7- 1 Overview Carbon sequestration is the key to long-term sustainable use of fossil fuels. Without sequestration, it will not be possible to make significant use of these fuels while at the same time stabilizing the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere. In the short term, it is possible to sequester some carbon currently emitted […]

The most common reaction used to release nuclear energy for electricity production today is the fissioning of uranium atoms, and in particular U-235 atoms, since fissioning of U-235 creates by-products that are ideal for depositing energy into a working fluid and at the same time perpetuating a chain reaction in the reactor. U-235 is also […]

One of the leading projects in the world today to develop a permanent storage facility for high-level nuclear waste is the underground facility at Yucca Mountain, some 150 km northwest of the city of Las Vegas, in the state of Nevada in the United States. In this proposed facility, tunnels are to be dug into […]

An additional energy loss occurs in the PV cell due to the potential difference created from the presence of extra electrons in the n-type layer and extra holes in the p-type layer. This potential difference is common to any semiconductor, and any current resulting from its presence is called the dark current, or ID, since […]

Water as a heat transport fluid has several advantages. The first is its relatively high volumetric heat capacity and high specific heat (4186 kJ m-3K-1 and 4 • 186 kg-1K-1, respectively, at 25°C). The second is its relative incompressibility. The third is its relatively high mass density, permitting use of small tubes and pipes for […]

The concept of “heating degree days (HDD)” arises from the experiences of companies delivering heating fuel to rural homes as the conversion from coal to heating oil and liquid forms of natural gas became common in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century. The companies did not wish to deliver too […]

In the introduction it was mentioned that the worldwide installed capacity of wind energy reached approximately 59 GW in 2005. This figure is calculated using the maximum output of the turbines installed, also known as the rated capacity. Average wind speeds are sig­nificantly lower than the rated wind speed in virtually all locations, so the […]

Transportation energy technologies that replace the use of petroleum for trans­portation as currently practiced must (1) be based on a more abundant supply of energy and (2) avoid permanently increasing the concentration of carbon in the atmosphere to avert climate change. Note that the second requirement does not preclude a carbon-based energy source. It also […]