Unit 1: Real-world problem contextualisation
Introduction
In this series of activities you will be introduced to the ‘Ocean Batteries & Energy Farms’ topic, its rationale and real-world problems that this project aims to address. Also, you will go through some information about the historical evolution of renewable energy sources and the sustainability goals that it contributes to. Furthermore, you will formulate collaborative groups and you will get acquainted with using technological tools that the digital scenario implements, such as navigating through virtual gamification rooms, solving quizzes and interacting with AR assistants, etc.
Activity 1
Welcome on board of ‘Dordrecht’, a Dutch exploration ship of the 17th century!
Before you move to the next activity, try to identify your group members’ avatars and find a private space on board.
(Hint: a private space is an area in the platform in which you can contact all the members that are in the same area through video chat.)
Once you did that, brainstorm about a name for your ‘ship company’ and write your company’s name on the whiteboard at the central mast of “Dordrecht”.
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Try to find the password door for the next level. You can retrieve the password after you interact with objects in the room. Use the secret number for your group.
(Hint: secret number
for group 1 is: 4,
for group 2 is: 6,
for group 2 is: 9)
(Hint2: try to find the QR code and scan it with your cell phone in order to interact with the AR assistant (parrot)).
Activity 2
Try to find out the text excerpts in the gather.town room (river). Read them and keep notes in the online notepad, if necessary.
Humans always highvalued the ‘natural forces’, such as fire, water, etc.; they helped them to survive the ice ages, establish communities and provided them some degree of comfort. However, early humans could not explain the natural forces, therefore humans treated them as gods. Greek gods like Aeolos for air and Poseidon for water are some indicative examples. Moreover, the myth of Prometheus, the titan hero who stole the fire from gods and delivered it to humans is one of the most famous and symbolic stories of Greek mythology. In this myth, the important innovation represented is that humans finally became able to purposefully produce, preserve and control fire for their own will. The use of fire here represents the use of something general, what we shall call: ENERGY.
(Delyannis & El-Nashar 2010)
We can find some references of devices that made use of solar energy to heat up/burn areas, such as the ‘burning glass’ of Archimedes, 6th century BC.
However, it was only after the 18th century AC that solar energy grabbed the attention of inventors. After the landmark work of T. Newcomen on inventing the first steam engine in 1712 and the industrial revolution that followed, many inventors tried to make use of solar energy in order to convert it to mechanical energy. Cassini’s (1847) solar furnace which used concave mirrors in order to melt metals and the first experimental solar furnace of Lavoisier (1774) are some early renewable energy powered devices.
(Delyannis & El-Nashar 2010).
One of the common renewable energy sources that humans turned into was the wind. The wind has been a source for irrigation, water pumping and navigation purposes. The wind was used in propelling boats in the Nile since 5000BC, while by 200BC, people in Persia and China were using wooden wind-powered mills for pumping water and grain grinding purposes. The first wind turbine was invented in 1888 by Charles Bush. Wind turbine technology was inspired by the technology of the airplane propeller and wings, such as the ones first used for the landmark work of the first airplane by the Wright brothers in 1903. However, the commercial use of wind turbines actually began around the 1990s.
(Zafar 2018)
Another renewable energy source used by humans is ocean power. According to the International Energy Agency (2017a), ocean power can be exploited using these five technologies: a) tidal rise and fall (barrages), b) tidal/ocean currents, c) waves, d) temperature gradients, and e) salinity gradients. Among these five technologies, focus has been mostly given to tidal and wave power (a,b,c) (Melikoglu 2018).
Tidal barrages can harness the energy by constructing a dam in an estuary or basin that harnesses the energy between high and low tides (Polis et al. 2017). On the other side, wave energy can be extracted directly from surface waves or from pressure fluctuations below the surface (BOEM 2017). Wave energy has its historical roots in 1973 as a response to the oil crises (Bahaj 2012).
Wave energy is expressed in W/m, which represents Energy per crest unit length. Power generated (Energy per unit of time) is calculated by the equations:
Px = ρg∫∫CgxE(f,θ)dfdθ
Py = ρg∫∫CgyE(f,θ)dfdθ
E(f,θ) is the energy density spectrum over a x(longitude) and y(latitude) system. Cg are the components of absolute velocities, ρ is water density, g is the gravitational acceleration.
Total power generated is calculated by:
Pwave=[latex]\sqrt{\mathrm{P}_{2}^{x}+\mathrm{P}_{2}^{x}}[/latex]
(Lavidas & Venugopal 2017a, 2017b)
Renewable energy sources are given more and more attention since they contribute to what is called sustainable development. Sustainability has had various definitions across time. The main theories on sustainability and firms in chronological order are:
a) Corporate social responsibility (1930s), which started to stress the social responsibility of business,
b) Stakeholder theory (1970s), which stresses the need to understand relationships with not only traditional groups such as suppliers, customers and employees, but also non-traditional groups such as government, environmentalists, and special interest groups.
c) Corporate sustainability (1995+), which emphasizes the importance of meeting stakeholders needs and balancing economic, environmental and social dimensions of corporate performance
d) Green economics (2005+), which recongnises the importance of green economy and green growth in international and national policy making. Green economy is defined as “improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities (UNEP 2010).
(Chang et al. 2017)
Assessment quiz
Try to find the password door for the next level. You can retrieve the password after you interact with objects in the room. Try to answer to the assessment quiz questions in order to collect enough points so that you retrieve the password.
(Hint: try to find the QR code and scan it with your cell phone in order to interact with the AR assistant (mermaid)).
Before you proceed to the next room, you can watch this demonstration video:
Activity 3
Try to find out the text excerpts in the gather.town room (river-modern times). Read them and keep notes in the embedded interactive whiteboard in the gather.town room.
Today, renewable energy sources cover only the 28% of global energy generation (IEA 2020). Most of global electricity still depends on fossil fuels (I.I.E.Agency 2020). Discuss with your group and write down in the whiteboard a) why is that problematic and b) what can we do best about it. If needed, search for any hints/tips around that you might find relevant.
Fossil fuel consumption pollute the environment and accelerate the global warming. Moreover, it creates a layer of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that will (as a blanket) reduces the radiation that reaches the Earth which subsequently negatively affects the production of fossil fuels (Lonngren & Bai 2008).
Fossil fuel consumption pollute the environment and accelerate the global warming. Moreover, it creates a layer of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that will (as a blanket) reduces the radiation that reaches the Earth which subsequently negatively affects the production of fossil fuels (Lonngren & Bai 2008).
Wind turbines cover the 5-6% of global energy production, but its supporters claim that that should increase to 30% until 2050 (Farina & Actil 2022). Wind energy production had reached 539GW in 2017, while China, USA and Germany are the main contributing countries (Zafar 2018). The main components of a wind turbine is a) the tower, b) the foundation/base in its various forms, c) the rotor blade, d) the nacelle, which includes the e) gearbox, i.e. the place where the (big) low-speed shaft connects with the (small) high speed shaft in order to increase the rotational speed, f) the generator (for example a coil connected with the high-speed shaft rotating inside a magnetic field), which generates electrical power from the rotational kinetic energy of the shaft (Zafar 2018).
Wind turbines cover the 5-6% of global energy production, but its supporters claim that that should increase to 30% until 2050 (Farina & Actil 2022). Wind energy production had reached 539GW in 2017, while China, USA and Germany are the main contributing countries (Zafar 2018). The main components of a wind turbine is a) the tower, b) the foundation/base in its various forms, c) the rotor blade, d) the nacelle, which includes the e) gearbox, i.e. the place where the (big) low-speed shaft connects with the (small) high speed shaft in order to increase the rotational speed, f) the generator (for example a coil connected with the high-speed shaft rotating inside a magnetic field), which generates electrical power from the rotational kinetic energy of the shaft (Zafar 2018).
Wind turbines cover the 5-6% of global energy production, but its supporters claim that that should increase to 30% until 2050 (Farina & Actil 2022). Wind energy production had reached 539GW in 2017, while China, USA and Germany are the main contributing countries (Zafar 2018). The main components of a wind turbine is a) the tower, b) the foundation/base in its various forms, c) the rotor blade, d) the nacelle, which includes the e) gearbox, i.e. the place where the (big) low-speed shaft connects with the (small) high speed shaft in order to increase the rotational speed, f) the generator (for example a coil connected with the high-speed shaft rotating inside a magnetic field), which generates electrical power from the rotational kinetic energy of the shaft (Zafar 2018).
Extracting energy from the waves often faces cost, survivability and power quality issues (Wei et al. 2022).
Extracting energy from the waves often faces cost, survivability and power quality issues (Wei et al. 2022).
Assessment quiz
Now, try to find the password door for the next level. You can retrieve the password after you interact with objects in the room. Try to answer to the assessment quiz questions in order to collect enough points so that you retrieve the password.
(Hint: try to find the QR code and scan it with your cell phone in order to interact with the AR assistant (sea horse)).
Activity 4
Try to find out the text excerpts in the gather.town room (river-modern times (sequel)). Read them and keep notes in the embedded interactive whiteboard in the gather.town room.
Wave Energy Converter (WEC) arrays have the potential to increase the overall energy production, reduce the maintenance costs and smoothen the power output by implementing accurate and computational cost-effective numerical models for optimizing the configuration of the arrays (Wei et al. 2022).
Using light and flexible materials for the WEC floaters (such as silicon rubber) instead of metallic components can make the system more efficient in non-resonant frequencies (Michele et al. 2022).
Association of energy storage devices to offshore plants can tackle the problem of the stability of the output in the energy farms. Hence, the stored energy can provide the energy needed during periods of power deficits (Di Modugno 2019).
Fluctuations in energy produced from renewable energy sources may result to blackouts and negative prices in energy. Negative prices may occur when we have surplus of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in relation to the energy demands of the consumers (www.oceangrazer.com).
Ocean Grazer is one of the Dutch initiatives to promote technological innovations in offshore energy harvesting. However, offshore technology requires considerable funding (Kumar et al. 2016), while its intrinsic fluctuation and unstable origination make it difficult to provide an adequately constant supply (Peng et al. 2019).
Assessment quiz
Now, try to find the password door for the next level. You can retrieve the password after you interact with objects in the room. Try to answer to the assessment quiz questions in order to collect enough points so that you retrieve the password.
(Hint: try to find the QR code and scan it with your cell phone in order to interact with the AR assistant (sea horse)).
