Due: Tuesday before 8:30 a.m.
1. Watch the TED Talk video on High-Altitude Wind Energy and take notes.
Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/saul_griffith_on_kites_as_the_future_of_renewable_energy
2. Answer the following questions in paragraph form (350-400 words) by typing your response in the comments section below.
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a) Do you think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful or not? What are the positive and negative aspects? Explain.
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b) Does your country make use of renewable energy? Give examples.
You will be marked on the quality of your response and your response to others:
9-10: Excellent and insightful; response shows superb understanding and critical analysis; contains great details and responds to complex ideas
7-8: Good; response shows thoughtful understanding; contains good details and responds to ideas
5-6: Satisfactory; response shows a basic understanding; contains basic details and responds only to major ideas
3-4: Unsatisfactory; response shows some misunderstanding; contains insufficient details and does not fully respond to the main ideas
1-2: Poor; response shows poor understanding; contains no details and does not respond to the task
EAP 300 
I think it is difficult to achieve his idea for now. Because there are too much task to accomplish to use contrivance of kite as the common way of making renewable energy. For example, depending on the weather, lack of information, safety concerns, and so on. Nowadays, climate change become more and more serious. This probles cause difficulty of using kite and wind to get energy. Also, he mentioned the size of kite, and if it fall to the ground accidently, it will put people in danger. To achieve this idea, it is needed to more research and test of using new technology.
But off course, I hope his idea will succeed. As he said, now, people do not have any way to make energy in an area that is above 300 feet of altitude. However, there are more wind and more power in thar area. If people can get the technology of making energy at the new area, it leads human to reach the possibilities of more get energy more efficiently from technology.
b)Does your country make use of renewable energy?
Japan has a variety of renewable energy. It is including geothermal, hydropower, wind energy, solar energy, and biomass. The Fukushima nuclear accident was a turning point in Japan’s energy policy, and also Japan has very limited fossil fuel resources to meet its energy demand. Owing to these factors, Japan had an opportunity for renewable energy installation.
In 2022, the share of renewables in Japan’s total electricity was reached 24%. Solar and hydroelectric power represented the renewable energy sources with the largest share in the country. Because of the features of Japan, such as it being a mountainous country, there is a lack of space for other power facilities. The government aware of this task, and taking action to build wind farms. In fact, in 2023, around 400 gigawatts of new solar and wind capacity is projected to be added. Additionally, Japan has technology of advanced energy storage, such as reversible hydroelectric pumps, thermal storage, and lithium-ion batteries. It will contribute to the future of the energy cycle in Japan.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. I agree with you that Saul Griffith’s ideas are risky in terms of technology, climate, etc. And your research on the use of renewable energy in Japan reassures me that the future is bright for our country. Thank you!
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a) I think Saul Griffith’s could be successful with a megawatt-scale device that flies at an altitude of 2,000 feet and produces large amounts of clean energy. On the positive side, he explained the more than 1,000-year history of kites having been used for military applications carrying great weights. Furthermore before World War II people made 1,000 airplanes a year, and by 1945 they produced 100,000 planes a year. And wind power is the second most renewable resource after solar power, and he believes kites will be the dawn of a new era. Having overturned the bold and reckless so many times in history, I want to believe that he and his team can succeed. And if they succeed, they can support other young people full of reckless dreams. However, there are negative aspects to this plan. It requires flight tests and careful design. If the plane crashes due to some defect during the flight, it could cause damage to buildings and people on the ground. The weather conditions are not stable, and it would not be suitable for areas with unstable weather. Therefore, I believe that strict safety proof is necessary to realize this project.
b) In Japan, seven types of heat are used: solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, solar thermal, atmospheric heat and other naturally occurring heat, and biomass (organic matter derived from plants and animals). The introduction of the feed-in tariff (FIT) system in 2012 led to a significant increase in the amount of power generation equipment installed from renewable energy sources. According to the results of the 2021 survey, Japan’s installed renewable energy capacity will be 138 gigawatts, ranking 6th in the world. And of this, 78 gigawatts is solar power generation capacity, ranking third in the world. The introduction of the FIT system has led to the introduction of solar power generation in many homes and businesses, which has resulted in solar power generation having the highest percentage of all renewable energy sources. However, further improvement and development is needed due to the low demand and production of renewable energy equipment, manufacturing costs, and development costs due to Japan’s geography and weather conditions that make stable electricity supply a challenge.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion, Shiori. You did a lot of research about Japanese renewable energy. I don’t know that Japan ranked in 6th place one year. However, as you also mentioned, we have a lot of issues to shift more renewable energy so we want to consider how reduce electricity consumption even though we don’t live in Japan so far.
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a) I do not his idea will be successful because there are two negative aspects. Firstly, his idea might be making accidents of airplanes. Sometimes, wind power generation has an accident of birds and it also will happen in his idea. It might be caused by endangering the safety of passengers. The airplane has responsibility for passengers because the aim of airplanes is transportation and it should not be a threat to safety. Also, airplanes are complicated to fly in the air, and generators attached to the body would be dangerous. Secondly, it needs high technology. The wind of the airplane during flying is complicated because the airplane flies in the sky very fast and there is strong wind. If they attach it, they have to think about structure and air resistance. Airplanes fly in the sky very fast and there is strong wind and it needs high technology to keep safe and make electricity. On the other hand, his idea has positive aspects such as sustainable energy and it is lower environmental impact. As he mentioned the energy will be made more in high altitude than above ground. Also, usually, when making renewable energy, it needs a huge place. But his idea does not need a huge place to generate energy. Therefore his idea can make it more energy efficient.
b)In Japan, renewable energy is used in many places such as hydroelectric power generation, solar photovoltaic power, wind power generation, and so on. However, the primary power generation in Japan is thermal power. Even now Most electricity relies on fossil fuels. Japan should use more renewable energy but there are some problems. Renewable energy has good effects on the environment but it also has difficulties. Increasing renewable energy is high cost and needs some conditions. In recent years, solar photovoltaic power has been actively used. For example, my house has a solar panel on the roof and it makes energy for my house. As my house, many houses have solar panels. Also, solar panels are used in outside light and calculators. It is very close to human lives and is not limited to sources. Therefore it is used as a primary renewable energy in Japan.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion, Japan is one of the developed countries yet they seem not to consider renewable energy and they care about cost. It is hard to change the minds of the majority of people, for example, my family lives in an apartment who live at least 70 families. If they agree with putting solar panels on the loof it would be much better than past.
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a) Do you think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful or not? What are the positive and negative aspects? Explain.
Saul Griffith’s idea is generating electricity with wind. His idea is from a seminal paper written by a fabulous man whose name is Miles Loydabout and it is about how to use basically an airplane on a piece of string to generate enormous amounts of electricity. The main argument of this paper is that a free-flying wing can sweep through more sky and generate more power in a unit of time than a fixed-wing turbine. For example, in calculation, while Boeing 747 flying, it will be able to create six megawatts which is more than the largest wind turbines today. In my opinion, Griffth’s idea will be successful in the future. Because humane have kept inventing a lot of stuff with their technology, knowledge and wisdom. So far it looks impossible but we have many different and developed ways to experiment about new challenging technology and industries. Therefore, I hope humans can achieve his idea unless we don’t give up.
b) Does your country make use of renewable energy? Give examples.
According to a survey on the website, my country in Japan relies about 20% of the percentage of power generation on renewable energy and it is increasing every year. The first rank of renewable energy is solar energy, next rank of renewable energy is hydroelectric power. The percentage of renewable energy looks good but when compared with other countries, the percentage is small. The reason why Japanese renewable energy is small is geographical features and high cost. Japan is an island country and a long country stretching from north to south so the climate future depends on each region such as sunshine hours and wind. These issues make it difficult to manage the renewable energy facilities. In addition, earthquakes often happen everywhere and everytime and it can not be predicted in advance. If an earthquake happens in a particular place where there is specialized renewable energy, the fixed cost will be expensive. People know we should shift to renewable energy for our future but there are still some difficulties in Japan.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. I also think his idea will be successful. Many investors succeeded so far, therefore, I expect he can achieve his idea if he doesn’t give up as you said.
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Thank you for your oppinion!
I think your focus on earthquake is sharp opinion. I didn’t have the cost of fixing facility after earthquake. In Japan, recently earthquakes have occured freqently. So I think thinking deeply is important thing befor constructing renewable energy facilities.
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a)
I think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful. Because it has some advantages compared to normal wind energy and wind can help people and the earth from global warming as one of the renewable energy sources. In the video, he mentioned that a free-flying wing can produce more power than fixed wind turbines in a unit of time because it can sweep through more sky. Also, he said that the more height is where more wind that creates energy and kites turbines can fly at a higher altitude than fixed turbines. These are advantages he mentioned. Besides them, I think that kites turbines can be adaptable depending on area sizes. In this video, he showed that more big kites can create more energy. So, I think this adaptability allows us to use kites turbines in some kinds of areas. Nowadays, huge space is needed to make the turbines for wind energy. But if kites turbines are introduced, we can produce energy in limited areas. On the other hand, there are some disadvantages such as damaging birds, loud sounds, and depending on weather. These disadvantages are the same as problems with conventional wind energy. But I think that we can regard kites turbines as more improved wind energy.
b)
Japan uses solar, wind, biomass, and geothermal as renewable energy. According to an article from the Internet, the amount of renewable energy generated in Japan has been increasing since 2014. And in 2022, the percentage of renewable energy is 22.4%. But compared to other countries, this ratio is lower. In these kinds of renewable energy, solar energy is the most popular way because it is easy to install solar panels on general houses. And, there is a target for renewable energy by 2030 in Japan. This is that Japan is going to increase the percentage of renewable energy to 36-38% by 2030. On the other hand, there are some problems about renewable energy such as destroying the environment, threatening animals, and costs. So the government should solve some problems to increase renewable energy.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion.
I didn’t know that Japan has a target of increasing the proportion of renewable energy to 36-38% by 2030. We can learn about this fact when we treat it as a topic in class, but I feel like we pay little attention to it in our daily life. I think we need more opportunities to learn about this as it relates to individuals as well.
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a)
I think his idea has the potential to be successful, but there are a few things that need to be improved. His idea is to use wind at altitude to generate wind energy. He proposed the use of wind-powered kites to generate wind energy at high altitudes where the wind is strong. These are special kites used to lift wind turbines, which use the wind to generate energy at altitude. He is aiming for a megawatt scale machine that would fly at an altitude of 2000 feet and generate tons of clean power. Wind power is the second most renewable resource after solar power and has the potential to generate large amounts of electricity. However, as they were never fully developed until now, there are many issues that need to be addressed. It is a very innovative idea, but the video does not detail the safety considerations or how much facility investment is needed. The reason could be that those aspects may not be positive. As an idea, it is new and has potential for success, but to actually apply it, a lot more things need to be taken into consideration.
b)
Solar power is widely used in Japan. It plays an important role as a renewable energy source. Residential photovoltaic systems that consisting of solar panels installed on roofs are commonly used to power private homes and commercial buildings. Solar power makes up 10 percent of Japan’s electricity generation, and this is the largest share of any renewable energy source. Japan has developed large-scale solar power plants to support local electricity demand. Solar panels have been installed on large tracts of land, contributing significantly to the electricity supply. Solar power has several advantages, including being renewable and environmentally friendly, contributing to improved energy security, and potentially stimulating the local economy. However, there are also challenges, such as weather dependence, high initial costs, and land use issues.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. Japan is similar with Taiwan that our primary renewable energy is solar energy. After your explanation, I realized that solar energy is not only contribute energy security but also stimulate the local economy.
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a)In my opinion, Saul Griffith’s idea will be accomplished in the future.Like he mentioned during WWII, the fridge factory churned out 1,000 airplanes. After WWII, they were made 100,000. Therefore, I think his ideas will be innovated in the future. The positive aspect of a megawatt-scale machine is different sizes from paper plan to Spruce Goose. Wind turbines have the highest feet of 300 which generate limited energy. If this machine is successful, it will have unlimited height and generate a huge amount of electricity from various dimension machines. On the other hand, the negative aspect of it depends on the weather. For example, some areas or countries are located inland where there may be a lack of wind. Also nowaday, we have climate change that affects the weather year after year. Therefore, this wind machine probably couldn’t be stable. Above all, I still think this is a great innovation. It’s another invention from wind resources and generated electricity from children’s favorite plaything- kites.
b) My country is Taiwan where we make use of renewable energy, such as solar power, hydro energy, wind energy, biogas, geothermal energy and ocean current energy. Taiwan’s major renewable energy sources are solar power and wind energy, it occupied 68.9 % and 13.5 %, respectively. In 2022, Taiwan’s gross generation was 2882 billion kilowatt-hour including renewable energy 238 billion kilowatt-hour, accounting for 8.3 % of the total power generation. First, solar energy, which are two main types of solar energy technologies- photovoltaic and concentrating solar power. Taiwan uses photovoltaic, especially in southern Taiwan where it usually has been sunny for a whole year. The government has built photovoltaic power stations in Kaohsiung and Taiping Island. Solar energy generated 10.7 GW in 2022. Secondly, wind energy is another renewable resource in Taiwan because we have northeast monsoon. In 2022, wind energy generated 1.2 GW. There are two kinds of wind energy – onshore and offshore wind farms. In the beginning of wind energy, Taiwan installed many onshore wind farms in Taichung and Penghu. However, our land has no more space for onshore and now the government changed to offshore recently. Taiwan is trying to make more renewable energy in the future.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. If the kite can be one of wind energy in the future, it can help us generate much more energy.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. I think your perspective is really good.
Certainly, his idea offers a high degree of freedom in kite size, making it easier to control in that regard. Also, focusing on the changes in production volume before and after World War II is a good point. Actually, I had the opposite impression from yours, but reading your thoughts made me think that his idea might be achievable. It would be a great innovation if kites, children’s toys, could generate electricity.
Thank you also for sharing the current situation of power generation in Taiwan.
I originally thought Taiwan was a warm country, but I didn’t know that the southern part had sunny weather all year round. Similarly, Japan has different weather and land characteristics in each region domestically. I think that both countries need energy development tailored to each region instead of focusing on a single energy source.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion.
I agree with your opinion. Human development has made the impossible possible in the past, so I believe that this idea will also become practically feasible in the future.
Also, it was interesting to learn that wind power generation is the major source of electricity in Taiwan, followed by solar power generation because it was different from Japan.
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a) I think his idea is difficult to be successful, but at the same time I think it’s a wonderful and dreamy idea for us.The reason why I think it’s difficult is because there is a risk of airplane accidents in the sky. There are traffic rules in the sky as roads, and the airline commanders manage and give instructions to the aircraft to prevent airplane accidents from happening. If a kite that cannot be controlled suddenly shows up flying around there, there’s a danger that its string might get tangled with the plane, possibly causing an accident, even if they are flying at different heights. Or, if the string breaks off from the kite, the kite might unexpectedly fall to the ground. Therefore, if we were to implement this idea, I believe we need to address these negative aspects. However, I think this idea has many potential to save our planet and life. Now we have a lot of energy crises and climate crises, and we need to solve these problems as soon as possible. I didn’t know until now that it’s possible to generate massive electricity at altitudes over 100 meters. Developing clean energy is one of the most urgent tasks for us now, and making this idea a reality feels like a dream. If this development succeeds, the lifespan of the Earth will surely increase compared to now. I could imagine a positive future from this speech. I hope this idea will be successful.
b) The most common renewable energy source in Japan is solar power. However, because Japan has a lot of flat land, there are limited places to put solar panels. So, the government is encouraging people to install them on roofs by offering subsidies. Japan also uses other renewable energy sources like hydroelectric and wind power. But what I’m really excited about for the future is geothermal power. It uses steam from hot magma to make electricity. Japan has a lot of magma, and geothermal power can be used for a long time, which is great. After the 3.11 disaster, where nuclear power plants exploded and caused a lot of damage, it’s really important for Japan to use safe energy sources.
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Thank you for sharing your idea. You have a good point. I didn’t realize that kite would disturb the airplane’s way.
You expect the geothermal power in Japan. However, I think it is not suitable because people need to drill deeply to get the geothermal energy. It could cause earthquakes.
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Saul Griffith’s suggested that a new power generation system called autonomous power generating wind. I think his idea is hard to be successful nowadays tecnology because there are hard tasks to complete to work stably and safety, such as depending on the weather, and danger of crashing. The point is that the amount of power generation is unstable with changing depends on the weather condition. Flying the kite is necessarily to blow strong enough wind constantly. However, we can’t expect the day that has weak wind not to kite work or too strong wind to control the kite. These kinds of the day are the disadvantages for this system to produce much amount of energy. In addition to that, flying kite is possible to crash and give a huge damage to people or environment on the ground. He explained that the bigger kite would produce larger power. Even if the control system commends the kite correctly, unexpected strong wind or weather would break the part of the kite accidentally. They have to have experiment more and more and prove that autonomous power generating wind is safe.
I believed that autonomous power generating wind could become one of the main generation power portions in the future after proved it is safe. He showed the evidence that kite produce much amount of electricity, 10 kilowatts in thousands of hours. This energy is all clean and enough amount of power generation.
Yes, it does. Japan has a variety type of renewable resources, for example, solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass. Especially, we have domestic solar energy generations. According to the ISEP (institute for sustainable energy policies), percentage of annual power generation from solar power is about 9.9 % in 2022. Since 1990s, the renewable energy trend is coming all over the world, Japanese renewable power technology has been growing gradually. Now we are the third place of solar power electric generations in the world after the U.S. The reason why Japan likes solar energy is the solar power doesn’t produce greenhouse gases and it is easy for individuals to take equipment in. Japan is the small country, so Japanese citizens can put the solar panels on the top of their house easier than other energy equipment. As the technology develop, percentage of annual power generation from solar power could be increasing in the future.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion!
I agree with your opinion. No matter how prepared we are, we can’t handle sudden weather changes. So I find this problem very difficult to overcome.
And as you said, there is also the risk of crashes. Imagining a giant kites falling from the sky is very scary!
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Thanks for sharing the comment, Karin! I thought his idea would be successful, but after reading your comments I realized that there were too many challenges. I thought it was dangerous even at the experimental stage, because if the kite crashes, it can cause great damage to people and the environment on the ground.
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a) Through this video, I thought that Saul Griffith’s idea that using kites as a renewable energy source will be successful in the future because of the advances in technology. There are many advantages using kite to make energy. For example, it enables us to reduce the use of fossil fuels, which leads to climate change and energy crises. As he said in the video, wind power is the second largest renewable resources, and it has huge power to supply humanity 200 times over. So, using kite makes it possible to get much power of the wind because the ability to travel through the air for longer period of time and fly higher than fixed-wing turbines allows them to generate more energy in a unit of time. However, there are also some disadvantages in his idea. For instance, wind power using kites are easily affected by weather. In case of the thunderstorms, it is more difficult to fly a kite than on a good day, which means a certain level of power generation efficiency can no longer be maintained. And, if the kite is flown high, it may have an impact on aircraft and on other birds. Therefore, if technological advances can solve these challenges, his idea will succeed in the future.
b) In Japan, thermal power generation using fossil fuel is the main method of energy generation, but in recent years, various renewable energy sources have also been used. One of the examples of renewable energy sources used in Japan is solar power generation. The use of solar power generation is increasing every year, and with the support of government and municipal assistance, it is being introduced in every household. The introduction of a system for electric power companies to purchase electricity generated by solar power following the widespread use of solar panels was another driver for the rapid spread of solar power generation. Also, hydroelectric power generation is another renewable energy source that has been attracting attention in recent years. Japan is blessed with abundant water resources due to its high rainfall and many rivers, making it an ideal environment for hydroelectric power generation. Recently, small and medium-sized hydropower generation using rivers and agricultural water that do not require large structures has been increasing.
(375 words)
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a) Do you think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful or not? What are the positive and negative aspects? Explain.
I think it is difficult to succeed with his idea. Because it is not realistic. To make megawatt scale machines that as he mentioned costs, needs space to experiment and takes time. These can also be considered negative points. However, as he said if his idea succeeds, it can make an amount of energy that is clean electricity and it contributes to fly at 2,000 feet. It helps to improve energy efficiency. This is the reason that I think his idea is difficult to achieve.
b) Does your country make use of renewable energy? Give examples.
In Japan, the share of renewable energy in electricity generation reached approximately 21,7%. Then, the Japanese government increased its target for the share of renewable energy to 38% by 2030. Furthermore, the country intends to become entirely carbon neutral by 2050. The reality is that Japan has limited indigenous fossil fuel resources. It means incorporation of renewable energy is very important and in demand.
Actually, coal and LNG (liquefied Natural Gas) account for more than half of the total energy in Japan. Solar is only 10%. Wind power generation accounts for less than 1%. One of the reasons is geography. Japan is located in an area where earthquakes occur. However, there are many mountains that haven’t been used yet. It means there is space to make wind power. I think there is a good chance that wind power generation will become more common and spread in the future in Japan.
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Thank you for sharing your idea.I agree with your opinion.
I think the challenge is whether they can secure a space large enough to conduct experiments for this project.
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I think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful in theory, but it takes much more effort to put it into practical use.
The positive aspects of his idea are that generating wind energy from kites is clean and it can generate more power than a wind turbine because it flies higher and sweeps through more sky. On the other hand, the negative aspects are that kites highly rely on wind direction and they need huge space to fly.
It is a very bold and creative idea and I would like to see it become a part of the national energy-generating method. I’m not sure if a kite flew by a robot, can it fly in the area without wind? Or we can invent a flying robot to replace the kite and generate energy while flying across the sky. If it is possible, then this method will not be limited by geographical conditions that can only be applied in the area with enough wind. Furthermore, with kites or robots flying in the higher sky instead of building wind farms on the land, it can reduce the area of land used and probably will not have any impact on migratory birds.
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In Taiwan, we use solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and a very low percentage of geotherm. Hsinchu is the city I grew up in and is famous for its strong wind, so there are many offshore wind farms along the coastline. Because of the geographical advantage, there are 16 potential wind farms in Taiwan Strait, among the world’s top 20 potential wind farms. So I think Taiwan should work harder on renewable energy, instead of keeping using coal and gas.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. It is interesting to learn about energy sources in each country.
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a I believe it’s challenging for his idea to succeed. Weather is unpredictable, so if the concept relies on kite mechanics for power generation, it could crash if the wind suddenly stops. Even beyond wind concerns, any accident leading to a crash could result in significant damage. Essentially, I see the idea’s overreliance on weather as a major drawback. Another concerning aspect is the high altitude at which it operates, making visual inspection impossible in case of trouble and hindering quick problem resolution. Practical implementation seems difficult until these risks are mitigated and safety is ensured. On the positive aspect is the potential to efficiently produce vast amounts of renewable energy compared to conventional methods. Additionally, since the generation occurs far above human sightlines, it wouldn’t disrupt the landscapes of our living areas. In truth, while I admire all unique renewable energy generation methods, I believe many are impractical due to safety concerns outweighing their anticipated benefits. I consider this generation method to be one of those.
b In Japan, renewable energy is being utilized, including wind power generation, biomass power generation, geothermal power generation, and solar power generation. According to recent surveys, renewable energy in Japan accounts for 20% of the total energy consumption, but this lags behind the global trend. Japan still relies mainly on thermal power generation. Since using fossil fuels for power generation leads to environmental degradation, Japan, as an advanced nation, should be more proactive in developing renewable energy sources. However, this doesn’t mean no efforts are being made in Japan. Specifically, in Suita City, Osaka Prefecture, there is a place called the Suita Sustainable Smart Town. This is a smart town equipped with not only apartments but also shopping malls, parks, and other amenities. This place covers the city’s electricity needs with 100% electricity generated from solar and wind power. It can be expected that more places like this will emerge.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. It is interesting for me because your opinion is opposite for my opinion. But I agree that depends on the weather.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. I agree with you. As you mentioned, his idea involves operation at high altitudes, making visual inspections impossible in case of trouble, and there are several risks to consider. It will take time to mitigate these risks and ensure safety.
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(a) I believe his idea will be successful. I think that is like a dream. But If the idea comes true, a lot of people and the environment will be helped. I have reason to think that his idea will be successful. Because in 1945, the refrigerator factory made airplanes. And also, before World War 2, airplanes were made 1000 per a year. But in 1945, they were made 100,000 per year. So, everyone thought impossible things, but people could do this. I think it is important to people’ s mind and passion. Positive aspect is it can generate tons of clean electricity at 2000 feet. They can make more energy than wind. Negative aspect is that it seems to take a long time. It’s likely to be pretty difficult.
(b) According to gurilab, our country makes about 20% renewable energy. It is hydrogen, solar, wind, geothermal power generation and biomass. Renewable energy in Japan is increasing year by year, increasing by 10.3% compared to 2014.But lower level using renewable energy compared with other countries. Japan suggested a goal of raising the proportion of renewable energy to 36-38% in the 2030 Energy Plan in 2021.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion. I think his idea will succeed too. His idea looks impossible to achieve, however, people could achieve success in human history even if it looks impossible to make it come true.
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a) I think his idea will be successful although there are negative aspects. What’s a positive aspect is that there is a possibility to generate a huge amount of renewable energy by using wind energy instead of fossil fuels. He mentioned flying high attitude create tons of clean electricity by developing control system. This way is kind of environment and compensate a energy shortages using only the power of nature. As a negative aspect, it sounds a little reckless as he said. It might cost a lot of money to develop a control system so that generate a large amount of wind power. It’s not easy to make a system to transform the strong wind power into huge energy. But I expect that the control system will become better quality gradually by repeating try & error as past investors. To achieve that, continuous assistance is needed, therefore, government or investor should have an interest his idea.
b) Energy self-sufficiency ratio in Japan is low compared with other developing countries. Japan depends on the import to obtain natural resources because there are few energy resources in Japan. Solar power ratio tends to be high, however, solar power is influenced by natural conditions. Furthermore, Labor costs and maintenance costs are higher than in other countries, it is difficult to maintain supply. Japan has several nuclear power plants, but after the 2011 earthquake, there were many negative opinions about the development of nuclear power plants. The government is trying to restart nuclear power plants step by step, but public opposition is still strong. Japan has attempted to spread EV cars recently. Although the rate of EVs is low, it is rising every year. Possibility of electric cars has become a controversial topic in Japan. It is expected reducing CO2, while it is concerned about costs and a lack of charging spot. Other than that, it is said that manufacturing and disposal processes of electric car are not environmentally friendly. Except for above, the use of hydrogen is progressing, and Japan uses hydrogen to manufacture steel. Developing hydrogen energy has also problem of cost. Government has a plan to invest hydrogen energy more than now in order to be close to goal of basic hydrogen strategy.
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Thank you for sharing your opinion, I hope this idea works and someone will fund him to start the project, unfortunately this video was in 2009.
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a) Do you think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful or not? What are the positive and negative aspects? Explain.
I think it will work, but it will be only in specific places or environments such as nothing in the air or isolated place. The good point is that it does not require a huge place to put things, and it can be controlled by a developed system then it would sustain longer flight. That means people do not need to be concerned about it flying constantly. In addition, it can provide more renewable energy with tiny movement than other energy resources. However, I guess this system can be used only for a specific area because if the system controls flying they need to choose the location and take birds away from it. What if something flows the air and is stuck into it, it will easily break also machine with a kite. He created a simple style but improved the system, then I believe he will develop it better than this.
b) Does your country make use of renewable energy? Give examples.
Solar power is one of the biggest renewable energy in Japan. Regarding the area of Japan, it is limited to making energy resources, however, we built solar panels everywhere that already exist such as the loof on the buildings, gardens, schools, houses and farmers. It made people think about what renewable energy and sustainable energy are, so nowadays people noticed how important renewable energy is. I am not sure it is connected with this but when people make solar power in the middle of the city, they make also the green and these are surrounding it. So it looks just like the metropolitan which people imagined decades ago because buildings, solar panels and green are combined in the downtown or city.
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a) I think his idea will be successful because there are a lot of positive aspects in his idea. Firstly, it can generate more power than a fixed-wing turbine. He said 10 KW of power were generated by a kite, which is actually enough to power five united states households. Secondly, if this idea is realized, it can create energy more efficiently than wind energy because kites can reach higher altitudes where it is more windy and more powerful. However, there are some negative aspects of his idea. One of them is technological difficulties. He mentioned that researchers are working on making long sustained flight possible, but it would be very difficult to stop in the air for a long time using only wind power. For normal kites, if the wind stopped, the kite would fall to the ground, and sometimes the string would break and the kite would fly away. If the same situations occur with his product, it could cause serious accidents. Therefore, if this problem is overcome, his idea will be successful.
b) Japan is trying to reduce fossil fuel and nuclear use and increase renewable energy use. We realized the danger of nuclear energy because of the nuclear power plant explosion caused by a major earthquake in the past. Since then, Japan has focused on developing renewable energy sources to replace nuclear power. In Japan, solar energy accounts for the largest share of renewable energy. Japan’s installed renewable energy capacity in 2021 is 138 GW, ranking 6th in the world. Of this, solar power generation capacity is 78 GW, ranking third in the world. However, there is a problem installing this. It is difficult to continue to expand vast areas of space for solar panels. To cut down forests to install solar panels would lead to the destruction of nature. Japan is tackling this issue. The government is making effective use of space by installing solar panels on the roofs of public facilities. In addition, recently, solar panels are installed in each home to generate electricity from sunlight and supply it to the home. Thus, Japan is making various efforts to commercialize renewable energy.
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a) In my opinion, Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful, but there are many challenges, so it will take time to succeed. His idea is to use wind at altitude to generate wind energy. The positive aspect is that it can generate more power than fixed-wing turbines. He said that 10KW of power was generated by the kite. This is enough to power five households in the United States. In addition, kites are more windy and more powerful and can reach higher altitudes, so they can produce energy more efficiently than wind energy. Above all, it is good for the earth because it does not use fossil fuel. However, there are also negative aspects. He said that research is underway to enable long-term sustained flight, but it will be difficult to stop in the air for a long time with wind power alone. In the example of a normal kite, when the wind stopped, the kite fell to the ground, and sometimes the string broke and the kite flew away. If the same situation occurs with his products, it can cause a serious accident.In addition, it can be very expensive to develop a control system for large amounts of wind power. Despite these challenges, you will be able to succeed by repeating trial and error, as investors have done in the past.
b) Yes. Japan has a variety of renewable resources. In 2022, renewable energy sources such as hydropower, solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass accounted for 22.4% of the total. Solar power generation accounts for 9.9%, hydropower 7.1%, biomass power generation 4.6%, wind power 0.9%, and geothermal power 0.2%. Even today, more than 70% of electricity comes from fossil fuels. However, further improvement and development is needed due to the low demand and production of renewable energy equipment, manufacturing costs, and development costs due to Japan’s geography and weather conditions that make stable electricity supply a challenge. We realized it is important to use renewable energy for the future, so Japan has started by installing solar panels in each home and apartment. And it will succeed if the government cooperates.
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In my opinion, this idea has the potential for success and must succeed. As Saul Griffith has pointed out, we are facing an energy crisis and need to generate 10 trillion watts or more of new clean energy in the next 30 to 40 years. Wind energy stands as the second-largest renewable resource. Furthermore, wind is an infinite resource that enables us to reduce greenhouse gases and protect the environment.
Using kites, we can capture wind from various directions, maximizing our wind resources. Additionally, the installation and maintenance costs may be lower compared to traditional fixed wind turbines. However, it‘s important to acknowledge the variability of power generation due to unpredictable weather conditions.
Therefore, to harness wind resources effectively, continuous technological development and investment are necessary
In South Korea, we’re using more renewable energy sources like wind, solar, water, biomass, and geothermal to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Solar energy has grown a lot, with solar panels on rooftops, buildings, and solar farms across the country. Wind power is also growing, with onshore and offshore wind farms along coastlines and in rural areas. Hydropower plants generate a lot of electricity, thanks to large-scale dams. Biomass energy from organic materials like wood and agricultural waste is used for electricity generation. Lastly, geothermal energy is being explored for electricity and heating, though it’s still in the early stages.
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2. Japan has a variety type of renewable resources, such as geothermal, hydro, biomass, solar and so on. Renewable power technology in Japan has been growing gradually. The most common renewable energy source in Japan is solar power. Because it is more easy for each household to put equipments on our house. We can put the solar panels on the top of our house more easily. Solar power will be used in the future.
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a)
I think Saul Griffith’s idea will be successful. There are some positive aspects and negative aspects in terms of his idea. One of the positive aspects of generating power by kites is that we can produce more electricity than existed wind power. Wind has a huge potential to create energy, and the potential is the second largest after solar power. However, we can not still use the potential fully because most of the wind power is occupied above 300 feet. The wind power plants that we are now using can not reach higher than 300 feet. Therefore, if we can succeed in generating wind power by kites, people can make more electricity and it can help to achieve the goal that people have to make 10 trillion watts or more of new clean energy. One of the negative aspects of this innovative idea is in the process. To generate power by using this idea, we need to keep kites in the sky. Otherwise, it can not supply stable power to households, companies, and so on. So, a negative aspect of this technology is the barrier in terms of control system.
b)
Japan uses various kinds of renewable energy to make electricity without hurting the environment. They use things like solar power, which comes from the sun, and wind power, which comes from the wind. They also use hydropower, which is made by water moving in rivers. Japan has lots of windy areas, especially along its coast and in the mountains. They install wind turbines in these places. These turbines have blades that spin when the wind blows. As they spin, they generate electricity. Japan is investing more in wind energy because it’s clean and doesn’t produce pollution like burning fossil fuels does. Wind energy helps Japan reduce its reliance on imported fuels and fight climate change. However, there are challenges, like finding suitable locations for turbines and dealing with unpredictable wind patterns. Still, Japan is working on improving technology and infrastructure to make wind energy more reliable and efficient.
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He suggested that give these young people a mentor. And give something positive as social for these people. Also he suggested a program that included drawing and music. I guess his suggestion is good for these young people. Because a lot of young people don’t know something, like society and the world. I think that is why a lot of young people go to jail. If young people know something, It will reduce crime by young people. And I don’t know about young people in jail but if they don’t receive the same education as normal students, they should take education. If possible, they should receive a better quality education than normal students.
I guess that it is not a serious problem in Japan. However it is possible to only I don’t know this problem. If it is not a serious problem in Japan, It should be a more serious problem. Because, young people who did crimes should be reduced. Adults should monitor young people to stop crime.But I feel japanese young criminals are less than other countries. If it is a serious problems in Japan, It is not good that there are too many young criminals.
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