Renewable Energy: Discover the Fuel of the Future With 20 Projects

By Joshua Sneideman, Erin Twamley and Heather Jane Brinesh

How do we heat our homes, light our rooms, and power our cars? With energy! In 2014, the United States relied on fossil fuels for about 67 percent of its power. But as the fossil fuel supply dwindles and climate change becomes an increasingly urgent issue, individuals, businesses, and governments are expanding their sources of renewable energy, including solar, wind, biofuel, hydro, and geothermal.

In Renewable Energy: Discover the Fuel of the Future, readers ages 9 to 12 learn about these renewable energy sources and discover how sunshine can be used to power light bulbs and how the earth's natural heat can be used to warm our houses. Young readers weigh the pros and cons of different energy sources and make their own informed opinions about which resources are the best choices for different uses.

Renewable energy industries provide a booming field for future scientists and engineers. This book shows kids these future jobs and gets them excited about contributing to a world run on clean energy. Hands-on projects, essential questions, links to online primary sources, and science-minded prompts to think more about energy, the environment, and the repercussions of our choices make this book a key addition to classrooms and libraries.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nomad Press
• Release date: Apr 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9781619303584

Joshua Sneideman

Joshua Sneideman is the vice president at Learning Blade, an organization focusing on exposing students to STEM careers. A former Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the Department of Energy, he is also the award-winning author of multiple STEM education books and TED-Ed cartoons. Sneideman and his family live in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

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CONTENTS

Timeline

Introduction

Opening Ceremonies

Chapter 1

The Power of the Sun

Chapter 2

Farming the Wind

Chapter 3

Planet Water

Chapter 4

Mother Earth’s Beating Heart

Chapter 5

Circle of Life

Chapter 6

Energizing Our Future

Glossary | Metric Conversions | Resources | Essential Questions | Index

Interested in Primary Sources?

Look for this icon. Use a smartphone or tablet app to scan the QR code and explore more about renewable energy! You can find a list of URLs on the Resources page.

If the QR code doesn’t work, try searching the Internet with the Keyword Prompts to find other helpful sources.

TIMELINE

Look around you. Are your lights on? Is your computer running? We use energy every day to power our world. Most of the energy we use comes from fossil fuels, but renewable energy is another option.

In this book, we’ll investigate five different renewable energies. Each of the five interconnected Olympic circles represents a renewable energy: yellow for the sun, black for wind, blue for water, green for biomass, and red for geothermal. You will discover how these forms work separately and together to produce clean energy.

WORDS TO KNOW

renewable energy: a form of energy that doesn’t get used up, including the energy of the sun and the wind.

biomass: plant materials and animal waste used as fuel.

geothermal: heat energy from beneath the earth’s surface.

These renewable energy technologies are striving for a single shared goal—a cleaner future.

This book highlights the passion, hard work, and innovation of people working in the fields of science, technology, and engineering. Renewable energy is competing against fossil fuels, which have dominated the energy industry for the past 150 years. Fossil fuels cause air and water pollution and contribute to global warming. Using renewable energies will help create a cleaner planet.

A History of Renewable Energy

The use of renewable energy dates back thousands of years. Humans have been looking to the world around them for energy answers for a long time.

Wind was used as early as about 5000 BCE as a power source to propel boats along the Nile River in Egypt. Sometime around 3,000 years ago, the Persians began using wind power to pump water and grind grain.

Humans have also been harnessing water to perform work for thousands of years. The Greeks used water wheels for grinding wheat into flour more than 2,000 years ago.

Solar power is not new, either. Its history spans nearly 3,000 years, from the seventh century BCE to today. We started out concentrating the sun’s heat with glass and mirrors to light fires. Now we use solar panels to convert the sun into electricity.

The first known use of geothermal energy occurred more than 10,000 years ago in North America. People used water from hot springs for cooking, bathing, and cleaning.

Times change and people try new things. In the 1800s, the use of renewable power, which for centuries had been mankind’s only source of power, became overwhelmed by the needs of the Industrial Revolution. At that point, our modern civilization and its rapid expansion became powered mostly by fossil fuels. We needed these fossil fuels to power factories and new forms of transportation, such as trains and planes. People didn’t realize that there was a high price for using fossil fuel—climate change.

Now, renewable energies are experiencing a resurgence. In the past few decades, there have been major advances in the science and technology used to harness energy from different renewable energy sources.

WORDS TO KNOW

innovation: a new invention or way of doing something.

technology: tools, methods, and systems used to solve a problem or do work.

engineering: the use of science and math in the design and construction of things.

fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. These energy sources come from the fossils of plants and tiny animals that lived millions of years ago.

global warming: an increase in the earth’s average temperatures, enough to change the climate.

BCE: put after a date, BCE stands for Before Common Era and counts down to zero. CE stands for Common Era and counts up from zero. The year this book is published is 2016 CE.

solar power: energy from the sun converted to electricity.

Industrial Revolution: a period of time beginning in the late 1700s when people started using machines to make things in large factories.

The urgent need to slow global warming and climate change is pushing us to make breakthroughs in the field of renewable energy.

Fossil Fuels

Coal, oil, and natural gas are called fossil fuels because they come from animal and plant fossils. Our planet of more than 7 billion people runs on energy from fossil fuels. People burn fossil fuels to create the energy we need to drive cars, power computers, heat and cool homes, and refrigerate food. About 90 percent of the world’s electricity comes from burning fossil fuels.

Plugged In

More than half of the renewable energy used in the United States goes to generating electricity. But in 2014, only 10 percent of our total energy consumption came from renewable sources.

Humans have been using fossil fuels since the 1700s. But burning fossil fuels harms the planet and human health by causing pollution and damaging our air, water, and climate.

Fossil fuels are found everywhere on the planet, from the oceans to deserts, from the Arctic to the tropics. The energy in those ancient plants and animals came from the sun. When we use this energy to cook our food, drive our cars, and make electricity, we are using solar energy and releasing stored carbon from millions of years ago.

When coal-fired power plants generate electricity, they release harmful emissions into the atmosphere. These include greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, plus other harmful gasses that cause acid rain, smog, and health problems. Toxic metals such as mercury, lead, arsenic, and cadmium are also released, and are known to cause birth defects and other health problems.

WORDS TO KNOW

climate change: a change in the long-term average weather patterns of a place.

fossil: the remains or traces of ancient plants or animals.

consumption: the use of a resource.

climate: the average weather patterns in an area during a long period of time.

carbon: an element found in all living things.

emissions: something that is sent or given out, such as smoke, gas, heat, or light.

atmosphere: the mixture of gases surrounding a planet.

greenhouse gas: a gas such as water vapor, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or methane that traps heat and contributes to warming temperatures.

carbon dioxide: a gas formed by the burning of fossil fuels, the rotting of plants and animals, and the breathing out of animals or humans.

methane: a colorless, odorless greenhouse gas.

Power plants that use solar, wind, water, or geothermal energy to generate electricity do not release