A Report from Energy Ant- My Trip to Visit Renewable Energy Facilities in Hyannis, MA!

I spent a week last summer in chilly Hyannis, Massachusetts. I was there with teachers from around the country who had come to learn all about energy. We spent a day touring different energy-related sites on Cape Cod – a peninsula off of Massachusetts. Take a look on a map and see if you can find it! And here’s where we went…

The first stop was the Town of Hull’s wind turbine. It’s huge! Can you find me in this picture? Hint – I am hiding from the rain. This is the bottom of the wind turbine we visited. It is really wide at the bottom to hold up the big blades at the top that turn and provide electricity. Some of these blades can be as long as 40 meters (or about 130 feet) long.

Wind turbines are the modern day version of the old windmills. While windmills changed the kinetic energy from the wind into mechanical energy for grinding grain, wind turbines turn the mechanical energy into electrical energy. When the wind blows, the blades spin on the turbine. This turning of the blades spins a generator that generates electricity which is sent to your home.

Wind is a great energy source because it is renewable. That means we will not be running out of it unless the wind just stops blowing all together. Wind turbines can only be placed where there is strong wind much of the time. If there is no wind, or it is not strong enough, the turbine cannot produce electricity. You can learn more about wind energy in the Wind section of this site. But I think I have been long winded enough about seeing the wind turbine, let’s go check out a nearby school. . . .

On our field trip, we also stopped at Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School and learned about scientists experimenting with biodiesel and ethanol. These transportation fuels are also renewable. They come from corn, soybeans or other plants. Most of the time they are added to petroleum-based fuels to reduce emissions. Both ethanol and biodiesel can be used in a pure form to run vehicles as E100 or B100 – 100% biodiesel and ethanol. These fuels are more expensive than petroleum fuels right now, but the cost might go down in the future.

Next we stopped to look at some photovoltaic cells that use solar energy to make electricity. Solar energy is a renewable resource. You can find photovoltaic cells all around you. In your calculator you might have solar panels. They are in the gray squares on the calculator. If you cover up the gray squares, or the cells, with your finger, the calculator will not work. If you take you finger off the cell and give it light, it will work again. Some people have cells just like the cells in your calculator on top of their houses to provide electricity.

People who have solar panels don’t have to rely on the local power plant for all their energy all the time. Electricity from power plants is sent to customers through a huge network of transmission wire called the power grid. Most people who have solar panels choose to stay connected to the power grid even though most of the time they don’t need to get all their power from it. If they need more electricity than their solar panels can make, or if it’s nighttime, they can get electricity from the grid. The really cool thing is that if the solar panels are making a lot of electricity, but the house they are on is not using a lot of electricity, the solar panels can sometimes put electricity out on the grid for other people to use. The owners of the solar panels are sometimes paid for this electricity.

Not everyone lives near a power grid though. People who live in remote areas can also use solar panels. The panels can be hooked up to big batteries. These batteries can store energy collected during the day for use during dark hours to power the house. Learn more about solar energy in the Solar section of this site.

We saw a ton on this field trip. We have been all over Cape Cod. Thanks to the Cape Light Compact for showing me around and for all the teachers who spent the day hanging out with me!