Energy Sources Project: Biomass
Important Reminders...
CITING INFORMATION
- You may not simply copy and paste information from notes, the internet, or other students. It must be put in your own words.
- You must include a list of sources you used for each slide in the speaker comments on the slide. It does not need to be in MLA or APA format, just include the name of the source and a link to it. "Google", "Yahoo Answers", etc. are not the names of any source.
- You should start with Google Slides of notes, classwork, and resources on this website. If you found a source not on this list and want to use it, let me know and we will vet it together.
BEWARE OF BIASED SOURCES
Energy is a very complex and political issue, so most of the information on the internet is biased (not balanced, influenced by opinion). The websites below are good places to start for information... but some are made and paid for by industry, making them biased (I put "BIASED" after their name in the advantages/challenges section). They tend to have misleading information that focuses on the advantages and ignores and downplays the challenges. Occasionally they have misinformation (wrong/lies). This is especially the case when a source of electricity is claimed to be "green", "clean", or "better for the environment". I tried to avoid websites that have a lot of misinformation, but many have a little. How can you tell? You should always consider the source of your information and compare it to other ones that are either unbiased or biased the other way!
LINKS TO INFORMATION ABOUT BIOMASS
Unit Notes and Study Guides:
- Unit 1: Energy Types, LOL Diagrams
- Unit 2: States of Matter, Phase Changes, Phase Change Diagrams and LOLs
- Unit 3: Periodic Table, Subatomic Particles
- Unit 4: Chemical Bonding- Ionic and Metallic- Conductors/Insulators
- Unit 5: Chemical Bonding- Covalent and Hydrogen, Polarity
- Unit 6: Materials Science
- Midyear Review Unit: Sources of Electrical Energy Project
- Semester 1 Full Study Guide
How biomass use for electricity works:
- Class notes about Biomass
- US Energy Information Administration:
- The National Energy Education Development Project:
- Biomass At A Glance (focus on #1-3, ignore #4 about biofuels since they are not usually used for electricity yet)
- Biomass Information Packet (ignore the last 2 pages about biofuels since they are not usually used for electricity yet)
- EDF (a British energy company):
- How a Biomass Power Plant Works video (in notes and embedded below, we watched in class)
- US Department of Energy:
- US Environmental Protection Agency (This part of the site was created in 2011 and removed in 2013. The link here is to an archived version.):
- Biomass Power Association
- About Biomass Energy (focus on just the first section)
- World Bioenergy Association:
- Biogas Factsheet (more advanced, for electricity production, see #3 on diagram on page 4)
- Biomass Combined Heat and Power Production (more advanced)
- Energy from Landfill Waste (more advanced, info about Waste to Energy plants starts on page 3)
- Union of Concerned Scientists:
- How Biomass Energy Works (more advanced)
- National Geographic:
- Biomass energy (more advanced)
EDF (a British energy company):
How much and where biomass is used for electricity in the US, MA, Hingham:
- Class Notes:
- Maps and just a Google Doc of the Sankey Diagrams (made using: US Energy Information Administration: Energy Use by Region of the U.S. and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Sankey Diagrams if you want to explore them on your own for fun)
- Hingham Municipal Lighting Plant:
- Annual Reports (how much of each source of electricity Hingham uses)
- Massachusetts Dept of Energy Resources:
Benefits and concerns of biomass:
- US Energy Information Administration:
- The National Energy Education Development Project (probably BIASED- you can see who funds it here and who runs it here):
- Biomass Power Association (BIASED):
- About Biomass Energy
- video about Bioenergy in Maine
- video about Bioenergy in California (we watched 0:37-1:05 in class):
- US Department of Energy:
- World Bioenergy Association (BIASED):
- University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/Kids Crossing (Possibly biased. This is made by a large group of universities that do research on Climate Change):
- Union of Concerned Scientists (BIASED):
- World Nuclear Association (BIASED):
Biomass Power Association videos (we watched 0:37-1:05 of the first one in class):