The Horse 2020/21

Environment & Technology

Hydropower plant

5. January 2022 Florian-Baumann ENERGY, Team Zurich TZ21 (0)

What is Hydropower Plant?

The hydropower plant or hydroelectric power plant is used to convert the kinetic energy of water into electrical energy. The kinetic energy developed in the water flow due to the gravity of falling water from higher to lower head.

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The advantage of the hydropower plant:

The advantage of this power plant is that it does not require any fuel. Therefore, the running cost of this plant is very less. It only requires the water head which is available naturally. It is also renewable and sustainable.

The disadvantages of the hydropower plant:

One of the cons of hydropower is that it alters the natural conditions in the respective ecosystem.

For instance, water flows are disrupted or changed in a different direction or manner.

Through the building of dams, habitats of many animal and plant species may be destroyed. Many animals now have to relocate to other areas of land.

Further check out this explaining-video: Hydropower 101 - Bing video

Or our selfmade sway: Hydropower plant (office.com)

Or for checking your knowledge our kahoot!: Kahoot!

For any further questions, feel free to ask us!

Greets from team flirty <3

Florian & Suzana

Task 16: Energy carriers

16. December 2021 Sandrine-Kaelin ENERGY, Team Zurich TZ21 (0)

Bioethanol
Bioethanol is a technical alcohol which is produced by biological waste products. It is a colorless and flammable liquid. It belongs to the alcohols and is containes in alcoholic drinks such as beer, wine and liqueurs.

Advantages and Disadvantages
Bioethanol, also known as E85, is an alternative fuel that can be produced independently of crude oil. E85 is the short form for 85 % bioethanol and 15 % gasoline content.

Advantages
- Bioethanol has an increase in performance of up to 35 %
- Costs are 30 % lower than for petrol
- A renewable source of energy
- etc.

Disadvantages
- Starting a car in cold weather could be more difficult than a car that runs on petrol
- During production a large amount of carbon dioxide is released
- Implementing more biothanol would require modifications to many vehicles
- etc.

Link to our Sway: Sway

Made by Daniel & Sandrine

Global warming: Article Research

6. September 2021 Sandrine-Kaelin ENERGY, FINDINGS, Team Zurich TZ21, Video pool (0)

Anabel and I found an amazing article on global warming. Since it is a very long article, we decided to split the work between the two of us. I am going to talk about communication of facts and causes. Anabel will write about the effects and measures.

Global warming

Global warming is the phenomenon of increasing average air temperatures of the earth. Since the middle of the 20th century, climate scientists have gathered (zusammentragen, sammeln) detailed observations of various weather phenomena and of related influences on climate.

Facts

The global warming: Increase in the global average surface temperature resulting from enhancement of the greenhouse effect, primarily by air pollution.

Many scientists predict that such an increase of the temperature would cause polar ice caps (Eisschicht) and mountain glaciers to melt rapidly significantly raising the levels of coastal waters (Küstengewässer) and would produce extremes of drought (Dürre) and rainfall, seriously disrupting (beeinträchtigen) food production in certain regions.

Causes

A special report noting that human beings and human activities have been responsible for a worldwide average temperature increase of between 0.8 and 1.2 °C of global warming since preindustrial times, and most of the warming observed over the second half of the 20th century could be attributed to human activities.

The predicted rise in temperature was based on a range of possible scenarios that accounted for future greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation (Eindämmung, Minderung) (severty reduction) (Armutsreduzierung) measures and on uncertainties.

Effects

  • Significant societal, economic and ecological damage.
  • Should carbon emissions continue at their present rate, the increase in average near-surface air temperatures would reach 1.5 °C sometime between 2030 and 2052.

Measures

  • By 2015 all but a few national governments had begun the process of instituting carbon reduction plans as a part of the Paris Agreement.
  • A rapid transition away from fossil fuel energy.

 


If you are interested in reading the whole article, here goes to the Article (britannica.com).

Global warming - Article research

6. September 2021 Tiziano-Di-Paola Project Climate Change: Floods, ENERGY, Team Zurich TZ21 (0)

Hello everybody

Below you will find an interesting and actual article about global warming, some facts, its causes, effects and the measures against it.

Communication of facts

"Nobody can feel safe - and it's getting worse and worse." Inger Andersen, Director of the UN Environment Program, summed up the key message of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the sixth assessment report published on Monday. The IPCC is not known for its alarmist tones, but for its scientifically sound reports, which are considered the gold standard in climate research. But the latest update confirms exactly this: Climate change is intensifying.More...