Energy In Your State In Class Activity

Assignment Overview & Goals: This in class activity has two parts. The first looks at energy use
in your home state and how it has changed over time. The second is a brief activity focused on
looking at whether solar power could be a viable option to offset Belmont’s energy use or at your
house.

Assignment Instructions: Please complete the two activities below and submit a .doc or .docx
file with your responses to questions to blackboard by the end of class time. This assignment is
worth a total of 20 points. 8 Points for Activity 1, and 7 points for Activity 2, and 5 points for
attendance

Due Date: Submit to Blackboard By End of Tuesday’s Class

Activity 1: Renewable Energy and Your State

Each student will answer the following question.

Go to the website: https://windexchange.energy.gov/states/

On this website, select either the state you are from originally from or another of your choosing.

1) What is your state and what proportion of the energy portfolio is made up of renewable,
nuclear, and fossil fuels? Write these three numbers down.

The state I picked was California and the renewable energy they take up is 51.77%,
8.24% nuclear, and 40.07% of fossil fuels energy.

2) Scroll down on the page for your state and look under the header policies and incentives.
Determine how many cities (if any) in your home state (or chosen state) have
commitments to 100% renewable energy (and also note the date).

 Berkeley - 2050
 Chula Vista - 2035
 Culver City - Residences and businesses will be powered by 100% renewable energy in
2019 via the LA County Community Choice Energy Program
 Del Mar - 2035
 Encinitas - 2030
 Eureka - 2025
 Goleta - 2030
 La Mesa - 2035
 Menlo Park - 2030
 Monterey - 2040
  Nevada City - Electricity by 2030, heating and transportation by 2050
 Ojai - 2019
 Oxnard - 2019
 Palo Alto - Electricity since 2013
 Portola Valley - 2019
 Rolling Hills Estates - 2019
 San Diego - 2035
 San Francisco - 2030
 San Jose - 2050
 San Luis Obispo - 2035
 Santa Barbara - 2030
 Santa Monica - 2019
 Solana Beach - 2035
 South Lake Tahoe - 2032
 South Pasadena - 2019
 Thousand Oaks - 2030
 Truckee - Electricity by 2020, all energy sources by 2050
 Ventura - 2019
 West Hollywood - 2019

3) Go to the following website: https://windexchange.energy.gov/maps-data/321 and

determine your state’s total installed capacity of wind power vs. it’s potential.

6,117.3 v. 303K

4) Describe the variation between these two numbers for your state and why there is such a
large gap.

You can put 50 time more to install to reach this potential there is a large gap because it is
underutilizing.

5) For your state, look at how wind installation has changed from 1999-2020. If your state is
one of the white states (with no installation yet), then use TN instead. *Hint – to do this,
you’ll have to figure out what the data is from 1999-2020 by using the scroll bar at the
bottom. Here’s a picture of what you should be looking at. Once you have done this, talk
briefly with your group to discuss what is different between your various states.
In 1999 California had 1,616 wind installations which grows over time leading to 6,117.3. What
surprises me is the growth of Texas wind installations. They went from 183.5 to 37,422 which
passes California if anything I thought California would have the most wind installations.

Activity 2: Google has been working on an exciting project for the last few years called project
sunroof. This program calculates how much solar capacity is available on a given roof and looks
at how much cost savings someone would have if they installed solar panels on their home.
Please complete the following activity and answer the questions below.

Go to the Project Sunroof website. https://www.google.com/get/sunroof and enter your home

address. If the home address where you live is unavailable, then you can use the address for Janet
Ayers Academic Center or any other building on Belmont’s campus (1803 15th Ave. S.
Nashville, TN 37212).

Using this website, answer the following questions:

1) How many available hours of usable sunlight are there on your roof per year?

There are 1492 hours of usable sunlight.

2) How much (if any) does Project Sunroof estimate this would save you over 20 years?

6,000 dollars over 20 years

Next, scroll down the screen and look at the box that says “Your potential environmental
impact.” At the bottom of this in blue, there is a button that should say “See total solar potential
for this zip code.” Select this and answer the following questions:

3) What is the percentage of buildings that are solar-viable?

92% are solar-viable

 4) Are there any existing solar installations (some areas this will be yes – if so record the
number)

There are 13 existing solar installations.

5) Scroll down and then see if solar was installed on the rooftops here, how many cars being
removed from the street this would be equivalent to. Record this information here.

54.2K cars taken off the road

6) Based on what you’ve seen here, do you think solar is a good option for your home or
Belmont? And for your zip code?
I think solar option is good. It helps with the electrical bill, environment around, and how we are
using energy. With solar installations it will help the area where I live use more and the potential
renewable resources we already have. Which ultimately leads to less CO2 and waste of fossil
fuels.