AIR CLIMATE & ENERGY RESEARCH PROGRAM B U I L D I N G A S C I E N T I F I C F O U N D A T I O N F O R S O U N D E N V I R O N M E N T A L D E C I S I O N S U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Generate! A game for understanding energy system choices and challenges

2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development What is the U.S. energy system? Primary energy resources:  Fossil: coal, natural gas, petroleum  Renewable: wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, biomass  Other: uranium Technologies to convert primary resources to useable energy like electricity, gasoline, etc.  Petroleum/oil refineries  Electric power generation End-use sectors that use electricity and fuels  Residential  Commercial  Industrial  Transportation

3 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Industrial Residential Transportation Commercial U.S Energy Flows from Resource to End Uses Coal Natural Gas Petroleum (Crude Oil) Solar Wind Hydropower Biomass Geothermal Nuclear *Numbers represent relative energy flows in quads (quadrillion Btu) Electricity Rejected Energy Used Energy

4 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development 1- Solar 3- Hyrdro 4-Wind 5-Geo 6- Natural Gas 7- Coal 8- Biomass 9- Petroleum 2-Nuclear Industrial Residential Transportation Electricity Commercial Coal = 7 Natural Gas = 6 Petroleum (Crude Oil) = 9 Solar = 1 Wind = 4 Hydropower = 3 Biomass = 8 Geothermal = 5 Nuclear = 2 U.S Energy Flows from Resource to End Uses Rejected Energy Used Energy

5 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development An Energy Game A simple “simulation” of an energy system Helps us to see some of the challenges and tradeoffs involved in making energy choices Each team has the same total energy (area of pieces) Each team does not have the same mix of energy pieces Goal is to fill the game board with energy types to achieve the lowest total score Score = purchase cost + operating cost + CO 2 cost

6 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development The game board = the “grid” Teams are the decision makers for how they want to produce energy You will use this board for multiple rounds of game play Each team can be thought of as a town, state, region or country

7 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Nuclear Renewables Fossil Fuels Types of energy pieces

8 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development How much does it cost to build/purchase? How much does it cost each year to run/operate? How much CO 2 does it produce? Total Score = (46 * 30) + (0 * 30) * CO 2 cost (over 30 years) = 3380 What primary energy resource does it use? Size: how much energy does it produce? Parts of the energy pieces * Units are generic, but represent relative costs of energy sources

9 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development Now let’s play a few rounds of Generate!