Reference no: EM132510949 , Length: word count:2500
ENGT5114 Sustainable Energy Assignment - De Montfort University, UK
Assignment Title - Sustainable Energy for an Island
The learning outcomes that are assessed by this coursework are:
- Calculate, from basic physical principles, energy outputs from key renewable and low carbon technologies.
- Evaluate the advantages and limitations of renewable and low carbon technologies in the context of existing energy systems.
- Appraise the options and barriers for moving towards more sustainable energy systems.
- Critically evaluate energy technologies in terms of their economic, environmental and technical characteristics.
Sustainable Energy for an Island -
The Isle of Man is an island in the middle of the north Irish Sea roughly the same distance from England, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It is 52 km long and 22 km across at its widest point with an area of 572 square kilometres. There are significant hills, the highest being 620m, and the land use is a mix of moorland, farming and forest. It is a popular tourist destination. Note that IoM is not part of the United Kingdom or the EU and has its own government; it has the status of a Crown Dependency and its citizens are British Citizens.
At present most of the energy is supplied from fossil fuels. Some attempts have been made to move to renewables but without much progress so far. Gas is imported via a pipeline, mainly for heating. There is an electricity interconnector (submarine cable) to the UK mainland grid with 40MW capacity.
Your assignment is to investigate the potential for a transition to a low carbon energy supply (not just electricity) for the Isle of Man (IoM), and write this up in a report. Numerical information and analysis are expected. A high level of detail is not required, but correct 'order of magnitude' data are expected. For electricity demand you may assume that the majority of the electricity load is domestic (many businesses will be small hotels for tourists which will have a similar shape to domestic), although there are other businesses, such as financial institutions, with a typical non-domestic load. Assume an average home uses about 4,000 kWh per year if the main heating is not electric with an evening winter peak of about 1 kW averaged across many homes. For load shape see Sources of information.
Tasks -
1. Summarise the current energy situation in IoM, in particular in relation to the use of fossil fuel and renewable energy.
2. Identify potential future sources of renewable and low carbon energy local to the IoM, taking into account the climate, topography, land use etc. and the size of energy demand. This should include potential amounts of energy, output profile, and ability to despatch generation.
3. Comment on the extent to which energy production from sources identified in Task 2 matches demand in quantity, and time (particularly for electricity), and what measures might be taken to manage mismatches between these, noting the connection to the UK grid.
4. Identify how energy systems and infrastructure might evolve (for example heating, transport) to facilitate a transition to low carbon energy.
5. Write up tasks 1 to 4 in the form of a report.
Report format - Your report must address all the Tasks. The word count for the main text, excluding references, should not exceed 2500.
Use a portrait single column A4 format, like this document. Include page numbers. Graphs and tables will be helpful, but these should be mainly be produced by you and not from third parties. All tables and figures must be numbered and referred to in the text.
Your report should not have an executive summary, nor any appendices, but must include the following, in this order (including your own headings):
Title page (include your name, P number, course code, module name, month and year of submission) - use a title relevant to the topic, not just 'Assignment B'.
Introduction
[your chosen headings]
Conclusions
References (all of these should be relevant and cited in the text). Use a standard format such as IEEE or Harvard.
Attachment:- Sustainable Energy Assignment File.rar