Frontiers of Engineering Reports on Leading Edge Engineering from the 1999 NAE Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering (2000) / Chapter Skim
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4 Energy for the Future and Its Environmental Impact
4 Energy for the Future and Its Environmental Impact
Pages 49-70
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From page 51... ...
BACKGROUND Prior to deregulation electric utilities were vertically integrated "natural" monopolies serving captive markets governed by a regulatory compact. That is, in a particular service territory the electric utility did everything from owning and operating the generation, owning the transmission grid in that market, providing the wires that actually connected to the customer, to reading the customer's meter.
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From page 52... ...
bulk electricity market development, 2) market power assessment in electricity markets, and 3)
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From page 53... ...
Thus, to transfer say 1,000 MW of power from Tennessee to Illinois the actual power flow would "loop" around on a large number of transmission lines in the Eastern Grid; this effect is known as "loop flow." Third, the transmission grid has capabilities to transfer power that are finite but often difficult to quantify. These values have been defined by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC)
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From page 54... ...
This leads to a second key engineering challenge, developing markets in which market power is not abused by the market participants. MARKET POWER ASSESSMENT IN ELECTRICITY MARKETS One of the key goals of deregulation is obtaining lower prices through the advent of competition.
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From page 55... ...
Experimental evidence suggests that in such situations exploitation of market power by the participants could be expected (Zimmerman et al., 1999~. This presence of load pockets should not be surprising since the transmission grid was originally designed to meet the needs of a vertically integrated utility moving power from its generators to its load.
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From page 56... ...
1999. Energy auctions and market power: An experimental examination.
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From page 57... ...
As this century closes, the future role of nuclear energy both fission and fusion remains unclear, but will range somewhere between limited specialty applications like isotope production and underwater propulsion, up to the large-scale commodity production of electricity and hydrogen. The next century should see nuclear energy's long-term role become defined, as fossil fuel dominance eventually erodes and as the environmental and economic costs of energy alternatives are explored in larger-scale deployments, and as research in advanced fission and fusion energy provides more attractive commercial products.
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From page 58... ...
INTERMEDIATE TERM: 10-40 YEARS During this period increasing oil and gas prices, driven by depletion and potentially by carbon taxes, will result in growing fractions of electrical power generation coming from non-fossil sources, if the world rejects the environmental costs of further increases of coal combustion without carbon sequestration. In the absence of major technical breakthroughs, LWRs will remain the lowestcost nuclear power option.
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From page 59... ...
LONG TERM: BEYOND 40 YEARS In the long term, if coal's environmental costs are rejected, traditional fossil energy will play a substantially diminished role in energy production, with a corresponding increase occurring in the contributions of non-carbon-emitting energy sources. In this time range modest or potentially substantial contributions to energy production may come from both fission and fusion energy sources.
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From page 60... ...
While several decades of global spent fuel production can be placed in a small number of multinational repositories to reduce the longterm risks and burdens of the safeguards monitoring, long-term commitments to nuclear fission will require gradual transition to technologies that generate waste streams qualifying unambiguously for permanent safeguards termination. Here the most promising direction for research may be toward lead and leadlbismuth coolants for reactors.
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From page 61... ...
Very interesting are developments toward the use of high temperature liquids to shield fusion chamber structures and remove fusion energy (Moir, 1995~. By minimizing activation and waste generation and providing high power density, liquid protection would have strong, positive economic benefits.
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From page 62... ...
1999. Realizing the Promise of Fusion Energy.
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From page 63... ...
However, they are enjoying renewed appeal and opportunities because of issues such as global climate change, carbon emissions, environmental concerns, utility restructuring, and growth in energy demands in developing nations. In fact, some studies (e.g., by the World Energy Council, Shell Corp., and the United NationsJ project that renewable energy technologies are going to contribute to the world's energy supplies at the 20 percent to 50 percent level by the year 2040.
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From page 64... ...
No "silver bullet" exists to solve the world's energy needs and mitigate the environmental impact of energy production. Instead, a portfolio of energy sources, including the renewables biomass, geothermal, wind, and solar will be needed.
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From page 65... ...
65 o o -c Q' o ~ ~ ~o ~ (D ~ 5 a' cn U)
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From page 66... ...
SOURCE: Data courtesy of the Energy Information Administration (1999~. OVERVIEW OF RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES Biomass power is combustion of plant-derived material, wood and agricultural residues, cultivated trees or herbaceous plants such as sorghum or sugar cane, solid municipal waste, and, in the less developed nations, dung.
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From page 67... ...
In active geothermal zones, the temperature gradient is about four times the nominal value of 30°C per kilometer, and highpressure steam or water is used for electric power generation. Geothermal power plants release on average only 5 percent of the carbon dioxide emitted by a fossil fuel plant.
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From page 68... ...
. Concentrating solar power systems use mirrors to concentrate sunlight to produce temperatures high enough to drive modern, efficient heat engines and to produce electrical power.
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From page 69... ...
Three types of concentrating solar systems have been developed, characterized by the shape of the mirrored surface on which sunlight is collected and concentrated: parabolic troughs, power towers, and dish/engine systems. All concentrating solar power systems can be put in series with a fossil-fuel-driven heat source that can either heat the working fluid, charge storage, or drive the power conversion system during periods of low sunlight.
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From page 70... ...
London: Shell International. Energy Information Administration.
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