First Homework Assignment: All About Energy

  • Due Date: Thursday, Oct 11
  • You may work in group sizes up to 4 on this assignment; turn in only one copy buy make sure all group names are on it. Turn your completed assignment in via Canvas.
  • Contrary to your habits, you need to start these kinds of assignments earlier rather than later. The deadline driven approach will produce inferior responses to the assignment's breadth.
  • Always show your work. We are not interested in numerically correct answers as much as we are interested in the processes used in dealing with the questions. So SHOW YOUR WORK.


First Watch the Video Tutorial:




Tools you will use:



1. Produce the graph as shown in the video and make sure you include it in your response to this assignment. From that graph answer the following questions:

    a) approximately how long did it take for the World to triple its annual use of oil starting from 1950?

    b) Using the period 1960-1980 as a baseline, extrapolate what the world oil use should be in 2010 (try to show this extrapolation on your graph). This extrapolation should be quite a bit higher than actual oil use in 2010 - comment on why you think the world did not reach this level of oil production and consumption.

    c) Argue whether or not we should be surprised that we may now be actually running out of oil.

2. You will need to do external research for this question. The information is generally easy to find.


    a) Summarize some of the new methods that now exist to discover possible new sources of oil.

    b) Summarize the worldwide activity that is taking place to drill for new oil in the years 2015 - 2017.

    c) Comment on the Deepwater Horizon explosion (April 2010) in terms of it being an expected result from our haste to find new sources.


3. This question makes use of This EIA Database

    Context:

    An editorial in your student newspaper claims that US foreign policy has been oriented towards protecting US interests in the Middle East for the last 35 years because "almost all of our imported oil comes from the Middle East - everyone knows this".
Using the above database:
    a) Average the decade of the 80's , 90's, 00's and 2010--2017 of Annual production (units of thousand barrels a day) for two groups of countries:

    • Group A: Canada, Mexico and Venezuela
    • Group B: Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait


    and report those averages here.

    b) Using this This tool - plot the data you just got and make a screen shot of that plot and insert it into your answer document.

    c) This EIA report gives the current situation. From this data, what is the current ratio of Group A to Group B? How does this ratio compare to that of the 1980s?

    d) For the top 10 countries listed as of Jul 2018 that make up our import porfolio, go back to the main database which allows you to view the graphical history of production for various countries. For these 10 countries, inspect those histories and determning which countries are increasing their imports to the US and which countries are decreasing. For those countries in decline, determine how far below the peak 2017 was, compared to the peak. For example, you should find Mexico is down about 1 million barrels a day (a thousand thousand is one million).

    e) Based on this data, write a 150 word rebuttal letter to the Editor of your student newspaper.


4. The State of Oregon's Electricity Profile:

Access the Excel Spreadsheet for Oregon . All values in this table are in units of Megawatts (MW). The data are for the period 1990-2015. The rows titled "other renewables" is mostly wind.

    a) Line 21 represents the total nameplate power capacity for Oregon. What percentage growth in total electrical power requirements has occurred for Oregon from 1990 to 2015? Compare that to the population growth for Oregon in this same time period.

    b) If that growth rate is sustained for the next 15 years, what will Oregon's power requirements be in the year 2030?

    c) Using the scatter plot tool from before, plot line 21 vs year. In that plot you should see some years of either abrupt increases or decreases of total power (these changes are usually larger than 500 MW). Reserach and determine what facilities were either added or lost that explain these changes.

    d) Line 27 contains renewables. What is the percentage contribution of renewable to total electricity (line 21) in the year 2000 compared to 2015? Use this percentage increase to predict what the contribution to the 2030 portfolio should be and comment on anything you notice about this prediction.