricity, a development that officials and climate change activists celebrated as a watershed moment.

The accomplishment became official just before 11 p.m., when the 24-hour period ended.

Coal powered Britain into the industrial age and into the 21st century, contributing greatly to the “pea souper”fogs that were thought for decades to be a natural phenomenon of the British climate.

For many living in the mining towns up and down the country, it was not just the backbone of the economy but away of life. But the industry has been in decline for some time. The last deep coal mine closed in December 2015,though open cast mining has continued.

Coal-fired power generation contributes heavily to climate change; burning coal produces twice as much carbondioxide as burning natural gas. Reducing the world’s reliance on coal and increasing the use of renewable energysources like solar and wind power have long been part of proposals to prevent the worst consequences of climatechange.

Now on a path to phase out coal-fired power generation altogether by 2025, Britain, also the home of the first steamengine, is currently closing coal plants and stepping up generation from cleaner natural gas and renewables, like windand solar.

“Symbolically, this is a milestone,” said Sean Kemp, a spokesman for National Grid, Britain’s power gridoperator. “A kind of end of an era.”

The first public coal-fired generator opened at Holborn Viaduct in London in 1882. Since then, the Britisheconomy, one of Europe’s largest, was thought to never have gone without power from coal for a whole working day.

There have been shorter coal-free periods before. Last May, for instance, coal generation dropped to zero for thefirst time, but only for a few hours at a time. On a weekend later that month, National Grid achieved a coal-freestretch of 19 hours, the longest at the time, Mr. Kemp said.

Demand for electricity tends to be lower in the spring, when homes and offices turn off their heating andnormally do not yet have a need for air-conditioning. It tends to be particularly low on a Friday and during the Easterholiday period.

But the trend away from coal as a source of electricity is structural, officials say, with coal-free days likely tobecome more common. Since 2012, two-thirds of Britain’s coal-fired power generating capacity has been shuttered.Some plants have been converted partially to burn biomass, such as wood pellets. Last year, the share of coal in totalpower generation dropped to 9 percent, down from 23 percent in 2015 and 40 percent in 2012.

April  21,  2017    

https://www.iea.org/sankey/#?c=United%20Kingdom&s=Balance

Image  from:  Wikimedia  commons  

Sta4c  electricity  discovered  in  ancient  4mes   Word  origin:  “electricity”  from  New  La>n  “electricus”,  constructed  (1600,  

Gilbert,  De  Magnete)  from  La>n  electrum,  “amber”,  from  Gr.  “ilektron”

Kine%c  energy  à  electrical  energy:  separate  charge    

Thaleus  of  Miletus  describes  585  BC  that  amber  rubbed  with  fur  could  aOract  other  objects  

1660,  von  Guericke,  electrosta>c  “generator”  

Images  from:  “The  History  of  Electrosta<c  Generators”  

Sta4c  electricity  discovered  in  ancient  4mes   Word  origin:  “electricity”  from  New  La>n  “electricus”,  constructed  from  La>n  

electrum,  “amber”,  Gilbert  De  Magnete,  1600

Kine%c  energy  à  electrical  energy:  separate  charge    

1730s:  Hauksbee  shows  that  rubbing  amber  in  a  chamber  containing  mercury  vapor  causes  light  emission  

1750s,  demonstra>on  of  sta>c  electricity  discharge:  “electric  kiss”  

Images  from:  “The  History  of  Electrosta<c  Generators”  

Sta4c  electricity  discovered  in  ancient  4mes   Word  origin:  “electricity”  from  New  La>n  “electricus”,  constructed  from  La>n  

electrum,  “amber”,  Gilbert  De  Magnete,  1600

Kine%c  energy  à  electrical  energy:  separate  charge    

1795s:  experiments  with  electrosta>c  capacitors  (store  charge  on  metal)  

Voltaic  pile  was  stack  of  different  metals  (Zn,  Cu)  soaked  in  brine  (inspired  by  Galvani’s  accidental  finding).    

Images  from:  Wikipedia,  BaBeryfacts.co.uk  

Chemical  reac4ons  can  create  electric  currents   Allessandro  Volta  –  demonstrated  1791,  “Voltaic  pile”  1800

Chemical  energy  à  electrical  energy:  metal  oxidizes  

Mary  Shelley,  1818  

Electricity  enters  the  popular  imagina4on   Allessandro  Volta  –  demonstrated  1791,  “Voltaic  pile”  1800

Luigi  Galvani  frog  experiment,  1792