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Alternative Energy Systems and Applications Solutions Manual
Hodge
Chapter 1
1. What is a quad?
A quad is a measurement of energy usage. One quad is 10^15 Btu.
3. What was the total energy usage in the United States in 2007?
106.96 quad p.6
4. In 2007 in the United States, what percentage of coal production was used to generate
electricity?
23.48/106.96*100 = 21.95%
5. How much renewable energy was used in the United States in 2007? What were the dominant
sources of renewable energy?
6.8 quad or 6.4%. In order from highest to lowest percentage of renewable energy:
Hydroelectric, Wood, Biofuel, Waste, Geothermal, Wind, Solar/PV
9. In 2007, what percentages of US energy were used in residential, commercial, industrial, and
transportation applications?
Residential 21%, Commercial 18%, Industrial 32%, Transportation 29%
10. From 1980 to 1995, in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars, what happened to the prices of
gasoline and electricity?
In terms of real dollars the cost of both gasoline and electricity declined resulting in a period of
little encouragement for more efficient and alternative energy sources.
11. What has happened to world energy usage since the 1970s?
The United States increased slightly while Russia decreased slightly. However China’s demand
increased significantly. The overall world demand is rapidly increasing.
12. What is the Carnot efficiency? What is its importance?
The Carnot efficiency is the efficiency of any external reversible heat engine operating between
high and low temperatures. η=(Th-Tl)/Th. This sets a bound for the maximum efficiency
obtainable by any heat engine.