Robertson High (108)

The Robertson High team (#108) is from Las Vegas. This year they've submitted a project titled Wind VS Solar.

Proposal
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_proposal1112.php?team_id=108

Wind vs. Solar

Team: 108

School: Robertson High

Area of Science: Environmetal Sciences

Energy markets in the U.S. are becoming increasingly competitive, so, people have been looking to renewable energy sources. Last year we found that wind energy is a good way for companies to invest in renewable resources. New developments, including a solar plant near Las Vegas, leave questions as to the cost effectiveness of solar power. We would like to change our model from last year (See Roberson team 107) to use real world wind data from prior years. This will allow us to test the efficiency wind energy here in Las Vegas. A new model will test the efficiency of solar energy. This model paired with the revised version of our previous model will compare the cost effectiveness of wind and solar energy. We will determine if investments in solar energy here are more profitable than an investment in wind energy would have been. These models will be created and tested using Netlogo.

Team Members: Jacob Bakarich Victoria Gomez Jacob Ratzlaff

Sponsor: Mike Boyle

Interim Report
http://mode.lanl.k12.nm.us/get_interim1112.php?team_id=108

Wind Vs. Solar

Team: 108

School: Robertson High

Area of Science: Environmental Sciences

Problem Definition:

As our world becomes more technologically advanced and developed, our consumption of energy has dramatically risen. Everything from the fuel used in cars to the methods we heat our homes are fueled mostly by fossil fuels. As we continue to increase our dependence on oil, we, as a society, are slowly sowing the seeds that will lead to severe economic, environmental, and political unrest. Not only are fossil fuels non-renewable and severely damaging to the environment, but they also represent a significant source of power in the world we live in. The United States relies on foreign oil for as much as forty-nine percent of the U.S. oil supply. As long as we continue to import oil from foreign countries we are putting ourselves at great risk when we rely on such sources of energy. There are many problems with non-renewable energy sources such as petroleum, and for the good of our economy, environment, and country, we need to begin attempting to implement the wide-scale use of more efficient, cleaner, renewable energy sources.

The goal of this project is to model and test the cost-investment return, and the efficiency of power generated of two of the most widely-used renewable energy technologies, wind and solar power. This project will simulate a wind farm, and a solar energy plant both located in our local town of Las Vegas, New Mexico and model how much energy will be produced based on our weather patterns, and it will measure based on how much energy is produced how long it would take for investors to expect a return on their investment. We are taking the cost-investment return due to the fact that without backing from very wealthy, potentially very investment cautious companies and people, the wide-scale implementation of renewable energy technology in our energy infrastructure is impossible.

Problem Solution:

With the wide availability of renewable energy sources, from geo-thermal to wind, there is a great deal of potential for clean, renewable, domestic energy. Wind energy fully implemented in the U.S. has the potential to generate 10,459 Gigawatts of energy, enough to meet the current power consumption nine times over. We need to increase the use of renewable energy in our energy infrastructure, as the sooner we break our dependence on foreign energy, the sooner we can see drastic improvements in our economic and environmental situations. If we start the large-scale implementing the use of solar and wind energy potential, we are one step closer to realizing the goal of a United States powered by one-hundred percent clean, renewable, domestic energy.

Progress to Date:

To date, a program has been created that will create 350 solar panels in a grid on the space. This area is 10201 patches. The variable, “number of clouds”, in correlation with previous testing will produce the percent cloud cover. However, cloud cover only reduces the efficiency of a solar panel by one percent. Each tick in the program is equal to one day. This is separated into hours of sunlight in which the clouds move and energy is reported. The formula for energy production from the solar panel model we are testing has not been inserted into the program. The cost of maintenance and installation has not been determined and thus has not been introduced into the model. Our secondary program, the wind energy model from 2010-2011, is running smoothly. All that must be added to it are real world wind data from the airport outside of Las Vegas, NM.

Team Members: Jacob Ratzlaff Jacob Bakarich Victoria Gomez

Sponsoring Teacher: mike boyle

=Interim Comments=

Hello Team 108, My name is Ramesh Shakamuri. I have worked in IT and Software development for the past 15 years on the technical and functional side, developing enterprise systems or managing the software development process.

Getting consumers to start using energy generated from renewable energy is an excellent strategy but is dependent on the cost effectiveness of this effort. You make a good start by defining the Wind and Solar based energy platforms from a cost effective perspective. The main challenge to more widespread adoption of wind and solar based energy lies in the fact that current power generation is based on a business model (Coal, Oil and nuclear based generation) that had the benefit of the last hundred years or more to refine their methods and thus make them more efficient than any other process, including wind and solar. Another benefit is the fact that a power line can be buried in the ground and in the walls of the house.

Other challenges to wind and solar power adoption lie in aesthetics, and environmental impact. People are not willing to adopt solar energy as it detracts from the look of the house. You could look into the use of BIPV (built in photo voltaic) film technology that is being developed and adopted in Europe. Wind power also has opposition due to environmental impact as the siting’s of the turbines impacts bird flight and seasonal bird migration as well. There is a cost to this as well.

People living in close proximity have complained of the noise as well.

Finally, I would suggest you research further into the area of improvements in solar energy in terms of computational math i.e. improved algorithms (software) and hardware (materials that maximize power extraction and storage systems). One final suggestion is to include social impacts as well, since this is New Mexico and American Indian tribes might object to wind turbines for other reasons, which would increase installation cost as well.

Good luck and congratulations on what you have achieved so far.

=Team Comments=