Name: Yem Socheath

ID: 2B4059

Assignment
I.

Session 3 & 4: Energy Vs Power and Energy Conversion

1. What Energy is
In a simple way, we can say energy is a capacity to do works. Energy involves in our
daily life cycle. For example, human needs energy to play sports or work whereas an automobile
vehicle need energy (from fuel) for its movement. Regarding the concept of human and animal
energy life cycle, scientist invented the engine using steaming (heating) while heat could be
measure by using thermometer in mid-18th century.
There are many forms of energy; for example, radiation energy, electrical energy, thermal
energy, kinetic energy, In conclusion of all energy forms, the unit of energy was denoted by
Joule (J=N.m).
2. Energy Vs Power
In real situation and calculation, Energy and Power is totally different. In example, lets
imagine we would like to move a sofa from position A to B where we need 40 N of our force to
move such heavy sofa and the distance from position A to B is 5 meters. for the form of kinetic
energy, we can know 200 J of energy are required for moving the sofa from A to B.
To know how fast we can move that sofa, we may calculate another variable called
Power. In the same example, we just knew that 200J is required for moving sofa from A to B
where we spent 20 seconds. Therefore, the Power we use for moving sofa is 10 watts (200J/20s).
The proportion of Power and Time can interpret that high power can be faster the work.
3. Energy Conversion
Energy requires to covert in order to use it. Simply definition, Energy Conversion is the
process of converting energy from one to another, for example, human physical energy was covert
from energy of food they ate, using fuel energy for getting diesel engine energy, The engine can
be defined as a system for converting energy to usable energy.
Specifically, the recent report issued that about 80% of engine are using heat fossil fuel.
There two main sort of heat engine, external and internal combustion engine. Its process is mainly
energy source, heat engine, mechanical work, electric generator and electricity. However, in the
time of conversion the energy can loss due several reason.
Generally, the efficiency of energy conversion can be measure through output/input. In
the same time Sadi Carnot found out the thermodynamics law, which show that both heat source
and heat sink is necessary for continuous conversion from heat to work and thermal efficiency
of Carnot cycle determines theoretical limit of heat engine.

II. Session 4 & 5: Recent Technology of Renewable Energy Conversion

1. Solar Energy Conversion
Sunlight radiates on the earth with three different forms, direct, diffuse and reflect.
Basically, direct and diffuse sunlight can be convert in form of Solar Energy to be electricity.
Unfortunately, direct and diffuse sunlight do not emit to each area in the world equally. For
example, Phoenix of US can get 79% of about 10,000 MJ/m 2 of direct sunlight whereas Tokyo of
Japan can get only 58% of 6000 MJ/m2 of direct sunlight.
Fundamentally, there are two difference solar energy conversion, solar photovoltaic and
solar thermal. The concept of solar photovoltaic technology is the process of directly converting
sunlight into electricity by using solar panel made of semiconductor cell. On the other hand, solar
thermal technology is the concept of using the heat from the sun. The heat energy of the sun is
converted into mechanical energy and in turn electricity, known as concentrated solar power. The
special feather of solar thermal technology is heat storage for using at night.
2. Solar thermal technology or Photovoltaic?
The below table shows the advantage and disadvantage of both solar conversion
technology:
Solar Energy Conversion
Thermal Technology
-

Advantage
Good for large scale plant
Can store heat to use at night Limited to high-DNI regions
Waste heat can be used for

Disadvantage
Higher skill requirement
High cost investment

heating, desalination, etc.

Photovoltaic
- Low cost for installation
- Wider space for application
- Use of PV module expands to - New entrance in the market
- Need more than 6 time
unconventional places
- The market is not mature yet.
Normally PV panel seems effect only on during daylight because the of storing electricity
is not efficiency. Heat is quite easier while the heat is stored at daylight and convert to electricity at
night. Based on this process and efficiency, solar thermal energy conversion is more popular for
large-scale energy production (solar-thermal.com, 2008).
However, the market of PV also grows rapidly due its convenience and low cost for
installation. In the major evolutions, 7 of the top 10 markets for PV in 2015 have installed at least
1 GW of PV systems (up from 5 in 2014). Looking at the total installed capacity, 23 countries are
entering the 1 GW club. Based on the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2015, China is the
number 1 for market of PV with utilizing 15.2 GW while Japan is 11 GW and US is 7.3 GW.

III. Lecture Request

I found your lecture is easy to understand and the concept can be a new area for us, MBA
students, to find out the new opportunity for business investment. Regarding this, I would like to
ask you to add something as following:
-

Solar market opportunity for Japan or for other developing countries

The case study of a solar company in either Japan or other countries
Risk and risk management of solar project
I found you add some information about my above request, but I hope you could add

more detail in the actual example or situation.

Thank for your special and valuable lecture that I never knew before.