Field trip report of visit CLP Low Carbon Energy Education Centre
Introduction: Based on the course have the topic about sustainability and sustainable development, to increase the experiment of renewable energy, our course has arranged this field trip of visit CLP Low Carbon Energy Education Centre to understand electricity produce by utilize different kinds of renewable energy included wind power, hydro power, nuclear energy etc. Those are belonging to sustainable energy, energy supply is sustainability, not only can fulfil the requirement currently, but also without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
CLP Low Carbon Energy Education Centre is a low carbon energy education centre in City University of Hong Kong, aims to serve as a public education platform to provide visitors an interesting and thought-provoking experience as they learn about the importance of low carbon energy in addressing the challenge of climate change.
Brief rundown of the visit: Video introduce the information about renewable energy>Introduce to climate change and fuel choice> Introduce to wind power generation technology>Introduce to hydro power generation technology>Introduce to nuclear energy power generation technology>Watching video about Daya Bay nuclear power plant power generation> Introduce to powering the future>Game about renewable energy power generation.
Learning outcomes: I have visited wind power generation, hydro power generation, nuclear energy generation, natural gas generation. Those renewable energy will have its advantages and limitation in power generation. Wind power generation: Wind power utilize the air flow to push the windmill to move, and then generate electricity. Whole electricity generate process didn’t need to use any fuel, no fuel problem, no radiation cause air pollution. On the other head, wind power can totally incarnate sustainable energy, because wind power is inexhaustible renewable energy, it will not influent by limited resource nowadays, wind power can be continued to use at next generation. Wind power is widely distributed and has huge reserves, it can be used at many places. But utilize wind power to generate electricity specified wind speed range to generate electricity, once exceed the wind speed range, windmill is unable to generate electricity. Specifically, the best wind speed intensity of wind power electricity generation will be lower than 41-62km per hour, equal to Standby Signal No.1, if the wind speed exceeds 41-62 km per hour, wind power electricity generate will be stop, so wind power electricity generate will be limited by wind speed. On the other head, As the air current changes rapidly, the pulsations, daily changes, seasonal changes, and even inter-annual changes of the wind are all obvious, fluctuating and unstable, so that the amount of electricity generate by wind power will also not stable, compare to huge electricity requirement, wind power electricity generate is not reliable.
Hydro power generation: Hydro-electricity generation mainly utilize the water which pour down from high places to promote turbine power generation in dam. Therefore, hydroelectric power plants are generally installed near dams or rivers. Hydroelectric power plants are generally built by dams across the rivers to intercept upstream rivers and create reservoirs. Every time a dam’s valve opens, water pours down from a high reservoir and turns the turbine in the dam to generate electricity. First, Hydro power is a renewable energy, it will not produce large conflict to the environment. The dam of hydro power generation can control flooding, when the river is flooding, dam can exert the function of resistance the horizontal pressure of water going down, at the same time, hydro power generation can be supply irrigation water and electricity to downstream, improve the economy of downstream by development agriculture and aquaculture. But hydro power generation will impact by precipitation, if face to the season that are less precipitation, the amount of electricity generation will decrease even stop.
Nuclear power generation: Nuclear power generation utilize nuclear reaction to gain energy, then generate power, heat and electricity. Nuclear reaction to gain energy is related to nuclear fission, Uranium 235 atoms are hit by neutrons, nucleus will split into two smaller atoms and several neutrons. New generated neutrons will hit and split out other Uranium 235 atoms, release neutrons. Form a series of nuclear fission processes. Heat energy released can be used to generate steam to propel turbines and generators to generate electricity. The main advantage of nuclear power generation is nuclear power generation requires only a small amount of fuel to produce huge amounts of electricity. The nuclear fuel commonly used in nuclear power plants is extracted from uranium, it did not necessary to burning fossil fuel, will not generate carbon dioxide to pollute the air. On the other head, electricity fee of using electricity generate by nuclear power are low because the cost of nuclear power generation has a lower proportion of fuel costs and therefore lower operating costs, cause low electricity fee. But the reactors in nuclear power plants contain a large amount of radioactive materials. If they are released into the environment in an accident, they will cause damage to the ecology and the public health, like cancer, so nuclear plant will limite by the location which need to far from the residential area. On the other head, radioactive waste storage and removal of nuclear power are also limitation because it will oppose by stakeholders include: environmentalists and residents nearby. The main reason will be nuclear power will generate radioactive waste and used nuclear waste, those are having strong radiation, if it is improper to handling, surrounding environment will pose a serious threat.
For the aspect of the location of nuclear power plant, location of nuclear power plant limite by marine ecology, means that the location of nuclear power plant should not close to ocean, the main reason will be nuclear plant will release heat, once heat release to the environment result serious thermal pollution, lead water temperature rise, cause like coral fever will appear, it is a huge negative impact on the conservation of marine ecology.
Application of the learning outcomes to the environmental issues:
Hong Kong has already use wind power generation as the renewable energy generation by “HK Eletric”. It utilizes nature resources----wind power to generate power to Hong Kong Island resident while decrease to burn fossil fuels produce air pollutants, prevent the air pollution cause by traditional coal generator. Traditional coal-burning power generation will produce Carbon Dioxide, vapor, and other components such as nitrogen, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides etc. from flue after coal burning, increase the amount of air pollution matter expose under air. If utilize wind power generation, the amount of Carbon Dioxide will decrease slightly to 12g CO2/kWhe from 1001g CO2/kWhe.
For the aspect of hydro-power, Water Supplies Department has developed water energy generation system to produce electricity to Tuen Mun Water Treatment Plant, like wind power generation, hydro-power generation can save about 3 million kWh of electricity annually, equal to decrease the emission of Carbon Dioxide produce from burning fossil fuel, decrease the impact to the atmosphere by particle of Carbon Dioxide. For the operation of Hydro-power generation, it introduced raw water (untreated fresh water) from Tai Lam Reservoir, the water pressure and water flow that generate by the water flow into water pipe can drive the turbine to generate electricity. The low voltage current which generate by generator will converted into high voltage current of 11kV by power converter and transformers, and connected to the power supply network of the water treatment plant to provide part of the power for the plant's facilities. This way can process the purpose of decrease carbon emission.
As for the aspect of nuclear power generation, Hong Kong didn’t have any nuclear power plant, nuclear power is generated at the nuclear power plant in Daya Bay, and then transfer to Hong Kong by underwater tunnel. Nuclear power generation through heating water into water vapor, drive the turbine to generate electricity. The thermal energy that heat the water comes from the nuclear reaction—cracking of the uranium, it does not involve the oxidation of carbon. In this process, no carbon dioxide is produced to increase the greenhouse effect.
Conclusion: I had visited wind power generation, hydro power generation, nuclear power generation. Apart from nuclear power, wind power and hydro power are utilize in Hong Kong by power company. Those will have its advantages and limitation, I discovered that common point of those wind power and hydro power is will not generate Carbon Dioxide when generate electricity. And those are the sustainable way to generate electricity base on hydro-power and wind power are renewable energy, utilize the power of renewable energy to drive generator to operation.
On the aspect of nuclear power, although nuclear power is a clean energy which will not generate carbon dioxide, but nuclear power is a huge negative impact on the conservation of marine ecology base on the thermal pollution generated. Location of nuclear power plant were limitation.
