Geo 1111 Energy Sources Review Answers

Note: for questions involving gasoline and oil, assume that 1 litre of gas or oil weighs 0.75 kg.
1. Which of the following has the highest energy density?
Wood
Stretched Elastics
Oil
U-235
2. Which of the following is NOT a type of energy that we use to power our lives?
Thermo-mechanical
Nuclear potential
Chemical potential
Elastic potential
3. Most renewables suffer from intermittent or poorly timed peak hours, why is this a problem?
We outlined several reasons in class, but what underlying problem is there?
Superficial problems:
o Peak consumption hours dont correspond to peak production hours. Ex: solar
works only during the day, but lights are mostly on at night.
o Peak consumption seasons dont correspond to peak consumption seasons.
Ex: Hydroelectric gathers the most energy during the wet spring, but heating is
required in the dry winter, and air conditioning in the relatively dryer summer
Real problem:
o We have no good means of storing energy over long periods of time.
4. We all have a general understanding of the push to get away from fossil fuel sources towards
renewables or low emission energy sources. From an energy/resource point of view, why has
this been so hard to achieve?
Oil has a massive energy density
o Great for transportation, and storage
Oil is very cheap
o Economics drives the world
We are very experienced with oil, subsequently start-up costs are very low, whereas
solar panels, wind turbines, and hydroelectric dams take many years to pay off, if at
all
5. A big mac has ~500 calories (dietary calories = 1000 thermal calories), if your 2000 kg car could
eat burgers, how many burgers would it take to accelerate it from 0 to 100 km/hour? (Assuming
1 calorie = 4.2 joules) List, and justify, what assumptions you choose to make! Use the energy
conversion factors on slides 3 and 4 and the formula on slide 17.
Refer to spreadsheet, 0.368 big macs.

Geo 1111 Energy Sources Review Answers

6. How much U-235 would it take to accelerate that same car? Use the energy density table on
slide 16.
Refer to spreadsheet, 0.093 milligrams.
7. Ever since Einstein published E=mc^2, the world has been trying to harvest fusion and fission
energy. We are still working on fusion, because it is estimated to release 3-4 times the energy of
fission. This is a mind-boggling amount of energy, really challenging to visualize. Most of us have
sat around a camp fire however! If we burn 10 kg of wood completely in one camp fire, how
many camp fires would be required to match 1 kg of U-235, or 1 kg of Hydrogen? Refer to slides
3, 4, and 16.
Refer to spreadsheet, 500 thousand campfires to match fission energy. 1-2 million
campfires to match fusion energy.
8. Your friend is telling you that a horse is more environmentally friendly than a car because they
are powered by just grass. (Ignoring all the poop), a horse needs 15 000 calories per day just
to exist (dietary calories = 1000 thermal calories). In terms of energy, how much gasoline would
that be? To compete with a car, the horse will need twice that many calories. How much
gasoline would this be? If the average car has a 55 liter gas tank, and fills it once a week, does
the horse or the car consume more energy? For reference, grass has about 245 calories per
pound. Refer to slides 3, 4, and 16.
Refer to spreadsheet. The horses daily 15000 (dietary) calories contains the same
amount of energy as 1.370 kg of gas. Twice as many calories would equate directly to
twice as much gas, so 2.740 kg of gas (1.26 E+8 J). If the cars 55 L gas tank is filled
once a week, that equates to 7.86 L of gas used per day. Assuming that 1 L of gasoline
equals 0.75 kg of gas, then the car consumes 5.9 kg of gas (2.71 E8 J) per day, so the
car consumes more energy than the horse.
9. Compare and contrast the pros and cons of solar energy and nuclear energy. Make an argument
for one or the other!
Nuclear Pros: Proven technology, zero emissions, fuel is inexpensive and abundant,
good for feeding the grid demands, very little waste.
Nuclear Cons: Public links nuclear energy to war and weapons, Pu and U are very
dangerous and can be used towards making weapons, reactors are expensive, public
concern about waste storage, perception of danger
Solar Pros: More than one means to gather solar energy, renewable, widespread,
passive heating is very simple
Solar Cons: Not available all the time and is poorly timed to match the grid demands, a
large area must be allocated to farm solar energy, solar cells are really expensive, no
means to store the energy to properly distribute it through time.
More??
Argument: Nice try, make an opinion of your own!

Geo 1111 Energy Sources Review Answers

10. Joe Geo used 12000 kWhr of electricity last year to heat your apartment or town house where
you live. If Joe heated with electricity at $0.14 per kWhr, how much would it cost Joe to heat
with oil at $1.10 per litre of oil? What is the key assumption that you are making when you do
this comparison? Look up your own heating bill for your apartment or town house. What was
your total bill and how does it compare with these figures?
Refer to spreadsheet; it would cost ~1377 dollars for Joe to heat his apartment with oil
for a year.
Your assumptions; efficiency, no transportation costs for the oil, perfect heat
distribution through the home, theres more
Me and my two roommates rent the bottom two floors of a house, and we pay 150
bucks a month for hydro, or 1800 a year. This however includes electricity for our
appliances, computers, TVs, washing machine, drying machine, laundry machine, etc,
all of which cannot be easily powered with oil. Notably, it doesnt include heating,
thats on the house.
11. You are trying to decide where to locate your wind turbine farm. Should you locate your wind
farm in Regina (average wind speed is 15m s-1) or in southern Ontario (Avg wind speed is 10 m
s-1). You get paid 15c per kWhr in Ontario and 10c per kWhr in Regina. Refer to slide 41 for the
formula.
Refer to spreadsheet. You would make 51 dollars more per turbine in Saskatchewan.
Why? V^3
12. You are thinking of buying an electric car. You decide to compare the costs of fuel for the
electric car and compare this to your current car. Assume that you drive 30000 km/yr, your car
consumes 7 litres per 100 km and the cost of gas is $1.10 / litre. If the efficiency of the electric
car is 20% better than your current car and electricity costs $0.14 / kWhr, will the electric car
cost you less money or more money to operate?
Refer to spreadsheet. This electric car would cost $2254 a year to operate.
13. What efficiency would the electric car have to be to be economic?
Refer to spreadsheet. Just play with the % efficiency difference value (cell B15) until
the cost of the electric car per year is less than gas per year. Works out to be about
26% more efficient.
14. What factors govern how much energy a country consumes?
Average winter temperature
Average summer temperature
Prosperity / consumer goods
More??

Geo 1111 Energy Sources Review Answers

15. Compare and contrast the pros and cons of wind energy, and hydro-electric energy. Make an
argument for one or the other!
Wind pros: Renewable, widespread, easy to connect to the grid, more widespread
than other renewables
Wind cons: Inconsistent supply to due to variable wind speed, Visual clutter and noise
concerns, energy output is very dependent on uncontrollable circumstances, ecofriendly bird and bat choppers
Hydro-electric pros: Tried and true- possibly the oldest source of energy weve used,
easy to adjust to match the grid demands, low emissions
Hydro-electric cons: Destructive as it floods large areas, most good spots are already
taken, flow volume does vary seasonally and can only be solved using larger dams,
slowly clogs up with sediments
16. You and your team of professional geologists just found a huge gold deposit in the county of
Klondike. Seeing as you accumulated a lot of debt looking for gold, you need to start mining it
fast to pay off those debts and to start making a profit. Your deposit however is 800 km away
from the nearest electrical grid. You have two choices; build a power line, or ship in gasoline. If it
costs $200 000 per km to install a power line, and the energy itself costs $0.14 / kWhr, but
simply shipping in oil costs 1.5 dollars / litre, how many years will the mine have to run to make
the electrical line worthwhile if your mine consumes 200000 kWhr of electricity per year?
Heres a hint. Make two line equations.
Refer to spreadsheet. It works out to be economic to build a power line only if the
mine will operate for over 48 421 years. So, its more economic to ship in oil.