Energy Technology

Energy Technology — page 1

Energy Technology — page 2 — ONE ELECTRIC CARS sleek silver sports car zips around a bend Its engine does not roar Instead it quietly whirs and whistles The car has no tailpipe and produces no exhaust Yet it can accelerate from 0 to 100 miles per hour 160 kmh in seconds This is the Tesla Roadster an electric car that runs on battery power The futuristic car carries 6 831 battery cells packed together and plugs into any power outlet It can travel approximately 250 miles 400 km on a full charge Electric vehicles EVs are just one of many cutting edge technologies that are helping prepare the world to meet future energy needs In the 2010s fossil fuels such as coal oil and natural gas powered the majority of our cars trucks homes businesses and factories in 2011 these fuels supplied 81 percent of the world's energy However the world cannot continue to rely on them First Earth has only a limited supply of these fuels They are not Tesla Motors introduced the Roadster renewable resources Second using fossil fuels is in

Energy Technology — page 3 — An Energy Pioneer Tesla Motors named itself after Nikola Tesla a Serbian inventor who worked in the late 1800s more efficient and most of the electricity we use today is delivered using AC However computers electric cars and other technologies still use DC and early 1900s Tesla developed the alternating current AC system of transmitting electricity He famously feuded with American inventor Thomas Edison who promoted direct current DC technology In an AC system the flow of electricity regularly changes direction In a DC system it goes one way Tesla showed that AC was cheaper and Tesla filed for more than 700 patents and his many inventions include wireless communications remote controls and turbines used in power generators He also had ideas for harnessing solar energy and ocean energy harmful to the environment Processing and burning fossil fuels creates pollution and contributes to climate change Many governments are investing in renewable energy technologies which use resources that will always be available such as sunlight water and wind Renewable fuels such as biofuels are another option These can be grown or harvested from plants or organic waste Nuclear energy can also contribute to powering the future world Scientists are working hard to make it safer and more efficient Electric cars will keep driving no matter which type of energy is used Similar to laptops and cell phones EVs run on batteries that need to be plugged in and recharged The power flowing through the electric outlet could come from a coal burning power plant a nuclear reactor solar panels a wind farm or any other power source Because an EV does not produce any harmful fumes while driving it will not pollute at all if it draws its electricity from clean power

Energy Technology — page 4 — Power Plant Pollution Driving on Batteries In 2014 people in the United States purchased approximately 123 000 EVs That s less than 1 percent of total car sales for the year but it represents a big jump from EV sales in 2012 when only 52 600 of EV batteries are charged using electricity from the grid which usually gets its power from fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas How is that any different from burning the gas in the car itself Power plants are much more efficient than a car's the cars were sold The cars are becoming more mainstream and the auto industry has started paying closer attention to EVs In 2013 the Tesla Model S engine They can harvest more energy from fuel than a car can became the first all electric car to win the car of the They can also capture heat that gets produced while burning the fuel and year award from industry magazine Motor Trend In use it to produce additional power the future I think there will be no gas stations said This heat gets wasted in a car's engine Elon Musk the founder of Tesla CEO Elon Musk He believes everyone will drive Tesla Motors explains that a power electric cars plant generating electricity from natural gas can reach approximately 60 percent efficiency This means However a few important challenges remain 60 percent of the energy the plant before this future can become reality Big battery generates gets used as electricity If you put that same fuel in an internal packs increase the cost of the cars The bigger the combustion engine car you get about battery the farther the car can go on one charge 20 percent efficiency he said but the more expensive it is In addition EV batteries typically take hours to recharge In many locations you cannot easily find a place to plug in a car if the battery dies To overcome this issue Tesla is building stations throughout the country where a driver can quickly charge the battery using a high powered electricit

3

PAGE 3 OF 109

The only kids' eBook subscription service that offers thousands of high-quality books from well known publishers like HarperCollins, National Geographic and others.

JavaScript Required

Whoops! We're sorry but Epic doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Check your web browser's settings to make sure it's enabled.