Energy+Resources

Back to Main Body

**1. ****Energy Resources** The population and the area of the island are assumed to be fairly similar to the Hawaii Island. Thus, we assume that our island is 10,000,000,000 m2 area and 150,000 people population. Also, in this design we assume that 0.64 MW is required per 1000 people living on the island. Therefore, the power required for the city is 96 MW. **1.1. Solar Energy** The solar energy is produced through 48-megawatt photovoltaic system which converts the sun’s light into electric current using the photoelectric effect. The plant size is around 440,000 m2 and the cost of the system is around 200M dollars. (Emma Ritch, 2009)

There are many different PV systems which could be used in the city. In this design, Dual-Axis Solar Trackers were chosen which are more expensive than the other PV systems in the market, but provide 35% more solar energy than the fixed structures. In total there are 3840 solar trackers in the city which each one has the power of up to 13.16 kWp. This amount solar trackers produce energy for almost 75000 people.  (high tech solar tracker, 2010)

Figure 1 : Solar Trackers (high tech solar tracker, 2010)

The solar trackers are partially assembled and transport to the plant. (1) The ground surface is cleaned off and top layer of vegetation is removed. Then, after making sure that the ground is level, the foundation of the solar tracker is built by the workers. (2) Next step is to use a loader to install and bolt the V-shape structure on the foundation.(3) The modulus are brought to the plant and easily assembled on the grill.(4) The final stage is to install the modulus on the V-shaped structure.(5) The final picture shows the complete solar tracker which is ready for generating electricity. (6)  (high tech solar tracker, 2010)

Figure 2: Installation of a Solar Tracker  (high tech solar tracker, 2010) By building the solar trackers with the introduced method, a solar plant would be constructed. There are other components in the plant other than solar trackers which are responsible of transporting the energy received from the son to electricity. Figure 3 shows a Photovoltaic power plant, which consist of two an area called Solar Island and Power Island. The Solar Island consists of sets of solar PV panels that use silicon based cells to convert solar radiation into electricity directly. The Power Island consists of dual fuel Booster heater, solar stream generator, condenser, steam turbine and electric generator. (Bridgette Meinhold, 2010)

Figure 3: Solar Plant (Bridgette Meinhold, 2010) **1.2. Wind Energy** The wind energy is produced through 48-megawatt wind farm with 312 turbines. The turbine diameter is 70 meter and its height from ground to rotor is 80 meter. The required area for the wind farm is 200,000 m2. This wind farm cost 100M dollars and produce energy for almost 75,000 people. (McGuinty, 2010)

Figure 4 : Wind Turbines (Minnesota Wind, 2008) The same as solar power, harnessing the wind is dependent on the weather and the location. Therefore, before installing the wind turbine the proper area should be determined. The wind should be consistent and over 25 km/h. After selecting the area, the land should be graded and levelled to become ready for placing the foundation. After the concrete foundation is made the underground cables is installed. A control centre is prepared in the farm which monitors the process of electricity generation. The tower’s parts are manufactured in the factory and then assembled on the site. A crane is used to pick up the tower and place it on the required area and then all the bolts are tightened. The nacelle, which consists of main drive shaft, gearbox, blade pitch and yaw controls, is manufactured and assembled in the factory and then bolted at the top of the wind tower. By bolting sheets of aluminum together the blades are created and placed into the tower by the help of a crane.  (Wind Turbine) Figure 5 shows how a wind turbine converts the kinetic energy in the wind to electrical energy. First the wind blows on the blade and turns them and the blades turn the shaft inside the nacelle. The shaft goes into gearbox and increases the rotation speed so the generator can convert the rotational energy into electrical energy. The produced power goes to the transformer in order to adjust generator voltage to the required distribution system. The grids are used to transmit the power to the required places.  (HOW WIND TURBINES GENERATE ELECTRICITY, 2011)

<span style="display: block; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; text-align: center;">Figure 5: how wind turbines generate electricity <span style="font-family: Calibri,sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"> (HOW WIND TURBINES GENERATE ELECTRICITY, 2011) **1.3. Tidal Energy**

New generation of tidal energy are called current turbines. In this method, underwater turbines are placed in the area with high tidal movements in order to convert the kinetic energy to electricity. The current turbines are produced by either one of the following 2 main methods:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">a) Horizontal turbines: The way horizontal marine turbine operates is very similar to the wind turbine operation, only with this difference that marine turbine’s blades turn with the tidal movements instead of wind. The seawater flows to the blades which are in the shape of airfoils. Because of the specific shape of airfoils, lift and drag forces are created which cause the blades to move and produce electricity. ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Nichollas-Lee, 2008) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0cm;">b) Vertical turbines: Vertical marine turbines operate in two different methods. In the first method the fluid pushes the turbine blades and rotates the turbine. In second are made of the airfoil and operate similar to the horizontal turbines. The biggest advantage of vertical turbines over the horizontal is that they don’t need support tower system which makes their maintenance and installation much easier. ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Nichollas-Lee, 2008)

A simple Tidal current turbine consists of a rotor, a gearbox and generator. Also, a support is needed to keep the turbine at the bottom of the sea. This could be done by attaching a large mass of concrete and steel to the turbine or pinning the turbine to seafloor. DeltaStream turbine is a good example of horizontal axis turbines and consists of three 15 meter diameter blades on a 30 meter wide triangular. This turbine has the capacity of 1.2 MW and was produced by Tidal Energy Ltd. Company. ( <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">Rourke,2009) Therefore 40 DeltaStream turbines are required in order to produce 48MW power which provides energy for 75,000 people.

**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 24px;">Figure 6: Delta Stream Tidal Power Turbine **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">(McDermott, 2009) **1.4. Geothermal Energy** The great advantages of using the geothermal Energy are the fact that it is sustainable and green. The sustainability of the geothermal energy originates from the fact that this energy never ends unless the core of the earth starts getting cold. As a result after one place was dig for the purpose of geothermal energy, this place will not be vacated because the place has no more energy. Therefore geothermal energy is very sustainable and desirable energy. The energy is also green because the does not pollute the earth or at least its negative effects is not comparable to the other energies. (Rybach, 2007) As it can be seen in figure below, geothermal power plants rely on the very hot fluid which exists on the core of the earth to generate energy. The source of the geothermal is super heated fluid created by the magma very deep into the earth. In the geothermal plants this turns the steam of the super heated fluid turn the turbine. The steam turns the turbines and generated electricity. The rest of the super heated fluid would go back into the earth through the injection well. (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007)

** Figure 7: Basic parts of a Geothermal Plant (Geothermal Energy) **

Figure 8: Blue print of a geothermal plant (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007)

Above there is blueprint of the geothermal plant and below are some more detailed pictures of different parts of the plant and how thing are done in a geothermal plant.

Figure 9: Rain water is turned into super heated fluid (How Geothermal Plant works, 2007) Figure 10: Wells are drilled 5000 to 10000 ft below the surface of earth (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure 11: Super heated fluids are moved to the plant through the wells(how a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure 12: As the super heated fluid flows to the surface some of it turns into steam because it losing pressure (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure 13: The steam is separated from fluid (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure14: Reminder of the steam is separated as well (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure15: The steams are delivered to a turbine (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure 16: Turbines are used to turn Steam into electricity (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure 17: The steams turn the turbine's blades (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007)

Figure 18: The blades turn a shaft which is connected to electrical generator and creates electricity (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007)

Figure 19: The electricity is carried to transformer and the power is sent to the power lines (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007) Figure 20: The steam is turned back into the fluid (How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007)



Figure 20: Both super heated fluid and the steam which was turned into fluid are returned into the earth through the injection wells Injection(How a Geothermal Plant Works, 2007)

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">This plant produces 24 MWatts electricity but it is capable of producing up to 48 Mwatts. This allows the city to go on even if something goes wrong with any other plants which are producing electricity. The area considered for this plant is around 30 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 24px;">m2.


 * 2. Industrial Ecology**

Since the city of Utopia is green, therefore it important that the city does not have industrial waste or it has minimum amount of waste. Therefore the city industries need to work together for the purpose of making use of their wastes. The organizations need to communicate together and let each other know that what they are looking for because it is possible that other organization’s waste be their inputs. The most important element behind implementing the industrial ecology is to do not assume that different industrial systems are isolated from each other but see them in system working with each other.

Through this system we seek to optimize the total material cycle from raw material to finished materials to component, to product, to obsolete product and ultimate disposal. For that purpose we can make an ecological industrial park which eliminates the amount of waste and at the same time help the organizations financially. This process would help us to improve the efficiency in the city and therefore the city becomes greener and environmentally friendly. Below there is diagram that show the process that the organization have to through to make Utopia an ecological park. ( Searcy, 2011)

**3**. **Natural resources/Agriculture:** In today’s world the average farm is 2.2 km2; therefore we need around 180 agricultural lands to be able to feed the population of 150000 of the city. Therefore almost 400 km2 needs to be used for the purpose of Agriculture which includes livestock farms, dairy farms, and crop farms. This area is very huge, so we decided to have vertical agriculture which consists of 32 building which each one has 25 floor and 0.5 km2 area. (Total farm area, land tenure and land in crops, by province, Census of Agriculture, 2008) In today’s world, the livestock farms are becoming smaller and smaller and they are called high concentration livestock farms. So, the size of the farm cannot judge how much the production of that farm. The advancement in mechanizing the livestock farming, it became very easier for farmers to produce greater amount of the meat and dairy in smaller farms. Below is the list of natural resources and agriculture that the city has.