Some important questions for the day...
1. What were the biggest external life cycle costs associated with coal in Epstein et al., 2011. Are the cost spread more toward coal mining, transportation, or combustion? If these costs were included, what would the effect on the price of coal (measured in cents per kilowatt hour) be? How is the cost of climate change due to CO2 and CM4 emissions monetized relative to the cost of climate change due to coal combustion-related particulate matter? How is the cost of climate change due to due to combustion-related particulate matter monetized relative to the cost of emissions of combustion-related air pollution?
2. What are the major fuel types used in the generation of US electricity right now ("right now" = 2011)? How has this changed from 2010? What factors have shaped that change?
3. What are the major fuel types used in the Dominion electricity generation mix right now ("right now" = 2011)? How is the actual mix different from the full capacity mix?
4. What are the mix of operating and planned electricity generating plants operated by Dominion?
5. How does a thermal electricity generating facility (like a coal-fired power plant) work? How does a steam turbine work? What are the steps required to convert heat energy into mechanical energy and then into electrical energy? What is electricity? Why do metallically-bonded materials tend to have higher electrical conductivity than ionically or covalently bonded materials? What is the difference between AC and DC power?
6. How does the equipment used to remove NOx, SOx, and PM2.5 from the coal combustion waste stream differ? What is a "scrubber"? How does a scrubber work?
Slides from lecture today are on Sakai. Please read Calamity on the Colorado by James Powell (photographs by Peter M. McBride) published in the July/August 2010 issue of Orion magazine
For class on Wednesday.
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