San Diego's Power
San Diego, one of the most popular places in the world due to it's perfect weather, good environment, and beautiful bay's and oceans. How can a city this big with tall skyscrapers, and mazes of roads be powered?
Solar PowerWhat is solar power? Solar power is the science of using sunlight to convert DC electricity into AC electricity. This is used more in households rather than business buildings because AC electricity is better for household appliances like fridges, microwaves, and ovens. DC is used mostly for businesses because of the lighting in the tall buildings, and it's less expensive.
|
Series or Parrallel?What is a series circuit, and what is a parallel circuit? A series and parallel circuit are very similar and different. They both consist of wires, resistors, batteries, and lights. Series means that if one light goes out, they all go out. Parallel means that is one light goes out, not all of them will go out. Parallel is more useful for buildings because of each individual room having their own source of power, but it's dangerous because circuits like these are highly flammable. Series is useful so you don't have to flip every single switch to turn something off. It's also not flammable.
|
Electric Grid?Definition of electric grid: Interconnected network for delivering electricity from supplies to consumers. It consists of generating stations that produce electrical power for transmission lines. In other words, its a place where electricity is created and transferred all over the world.
|
Pros and Cons of Renewable Energy on the Energy Grid
Pros: Unlimited supply of electricity, no pollution to air or water, and is easily stored
Cons: Depends on sunlight, expensive, backup needed
Cons: Depends on sunlight, expensive, backup needed
Electric History
Over 100's of years ago, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla got in an argument over which type of current was better for buildings and society. Edison believed that DC was better because it provided better electricity for urban areas, which provided gas and oil based lighting. Tesla believed AC was better because it could travel long distances into more rural areas from transmission lines, and it was less expensive back then. even though AC had a slight advantage, there was still a problem, it was dangerous using high voltage on products that don't need that much voltage. DC was more popular though.