Last post: Electricity

During the whole history, humans have strugled for searching new ways of producing energy in the form of heat, light and more recently in the form of electricity.

Electricity or electrical energy is generated mostly in power plants. These obtain energy from different types of sources:

-Renewable energy: this type of energy is
also called green energy. It's obtained from natural resources that cannot finish such as  the sun, moving water, wind, biomass, geothermal heat, waves... This energy almost doesn't pollute the environment as they don't produce damaging gases as CO2, CH4, S...

Types of renewable energy are solar energy, eolic energy, tidal energy, hydraulic energy, geothermal energy...

-Non-renewable energy: this energy is obtained from limited resources such as coal, oil, natural gas and uranium. Types of non-renewable energy are thermal energy and nuclear energy. All these resources are highly pollutant or very dangerous. The burning of coal, oil and natural gas is on of the main causes of the greenhouse effect and the pollution of the atmosphere and the rivers. Nuclear energy is a very dangerous energy as its radiaoctive waste is very difficult to destroy. Furthermore, there's the possible danger of a nuclear accident.

However, nowadays energy production has improved a lot leading to amazing innovations helping sustainability and the maximum of production with less pollution.

Tesla's Powerwall is an incredible innovation created by Tesla Motors. It provides energy at home during day and night. This model has been created to provide backup power during outages and natural disasters. The Powerwall is able to charge an electric car at home and enables you to self-power by connecting to Tesla solar panels.



Tesla's Solar Roof is able to power your home with adequate solar tiles for each home. The solar roof produces enough energy to supply the electricity grid for day and night thanks to its glass solar tiles. They are much more durable and resistant than normal tiles and are almost warrantied for a lifetime of a house.





Pollution is one of the main problems these fresh and new inventions want to solve but we can do much more than that. Saving energy at home is a priority to reduce environmental pollution. Although it might be an obvious thing we still don't do it.
Every home should try to illuminate it mainly with solar light by installing huge windows that allow light to come in. Bulbs should only be lit a few hours when it's dark. Furthermore, insulating properly a house makes it fresher or warmer depending on the weather. This would avoid paying very high amounts of electricity in the bill. Also, heating water is cheaper if you use renewable energies than with current electricity. For example, using biomass or sun energy, water can be heated with no money.

During this term, our group has started building a solar dehydrator. This solar device is in charge of dehydrating fruits or vegetables, thanks to air currents. When air enters the device, it starts heating as it goes up. Solar rays enter the dehydrator through the glass and help warming up the air. Finally hot air exits when it arrives at the top of the device. This flow of air makes possible the food to dehydrate. This simple machine makes possible to cook food with no electricity, using renewable energies.


This year in technology we've done a lot of interesting things. Although we have to work more as we have no exams, most of the projects are more entertaining and have a utility. I have especially enjoyed working in the workshop and programming. The university scratch challenges, were fun too. My favourite software programs have been Scratch and Google Sites. These programs allow us to do very different and diverse things. I've been able to create funny scratch animations and also complete web pages. For next year I would like to have more time to finish most of the tasks in class. However, I've enjoyed very much this subject.


SOURCES OF INFORMATION:

https://www.tesla.com/energy 
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy/ 

IMAGES:

http://edge.alluremedia.com.au/m/g/2015/05/tesla_powerwall_official.jpg 
https://g.foolcdn.com/editorial/images/419630/tesla-solar-roof-tiles_large.png
http://www.motherearthnews.com/~/media/Images/MEN/Editorial/Special%20Projects/Issues/2014/06-01/Best%20Ever%20Solar%20Food%20Dehydrator%20Plans/Lead-Chart%20jpg.jpg?la=en 
https://geogalong.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/1681901-poster-1280-pollution.jpg 
http://www.keia.org/sites/default/files/events/thumbnails/european_nuclear_power_plant_a.jpg
http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2016/02/Norway-Wind-Energy-Farm.jpg
http://solar-energy-systems.regionaldirectory.us/solar-energy-panels-720.jpg
https://image.slidesharecdn.com/tidalenergy-150410115625-conversion-gate01/95/tidal-energy-11-638.jpg?cb=1428667196
http://www.khaama.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Iran-boost-electricity-export-to-Afghanistan.jpeg