Difference between revisions of "Zander/2013 academic fair"
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** https://plus.google.com/108295401642561419970/posts/inW8jwPX3Sp - a collection of climate and sustainability links | ** https://plus.google.com/108295401642561419970/posts/inW8jwPX3Sp - a collection of climate and sustainability links | ||
** http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/21108 | ** http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/21108 | ||
==Sources for notecards== | |||
* '''41''' | |||
** '''claim 1''': The most common type of solar cell is made of silicon, the most common material on Earth. | |||
*** http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/ReviewSolGW09.pdf page 150: "Materials used today include amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon, micro-crystalline silicon, cadmium telluride, and copper indium selenide/sulfide." | |||
*** http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Solar-Cell.html "The basic component of a solar cell is pure silicon..." | |||
** '''claim 2''': The most common type of storage (rechargeable) battery is lead-acid, which is made of lead, sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen -- all common materials. (I'm leading off lithium-ion because lack of time, and it's true that lead-acid is hugely popular because it's so cheap.) | |||
*** The only source I could find quickly for the materials in lead-acid batteries was [[wikipedia:Leadacid battery]]; the article didn't have a lot of sources. | |||
*** However, they are definitely recyclable: http://www.lead-battery-recycling.com/lead-battery-recycling.html "All the components of the modern lead acid battery are recyclable and from an Industry perspective lead-acid batteries are an environmental success story because in the United States just over 96% is recovered and in most of the G7 nations upwards of 95% is recycled." | |||
** '''claim 3''': Rare earth metals are recyclable; burnt fuels are, by their nature, not. | |||
*** ''research later'' | |||
* '''42''' | |||
** '''claim 1''': Fossil fuels are a major cause of global warming and environmental destruction. | |||
*** http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/wg3/en/ch4s4-3-1.html "Fossil energy use is responsible for about 85% of the anthropogenic CO2 emissions produced annually." | |||
* '''43''' | |||
** '''claim 1''': Electricity usage is far less at night. | |||
*** Saying "far less" may be an exaggeration; it's consistently less, but only about 10-20%. This page has a graph to substantiate that: http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=13131 | |||
* '''44''' | |||
** '''claim 1''': Investment in solar panels generally pays off after only a few years, after which the power is essentially free. | |||
** '''claim 2''': The cost of solar panels is dropping rapidly due to the accelerating pace of research. | |||
*** http://blog.rmi.org/blog_2013_5_14_As_Solar_PV_Efficiency_Climbs_Costs_Likely_To_Drop | |||
**** (just a sample quote) "...recent advances in identifying potential organic materials for printable photovoltaic cells for thin film applications are promising to make that technology especially cost-effective, even while boosting its efficiency." | |||