Sustainable Energy – Class Notes

Week 1

Bruce Lusignian

• Taught this course twice in Portland.
• Background in telecommunication
• Thinks Hugo Chavez of Venzuela is doing good by displacing the government that was taking money from western firms and is also using the oil profits for social good
• Believes the Resource Curse is due more to bribes than misuse of money

Course Info

• When is paper and presentation due? 9th Week
• Reading schedule – 2 Chapters per class, follows outline.
• Week 5 will be first presentation on technology, Week 9 will be on country
• Paper will be on both, due after class

Misc

• Course will be about reducing and supplying our energy needs through sustainable means that doesn’t negatively impact the environment
• Latin America is looking at implementing windfall profit taxes to retain nationally the additional profits
• Bruce said 40% of the rise of the price of oil due to the devaluation of the dollar.
• Read: The Economist “The Future of Energy”
• Read “The Economic Assasin” about World Bank loan policies
• Eutropha? and Eucalyptus grow fast and could be used for bio-fuels
• If all forest of Philippines and Indonesia were reforested, it would sequester 6 years of worldwide Co2 emissions
• OFID: OPEC Fund for International Development

Research Further

• What percentage of US GDP goes to oil imports?
• Homework: 3 page paper on our topic

Oil Price Increase Due to Dollar Devaluation?

• Oil is at $145
• Euro-dollar exchange is 1.6
• Oil is about E90 in Euros
• If oil were priced in Euros right now, what would the price be? E90 Euro,
• Because oil is priced at supply and demand and if E90 made oil cheaper, than Europe would be buying a lot more

Week 2

Homework Problem 1

• Each house saves 75 watts per bulb (100 watts - 25 watts)
• Per day at a 25% usage they save 4.50 kWh (10 * 0.075 kW * 24 hours * 0.25)
• Combined, all houses in the US save 315 million kWh per day (4.50 kWh * 70 million)
• Per year, this would save 115,000 million kWh (315 million kWh * 365 days/yr)
• A barrel of oil is equivalent to 322 kWh of electricity (1,612 kWh * 20% conversion efficiency)
• So the electricity saved is equivalent to 357 million barrels of oil per year (115,000 million kWh * 1 bbl / 322 kWh)

Homework Problem 2

• At 55 mph getting 40 mpg gives a burn rate of 1.38 gallons per hour. (55 miles/hr / 40 miles/gal)
• At 70 mph getting 25 mpg gives a burn rate of 2.80 gallons per hour (70 m/h / 25 m/g)
• So driving slower saves 1.42 gallons per hour
• If 70 million commuters spend 30 minutes a day, they spend a combined time of 35 million hrs/day or 12,800 million hrs/yr (70 million * 0.5 hrs/day  * 365 days/year)
• So driving slower would save 18,200 million gallons per year
• This is equivalent to 607 million barrels of oil per year (18,200 million gal/yr * 1 bbl/30 gal)

Homework Problem 2 Notes

• Generally the ratio 3-2-1 gives the cracking products of oil. That is 3 barrels of oil produce 2 barrels of gasoline and 1 barrel of heating oil. So a 42 gallon barrel of oil typically produces about 28 gallons of gasoline, which is very close to the 30 gallons used above.
• Wind resistance is a squared relation so driving twice as fast takes four times as much power. However, you also cover twice as much distance so it takes only twice as much energy to cover the same distance twice as fast. 
• In a car, there is a some energy used no matter how fast you are going. This includes rolling resistance, heat loss, powering the accessories, etc. So the most efficient speed to drive a car is usually between 45 and 60 mph. Above this, the mpg tapers off linearly. A rule of thumb is mileage will decrease 10% for every 5 mph faster than 60 mph.

Presentations

• Mark Miner: Smart Grids
• Christian Paulus: Solar Comparisons -
• TR Ramachandran: Solar power in the US
• Manuel Rodriguez: Hybrid - Biodiesel - Transportation
• Andy Wickless: Wind power in China

Homework 3

Problem I

• $9.27 billion per year could be saved (71.3 million bbl * $130/bbl)

Problem II

• A gallon of oil produces about 22 lbs of CO2 or about 6 lbs of carbon (C) (20lbs * 12/44) 
• A barrel of oil produces about 252 lbs of C (42 gal/bbl * 6 lbs C/gal)
• A barrel of oil weights 272 lbs (1bbl * 1/7.35 bbl/ton * 2000 lbs/ton)
• So carbon comprises 93% by weight of a barrel of oil (252/272)
• 71.3 million bbl would produce 8.98 million tons of C (71.3 million bbl * 252 lbs C/bbl * 1 ton/2000 lbs)
• This would save $332 million in carbon tax (8.98 million tons C * $37/ton C)

Problem III

• Note: The figures stated in the problem are suspect. Instead used here is the national average of $0.0103/kWh and 
• Yearly savings is $49.3 (2,190 kWh * $30 /mWh * 1 mWh/1000 kWh * 75%)
• The present value is $289 over 10 years at 12% (assuming monthly payments)
• Assuming the national average price of electricity of 10.3c / kWh, the yearly savings is $226 and the PV is $1,330

Problem IV

• Coke would be $2.57 gal ($108 bbl * 42 gal/1 bbl)
• Savings per gallon would be $2.43 ($5.00 - $2.57)
• Savings per year would be $887 ($2.43 * 25 mpg / 25 miles per day * 365 days per year)