Which Power Source Is Most Efficient?
This episode of Dnews is brought to you by Domain.com. Fossil fuel energy is the most common type of power plant in the United States, but solar just hit a HUGE milestone that might make them finally shine past the competition.
For all the talk about solar panels being better for the environment, they are still notoriously inefficient… or were, until now. Australian researchers from University of New South Wales created the most efficient solar panels ever; these new panels convert 46-percent of their sunlight energy into electricity.
Typical rooftop panels hover around 15 percent at best. This new technology works by distributing the solar collection into three cells picking sunlight up in multiple wavelengths, and then reflecting the excess light at a fourth panel! Genius! So 46.
Percent… Yep… Ahem… [[pause]] 46% doesn’t SOUND like much, does it? Right? It’s less than half! Traditionally, power plants usually use heat to create steam and move turbines. Those turbines generate the electric current.
I bet you’re as curious as I was about which plants are the most efficient, but they’re doing better than a LOT of them. To calculate efficiency of a power plant, you take the output power and heat, add that together, and divide by the total amount of power produced.
Essentially, you’re accounting for the fact that burning fuels is HOT, and you lose a lot of heat in the power transfer. Let me give you an example, in the U.S., there are over 1400 coal power plants burning this fossil fuel at an efficiency of about 33%.
Meaning two-thirds of ALL ENERGY from coal in a plant designed to use coal to create electricity is lost. Even the most efficient plants are only 45 percent. Nuclear energy, also measured by the previous equation, ranges from the low 30s to the high 40s… With the best, most heat efficient plants topping out around 48-percent.
As technology improves, and the population has become more interested in environmental protection, both coal and nuclear have become more efficient. But if we’re all honest with each other, making the plant perform better isn’t easy.
Instead, a quick solution is to take the heat exhaust and loop it back into the plant. This conserves those extra BTU’s of heat, rather than letting them float away into the atmosphere. Some plants do this to conserve as much heat as they can.
They can also help burn the fuel more efficiently, or fine tune the plant to keep it tip top. Unfortunately, wind power is the big loser outside of commercial solar, but even with that, they’re running anywhere from 25 to 50 percent efficiency.
It varies depending on the design, and the location. Offshore wind farms run more often than on-shore ones, but the efficiency depends on how hard the wind is blowing and how much of that wind power the turbine can harvest.
Lots of scientists are working on making super efficient wind power. Biomimicry is a big part of their recent advances, with some scientists discovering that mimicking sharks, whales or birds will help make the installations capture more energy.
This also informs the winner and champion of ALL these power generation solutions — hydroelectric. The biggest hydroelectric installations can get a 95-percent efficiency, and even the smaller ones can still hit 85.
85 is a LOT more than the next closest. It’s pretty incredible. But when you take into account the simplicity, the eye is drawn right back to solar. Sure, coal and nuclear have a lot of bang for their buck, solar needs a lot of space, and sun… but while 46-percent didn’t sound like a lot before… an infinitely renewable, non-polluting energy solution that is essentially equal in efficiency to other major generation techniques sounds pretty darn good.
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And because you watch DNews, you can get 15% off Domain Dot Com’s names and web hosting by using the code DNews when you check out. this episode of dnews is brought to you by domain.com fossil-fuel energy is the most common type of power plant in the United States but solar just hit a huge milestone that might make them finally shine past the competition hey there Sunshine’s thanks for watching dnews I’m trace for all the talk about solar panels being better for the environment they are still notoriously inefficient or were until now Australian researchers from the University of New South Wales created the most efficient solar panels ever these new panels convert 46 percent of their sunlight energy into electricity typical rooftop panels for example hover around 15 percent at best this new technology works by distributing the solar collection into three cells picking sunlight up in multiple wavelengths and then reflecting that excess light at a fourth panel is genius
so 46% huh that’s the best we can do 46 doesn’t sound like much does it right it’s less than half traditionally power plants usually use heat to create steam and move turbines those turbines generate the electric current I bet you’re as curious as I was about which plants are more efficient than 46% but these solar panels are actually doing better than a lot of other plants to calculate efficiency of a power plant you take the output power and heat you add that together and then you divide by the total amount of power produced essentially you are accounting for the fact that burning fuels is hot and you lose a lot of heat in that power transfer so let me give you an example in the u.
s. there are over 1,400 coal power plants burning this fossil fuel and an efficiency of about 33 percent meaning two-thirds of all the energy produced from a coal power plant is lost even the most efficient coal plants are only 45 percent efficient nuclear energy also measured by the previous equation ranges from the low 30s into the high 40s with the best most heat efficient plants topping out at around 48 percent as technology improves and the population has become more interested in Environmental Protection both coal and nuclear have become more efficient but if we’re honest with each other which you know would be new so we try to be making the plant perform better isn’t easy it’s edie a quick solution is to take that heat exhaust and loop it back into the plant this conserves those extra BTUs of heat rather than letting them float away into the atmosphere some plants do this to conserve energy and heat as much as they can they also help burn the fuel more efficiently or fine-tune the plant to help keep it in tip-top shape unfortunately wind power there are kind of the big loser outside of commercial solar but even with that they’re running anywhere from 25 to 50 percent efficiency it really varies depending on the design and the location offshore wind farms run more often than onshore ones but the efficiency depends on how hard the wind is blowing how much of that wind power the turbine can harvest and
so on and so forth as technology improves they get better lots of scientists are working on making super efficient wind power biomimicry is a big part of their recent advances with some scientists discovering that mimicking sharks whales or birds will help make the installations capture more energy this also informs the winner and champion of all these power generation solutions hydroelectric the biggest hydroelectric installations can get a 95 percent efficiency and this smaller ones can still hit 85 85 is a lot more than the next closest it’s pretty incredible but when you take into account the simplicity of solar and makes sense there’s less environmental impact as well sure coal and nuclear have a lot of bang for their buck and Solar needs a lot of space and also Sun but while 46% didn’t sound like a lot before you saw this video an infinitely renewable non-polluting energy solution that is essentially equal in efficiency to other major generation techniques sounds pretty darn good doesn’t it and by the way if you’re looking for an efficient way to buy a domain name look no further than domain comm no domain extension will help you tell your story like a.
com or.net domain name and because you watch dnews you can get 15% off your your domain coms names and also web hosting by using the code dnews when you check out but what do you think of all this do you want solar panels do you want wind power hydroelectric coal nuclear tell us down below in the comments debate it out and make sure you subscribe for more dnews you can also check out this video over here about why nuclear energy is saving lives I know sounds crazy but it might thanks for watching
