Power Information Fluency – Letter to Justin Trudeau

Part 1

Dear Justin Trudeau,

Hello, my name is Maddy Sawa and I am a grade nine student at Riverside Secondary School in Port Coquitlam BC. Recently I have been learning in school all about climate change and I have been doing a lot of research on the different types of renewable energy sources and I thought I would share with you some of my findings. 

After considering many clean energy sources such as solar power and wind power, I came to learn about geothermal energy and I believe that this particular energy source could be a huge asset to this country. Geothermal energy is energy that comes from the heat of the earth. Magma heats several miles below the earth’s crust and that magma heats what we call aquifers (layers of permeable rock filled with ground water). Giant wells can be drilled into the earth’s surface to reach those aquifers and transfer it’s geothermal fluid (heated ground water) to power plants on the surface. Those power plants convert the heat from that geothermal fluid into energy which can be used for many things such as electricity generation, heating, cooling, direct use, etc.

This form of energy is a renewable, clean and efficient. We consider geothermal energy base load energy, meaning that the energy does not vary like solar power would as it requires sunlight to function.  It is a renewable energy source as every time it rains, that rainwater makes it’s way down to the aquifers for it to then be brought up to create energy. It is a never ending cycle. Power plants also have a very small small footprint in comparison to other energy sources. They are very compact and take up less land per GWh than solar, wind and coal. Geothermal power plants admit no greenhouse gases and they consume less water over a lifetime then most conventional technologies today. On top of being eco-friendly and efficient, power plants produce energy 24/7, regardless of weather conditions therefor it would be a smart economical decision. 

The only downfall is that geothermal projects are expensive and take a long time to build. Most power plants take a few years to create. Despite these downfalls, I still believe that this could be a great investment for our country. Maybe instead of putting our money into energy sources that aren’t as effective or that harm our environment, our money could be put towards this. Currently in Canada we have extensive geothermal resources but no power plants as it is considered too much of an investment risk. However I bag to differ. In BC alone, we have a huge amount of potential development areas just waiting to be used.  

Overall, I think that geothermal energy is a great way to get the energy we need in our country as it is renewable, efficient, works well, does not vary, and all without harming the environment. I hope that this information can help you with any further decisions to be made around climate change. 

Sincerely, 

Maddy Sawa

Part 2

  1. Some questions I asked in order to research my topic were;  Is geothermal energy renewable? Does is leave a big carbon footprint? It is expensive to produce? How does it work? Where on earth is geothermal energy being produced and is being used the most? How does this type of energy power our homes? What are the positive and negative effects of geothermal energy?
  2. I researched using digital tools such as websites, videos and blogs. I searched using google, the district e resources and YouTube. 
  3. I began my process by researching about clean energy sources. I read about many different energy sources such as solar power, marine power, wind power and much more but geothermal seamed the most interesting to me so I then decided to research that further. I opened up a few different articles, one from world book, one from gale and a few others I found through google. I took notes from what I read then I began to put my thoughts together in this post. 
  4. I verified the sites I found by looking at a few different things. I looked at who the author was and if he/she was credible, I made sure the the sites were secure, I used sites recommended by the school district, I looked at the date it was published, I double checked that what certain sites said matched up with others, etc. I cited my sources using a website called easybib in the MLA style. 
  5. Overall I feel that the process went smoothly. At the beginning it was hard to decide what I wanted my topic to be as there were so many to choose from but once I narrowed down, it was surprisingly easy to find good sites with lots of information on my topic. I feel that I could have maybe researched about an energy source that is more available in Canada as our country isn’t the best for geothermal energy, hence why most power plants are in the united states. Also, accidentally combined both question one and two from part one so if I had a chance to make it better, I would fix that mistake. 

Citations

Websites:

  • Energy.gov, www.energy.gov/science-innovation/energy-sources/renewable-energy/geothermal.
  • Michaelides, Efstathios E. “Geothermal energy.”World Book Student, World Book, 2019,www.worldbookonline.com/student-new/#/article/home/ar751375. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.
  • Liming, Drew. “Careers in geothermal energy: power from below.” Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Winter 2012, p. 20+. Gale In Context: Canada, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A320424385/GPS?u=43sbo&sid=GPS&xid=df3c06a7. Accessed 5 Dec. 2019.
  • Staff, EasyBib. “The Free Automatic Bibliography Composer.” EasyBib, Chegg, 1 Jan. 2019, easybib.com/mla8/website/search-form.
  • “Geothermal Power BC.” Clean Energy BC, www.cleanenergybc.org/about/clean-energy-sectors/geothermal.

Photos:

  • Slavikova, Sara Popescu. “Geothermal Energy Pros and Cons.” Greentumble, 30 Aug. 2019, greentumble.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-geothermal-energy/.
  • Team, Editorial. “Geothermal Energy.” SIRIUS ENERGY, 23 Jan. 2019, sirius-energy.com/blog/2019/01/23/geothermal-energy/.

YouTube:

  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7q653ffQO4

 

 

 

One thought on “Power Information Fluency – Letter to Justin Trudeau

  1. Excellent information fluency post on geothermal energy. Great letter to Justin Trudeau. I really like how you have found some great sub-questions to lead you to get a well-rounded perspective on your topic. You have done a great job sharing the digital tools you used and citing your sources. Good debrief on your product and process as well!

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