Essential University Physics (3rd Edition)
3rd Edition
ISBN: 9780134202709
Author: Richard Wolfson
Publisher: PEARSON
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Textbook Question
Chapter 29, Problem 66P
Your roommate’s father is CEO of a coal company, so your roommate is understandably skeptical of alternative energy proposals. He claims that there’s no future for solar energy, because the power in sunlight is insufficient to meet humankind’s energy demand. Is he right? To find out, compare the solar power incident on Earth with our human energy consumption rate of about 16 TW.
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In 2014 the Netherlands installed the world’s first solar bike path. Let’s compute the cost of mitigation relative to electricity from coal. Of course, the sidewalk probably wasn’t intended to be a cost-effective electricity option. It's designed for qualitative rather than quantitative value, to raise awareness. However, there are real proposals to scale up this kind of technology to large numbers of sidewalks and roadways, so cost analysis is relevant.
The project cost $3.75 million for ~30kW of installed capacity (based on typical 150W/m2 solar panels). Assume a CCF of 9%, and a utilization of 11% (probably generous for solar panels flat on the ground in the Netherlands). You may ignore all other costs.
Part 1. What is the levelized cost of electricity from the solar sidewalk?
$/kWh
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Our Sun shines bright with a luminosity of 3.828 x 10^26 Watt. Her energy is responsible for many
processes and the habitable temperatures on the Earth that make our life possible.
(a) Calculate the amount of energy arriving on the Earth in a single day.
(b) To how many litres of heating oil (energy density: 37.3 x 10^6
J/litre) is this equivalent?
(c) The Earth reflects 30% of this energy: Determine the temperature on Earth’s surface.
(d) What other factors should be considered to get an even more precise temperature estimate?
Note: The Earth’s radius is 6370 km; the Sun’s radius is 696 x 10^3 km; 1 AU is 1.495 x 10^8 km.
Question 7: Certain areas in Arizona, Nevada, California and Texas can have up to 4000 sunny hours a
year. The fact that these vast lands are less populated and agriculturally not suitable makes them ideal
for solar power plants. Though most commercial solar panels have efficiencies from 15% to 20%,
researchers have now developed solar cells with efficiencies approaching 50%. If you are asked to plant
a solar energy system in these areas using the newest technology, how much land do you need to
produce enough energy for the US.
Make the conservative assumptions that the average light energy landing to the Earth' surface is 1.0
cal/(cm2 min).
An estimate for the US energy consumption by major sources is given below.
U.S. primary energy consumption by major sources, 1950-2019
quadrillion British thermal units
110
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
1950
1955
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
renewables
nuclear
petroleum
natural gas
coal
Chapter 29 Solutions
Essential University Physics (3rd Edition)
Ch. 29.2 - Would you expect to find a magnetic field between...Ch. 29.5 - Prob. 29.3GICh. 29.6 - Prob. 29.4GICh. 29.7 - Prob. 29.5GICh. 29.8 - Lasers 1 and 2 emit light of the same color, and...Ch. 29 - Why is Maxwells modification of Ampres law...Ch. 29 - Prob. 2FTDCh. 29 - Is there displacement current in an...Ch. 29 - Prob. 4FTDCh. 29 - Prob. 5FTD
Ch. 29 - When astronomers observe a supernova explosion in...Ch. 29 - Turning a TV antenna so its rods point vertically...Ch. 29 - The Sun emits about half of its...Ch. 29 - An LC circuit is made entirely from...Ch. 29 - Prob. 10FTDCh. 29 - The intensity of light drops as the inverse square...Ch. 29 - Electromagnetic waves dont readily penetrate...Ch. 29 - Prob. 13ECh. 29 - Prob. 14ECh. 29 - The fields of an electromagnetic wave are E = Ep...Ch. 29 - A radio waves electric field is given by the...Ch. 29 - A light-minute is the distance light travels in 1...Ch. 29 - Your intercontinental telephone call is carried by...Ch. 29 - An airplanes radar altimeter works by bouncing...Ch. 29 - Roughly how long does it take light to travel 1...Ch. 29 - If you speak via radio from Earth to an astronaut...Ch. 29 - What are the wavelengths of (a) a 100-MHz FM radio...Ch. 29 - A 60-Hz power line emits electromagnetic...Ch. 29 - Microwave ovens for consumers use operate at 2.45...Ch. 29 - Prob. 25ECh. 29 - Prob. 26ECh. 29 - Vertically polarized light passes through a...Ch. 29 - Prob. 28ECh. 29 - Prob. 29ECh. 29 - Estimate the peak electric field inside a 1.1-kW...Ch. 29 - Prob. 31ECh. 29 - Prob. 32ECh. 29 - Your university radio station has a 5.0-kW radio...Ch. 29 - Prob. 34PCh. 29 - Youre engineering a new cell phone, and youd like...Ch. 29 - Prob. 36PCh. 29 - The medical profession divides the ultraviolet...Ch. 29 - Prob. 38PCh. 29 - Prob. 39PCh. 29 - A polarizer blocks 75% of a polarized light beam....Ch. 29 - Prob. 41PCh. 29 - Unpolarized light of intensity S0 passes first...Ch. 29 - Prob. 43PCh. 29 - Prob. 44PCh. 29 - High microwave intensities can cause biological...Ch. 29 - Use the fact that sunlight intensity at Earths...Ch. 29 - A quasar 10 billion light-years from Earth appears...Ch. 29 - Prob. 48PCh. 29 - Prob. 49PCh. 29 - Find the peak electric and magnetic fields 1.5 m...Ch. 29 - A typical fluorescent lamp is a little more than 1...Ch. 29 - Prob. 52PCh. 29 - A laser produces an average power of 7.0 W in a...Ch. 29 - Prob. 54PCh. 29 - A 65-kg astronaut is floating in empty space. If...Ch. 29 - Prob. 56PCh. 29 - A white dwarf star is approximately the size of...Ch. 29 - Use appropriate data from Appendix E to calculate...Ch. 29 - Prob. 59PCh. 29 - Prob. 60PCh. 29 - In a stack of polarizing sheets, each sheet has...Ch. 29 - Prob. 62PCh. 29 - Prob. 63PCh. 29 - Maxwells equations in a dielectric resemble those...Ch. 29 - Prob. 65PCh. 29 - Your roommates father is CEO of a coal company, so...Ch. 29 - The Voyager I spacecraft is now beyond the outer...Ch. 29 - Prob. 68PCh. 29 - Prob. 69PCh. 29 - The table below shows the intensity of the radio...Ch. 29 - If a sunlight-powered sailing spacecraft...Ch. 29 - Prob. 72PPCh. 29 - A sail capable of propelling a spacecraft to the...Ch. 29 - Prob. 74PP
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