Engineering

my project is about developing the way( Al bahar towers in Abu Dahabi)consumption of electricity. write three paragraphs about candidate solutions. each solution in a separated paragraph the candidate solutions i chose are 1-wind power 2- geothermal power 3- solar cells in each paragraph write the pros and cons of that solution then in a forth paragraph write about the proposed solution of those three which i chose to be (solar cells) to be putted on the umbrellas of the building and also create a table comparing the three solutions in **price ** efficiency ** availability **environmental friendly ** and one or more aspects. So, total paragraphs are 4 and a table of comparison Note: please cite your work in APA style and have a reference pages as well Candidate Solutions There are many ways and solutions to develop the roads and the highways we are using nowadays. Many people are arguing that if we want to develop the roads, the rate of pollution and costs will get higher. However, we can create and find some solutions that can act against what is expected. In order to achieve this goal, it is important for creativity to be a focus of design. One of these solutions is to provide the country with smart roads that have many great features, which help to reduce the amount of pollution, provide clean energy, prevent accidents, and help the government to save great amount of money throughout using the natural energy which is free. This solution will help to solve civil and electrical infrastructure issues through applying of new sustainable technologies. 1. The Use of Solar Panel Roads The idea of making solar panel roads instead of cement is one of the most important ways to improve the roads and the highways for many reasons. One of the reasons is that a modular pavement system can be developed to use solar panels with good efficiency that can hold around 250,000 pounds like what Scott and Julie Brusaw have done. Furthermore, a lot of accidents happen today because of the slippery roads due to the ice on contact in winter. These roads of solar panels will also have a heating elements that can melt the ice and the snow on contact. Furthermore, these roads can contain many Led lights that give the road users a notice about any traffic jam, speed limit, animals, or construction that might appear after a specific distance to prevent any kind of accident due to the lack of attention from the drivers. Another way of reducing the number of accidents is that the smart roads will be provided with special surface that support the speeding cars to stop by applying a friction force on them. 2. Clean Energy and Less Pollution The new designed smart roads will help to provide clean energy and will reduce the pollution in the earth. As we know that the clean energy usually come from the nature, so why don’t we use this clean energy everywhere? According to Energy Information Administration, in 2012 68% of the electricity in the United Stated was generated from fossil fuels. Solar energy generated was 11%, and only 5% of all the energy was renewable energy (Gilpin). In our new situation, the solar panel will be most of the time facing the sunlight. Hence, the energy will be converted from the sunrays throughout the solar panels and then we will have a clean energy for all the roads and also the city if we want. "With over 20,000 square miles of paved surfaces in the US alone, we crunched numbers [and there would be] three times more electricity than the nation uses [if they all switched to Solar Roadways]," Brusaw said. Furthermore, we can put a piezoelectric generators to collect vibration energy from the traffic load on the surface of the roads (Northmore). Moreover, new studies also stated that we can use thermoelectric systems to remove heat energy from roads and convert it to electricity (Northmore). To reduce the pollution, the surface of the roads will be a glass surface. Glass, as we know, is environmentally friendly. It is also renewable glass. The base layers are made of 10% recycled glass. The glass surface can be engineered to be strong as any other strong metel. For instance, one of the designs is a very strong solar panel with bullet-resistance glass that was tested for many months at the top materials research institutes at Penn State and University of Dayton (Gilpin). 3. Special Lanes We can design the highways to be smart high ways with special lanes. These special lanes will reduce the amount of traffic, will help to provide fast emergency service, and will provide safe trip to the drivers. Firstly, these highways can be designed to have a special lane for the emergency service. No car except the police cars, fire trucks, and ambulance can use it. This solution will help the emergency service cars to reach the location of the accident or any other place as fast as possible. Another lane will be for the large vehicles only. The trucks that carry heavy objects or dangerous liquids can only use it. It will help to reduce the traffic since these cars have low speed limit, and also will keep the other drivers safe in case of any accident happened. These lanes will also be connected to the network throughout the Wi-Fi to provide better trip to the drivers. They can use the access to the Internet to use the GPS and it will help the emergency cars to locate the location of the accident perfectly. TABLE1 Solar Panel Clean Energy Special Lanes Cost Medium, the solar panel materials are not expensive today High, since the piezoelectric generators can be found in a pretty high cost High, Adding more lanes to the high way could cost a lot of money Environmental benefit High, since they help to get green energy from the sunrays. High, piezoelectric generators, solar panel, and thermoelectric systems reduce pollution Medium, it reduce the traffic jam which cause pollution Economic Benefit High, free clean energy for long time, less accidents High, no need for fossil fuel anymore None, no money is gained from it. Proposed Solution Out of all the other candidate solutions I have mentioned, using the idea of making solar panel roads instead of cement is the most important and successful ways to improve the roads and the highways around the global. There are many reasons of choosing this solution instead of the others. The most important one is that this solution, in some way, can make the same work that other solution could do. The first benefit of this solution is that the solar panel system fight and reduce the amount of pollution on the earth. As we know that the clean energy is usually which come from nature. The solar panels can produce clean (green) energy by converting the sunrays onto electricity. “With over 20,000 square miles of paved surfaces in the United Stated alone, we crunched numbers and there would be three times more electricity than the nation uses if they all switched to Solar Roadways,” Brusaw said. This use of clean natural energy will help our environment and our economy in many ways. According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2012 68% of our electricity here in the United States was generated from fossil fuel and oil. Solar energy generated was 11%, and only 5% of this energy was renewable (Gilpin). As we know that the most element used to produce energy nowadays is the oil. Oil is one of the most causes of pollution around the world. Furthermore, the oil price is too high that could make a huge effect on economy. Hence, the usage of solar energy which is clean and cheap is major solution for our problem. Also to reduce pollution, the surface of the roads will be a class surface. As we know that the class is environmentally friendly. It is also renewable glass, so the amount of waste will be reduced also. Some people might say that the glass is not strong to carry the vehicles’ weight and therefore, we will face a lot of problems. However, the class can be engineered to be made as strong as any other powerful metal. The solar panel can withstand 250,000 pounds of weight, which is four times the legal weight of a semi-truck, Brusaw said. There is a design of solar panels that encased with a version of bullet-resistant glass that was tested for many months at the top materials research institutes at Penn State and University of Dayton (Gilpin). Thus, they will not break if something crashed on them. The second important benefit that the solar panel could provide is the reduction of accidents and traffic problems. The modular pavement system can be developed to use solar panels with good efficiency that can hold around 250,000 pounds like what Scott and Julie Brusaw have done. Furthermore, a lot of accidents happen today because of the slippery roads due to the ice on contact in winter. These roads of solar panels will also have a heating elements that can melt the ice and the snow on contact. Furthermore, these roads can contain many Led lights that give the road users a notice about any traffic jam, speed limit, animals, or construction that might appear after a specific distance to prevent any kind of accident due to the lack of attention from the drivers. Another way of reducing the number of accidents is that the smart roads will be provided with special surface that support the speeding cars to stop by applying a friction force on them. References Gilpin, Lyndsey. (2014, June 5) “How Solar Roadways Plans to Create Smart roads to produce Clean Energy and Save Lives and Money.” www.techrepublic.com Retrieved October 20, 2015. Northmore and S. Tighe, "Developing Innovative Roads Using Solar Technologies," in CSCE 9th International Transportation Specialty Conference, Edmonton, 2012 S. Brusaw, “Solar Roadways: A Real Solution,” 2012. [Online]. Available: http://solarroadways.com/main.html. S. Brusaw, "Solar Roadways: A Real Solution," 2012. [Online]. Available: http://solarroadways.com/main.html.