A Report from Energy Ant—My Trip to Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School in Bourne, Massachusetts

Today, we stopped at Upper Cape Cod Tech and saw students experimenting with ethanol and biodiesel. These renewable transportation fuels are made from corn, soybeans, or other plants. Most of the time, they are added to petroleum-based gasoline to reduce emissions. Both ethanol and biodiesel can be used in a pure form to run vehicles, that is, as E100 or B100 – 100% ethanol and biodiesel. Right now, these fuels are more expensive than fossil fuels (crude oil and petroleum), but in the future, the cost might go down.

Next we stopped to look at some photovoltaic cells (PV, also referred to as solar cells) — that is, devices that use another renewable resource, solar energy, to make electricity. You can find solar cells or panel all around you. For example, look to see if you have gray squares on your calculator. If you cover up the cells or squares with your finger, the calculator will not work. But if you take your finger off the cell and give it light, it will work again.

Likewise, some people have solar cells or panels (just like the cells on your calculator) on top of their houses; they use these panels to make electricity for light, heating, and cooling. People who have solar panels don’t have to rely all the time on the local power plant for all of their energy. Most people will choose to stay connected to the power grid (that is, a huge network of transmission wire that sends electricity from the power plant to their house); but they don’t need to get all of their power from the grid. They can get it from the grid only when it’s night time or if they need more electricity than their solar panels can make. What’s really cool is if the solar panels on their house are making more than enough electricity. In this case, the panel’s owners can sometimes put electricity out on the grid for other people to use — and they are sometimes paid for this electricity!

Not everyone lives near a power grid though. People who live far from the grid can just use solar panels. They can hook up the panels to big batteries that collect and store energy during the day for use during the night.

The students and teachers here at Upper Cape Technical School know a LOT about energy!  If you want to learn more about renewable energy, you may research the Renewable Energy sections of this site, which includes separate pages on biomass, ethanol, biodiesel and solar energy.