Appendix A

A.1 Energy Units and Prefixes

The SI unit for energy is the joule (J). An equivalent derived unit is the watt second (W·s). Common energy quantities are usually measured in kilowatt hours (kWh). Table A.1 summarizes the units commonly used in the energy sector. Table A.2 shows the prefixes and abbreviations for energy units.

Table A.1 Conversion factors between different units of energy

kJ kcal kWh kg coal equivalent kg oil equivalent m3 natural gas
1 kJ (1 kJ = 1000 Ws) 1 0.238 8 0.000 278 0.000 034 0.000 024 0.000 032
1 kcal 4.186 8 1 0.001 163 0.000 143 0.000 1 0.000 13
1 kWh 3 600 860 1 0.123 0.086 0.113
1 kg coal equivalent 29 308 7 000 8.14 1 0.7 0.923
1 kg oil equivalent 41 868 10 000 11.63 1.428 1 1.319
m3 natural gas 31 736 7 580 8.816 1.083 0.758 1

Table A.2 Prefixes and abbreviations

Prefix Abbrev. Value Prefix Abbrev. Value
kilo k 103 (thousand) milli m 10−3 (thousandth)
mega M 106 (million) micro μ 10−6 (millionth)
giga G 109 (billion) nano n 10−9 (billionth)
tera T 1012 (trillion) pico p 10−12 (trillionth)
peta P 1015 (quadrillion) femto f 10−15 (quadrillionth)
exa E 1018 (quintillion) atto a 10−18 (quintillionth)

A.2 Geographic Coordinates of Power Plants

Many power plants are so large that they can easily be seen in satellite images. The free Google Earth software allows you to display high-resolution satellite images on your home computer. The following list shows the coordinates of some interesting power plants. In Google Earth the coordinates can be entered directly in the following format:

+51° 23′ 23″, +30° 05′ 58″

This stands for 51°23′23″ North, 30°05′58″ East. Negative prefixes are used for South and West.

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Google Earth homepage

Conventional power plants

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51°23′23″ N

30°05′58″ O

 Decommissioned Chernobyl nuclear power plant; four reactor blocks, each with a capacity of 1000 MW. A catastrophic accident occurred in Block IV on 26 April 1986. Today a concrete ‘sarcophagus’ encapsulates the damaged reactor.
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37°25′13″ N

141°01′58″ O

 Ruins of the Fukushima nuclear power plant; six reactor blocks with a total capacity of 4696 MW. On 11 March 2011 a serious reactor accident occurred after an earthquake and a tsunami.
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51°45′47″ N

6°19′44″ O

 Fast breeder reactor at Kalkar, built at a cost of 3,6 billion euros but never commissioned. Today the Wunderland Kalkar leisure park is situated at the site of the former nuclear power plant.
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50°59′36″ N

6°40′05″ O

 Lignite-fired power plant Niederaußem with a total capacity of 3627 MW, built between 1963 and 2003. With emissions amounting to 27.3 million tonnes of CO2, in 2015 it was the power plant with the second highest CO2 emissions in Germany.
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51°50′00″ N

14°27′30″ O

 Lignite-fired power plant Jänschwalde; six blocks, each with a capacity of 500 MW, built between 1976 and 1989. With emissions amounting to 23.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year, it is the power plant with the third highest CO2 emissions in Germany.
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51°04′30″ N

6°27′00″ O

 Garzweiler II open-cast lignite mine. Around 1.3 billion tons of lignite are scheduled to be extracted by 2045 across an area of 48 km2. This requires relocation of 12 villages with a population of 7600.
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57°02′29″ N

111°42′07″ W

 Athabasca open-cast oil sand mine near Forth McMurray in the Canadian province of Alberta. The oil is extracted with the aid of steam. The water demand in the region for this purpose is 435 billion litres per year.

PV installations

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48°08′08″ N

11°41′55″ O

 2.7 MW roof-mounted PV system at the new Messe München trade fair site with 21 900 PV modules; installed in 1997, expanded in 2002 and 2004.
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39°49′55″ N

4°17′55″ W

 1 MW ground-mounted PV installation at Toledo (Spain) with 7936 PV modules, built in 1994.
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52°31′29″ N

13°22′05″ O

 Roof-integrated PV system at Berlin Hauptbahnhof (main train station). 780 PV modules with a capacity of 189 kWp.
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50°00′13″ N

9°55′13″ O

 Erlasee solar array (Bavaria, Germany) with 1464 two-axis tracking PV modules with a total capacity of 11.4 MW, built in 2006.
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51°55′41″ N

14°24′13″ O

 Lieberose solar array (Brandenburg, Germany) with around 700 000 PV modules and a total capacity of 52.79 MW, built in 2009.
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51°34′13″ N

13°44′35″ O

 Finsterwalde solar array (Brandenburg, Germany) with a total capacity of 80.7 MW, built in 2010/2011.
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32°58′20″ N

113°29′27″ W

 Agua Caliente solar array (Arizona, USA) with a capacity of 247 MW in 2012, expanded to 397 MW in 2014.

Solar thermal installations and power plants

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54°51′07″ N

10°30′23″ O

 Solar thermal district heating plant at Marstal (Denmark). Solar collectors with a total area of 17 000 m2 supply 1450 houses with heat.
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37°05′42″ N

2°21′40″ W

 European test centre Plataforma Solar de Almería (Spain) with a solar tower and parabolic trough test fields.
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42°29′41″ N

2°01′45″ O

 Solar melting furnace in Odeillo (France), completed in 1970. 63 heliostats with a total area of 2835 square metres and 20 000-fold concentration achieve temperatures of almost 4000 °C.
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34°51′43″ N

116°49′41″ W

 Solar thermal power plants at Daggett (California, USA). SEGS I with a capacity of 13.8 MW was built in 1985, SEGS II with a capacity of 30 MW was built in 1986, and a 10 MW Solar Two solar tower test plant was built in 1998.
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35°00′58″ N

117°33′40″ W

 Solar thermal power plants at Kramer Junction (California, USA). SEGS III to SEGS VII, each with a capacity of 30 MW, built between 1987 and 1989.
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35°01′56″ N

117°20′50″ W

 Solar thermal trough power plants at Harper Lake (California, USA). SEGS VIII and SEGS IX, each with a capacity of 80 MW, built between 1990 and 1991.
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35°48′00″ N

114°58′35″ W

 Solar thermal trough power plant Nevada Solar One (Nevada, USA) with a capacity of 64 MW, commissioned in 2007.
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37°13′03″ N

3°03′41″ W

 Solar thermal trough power plants Andasol 1 to 3 (Spain) with a capacity of 50 MW each, commissioning between 2008 and 2011.
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37°26′30″ N

6°15′20″ W

 Plataforma Solúcar (Spain) with solar tower power plants PS10 and PS20 with 11 and 20 MW capacity respectively, and three trough power plants with a capacity of 50 MW each.

Windfarms

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55°41′32″ N

12°40′14″ O

 Offshore windfarm Middelgrunden (Denmark); 20 wind turbines, each with a capacity of 2 MW, built in 2001.
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29°10′17″ N

32°37′41″ O

 Windfarm Zafarana (Egypt). In 2011 the installation comprised around 700 wind turbines with a total capacity of around 550 MW.
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32°13′48″ N

100°02′50″ W

 Horse Hollow Wind Energy Centre near Abilene, Texas (USA). 421 wind turbines with a capacity of 735 MW, built in 2006.
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52°38′10″ N

13°25′47″ O

 Berlin is at the bottom of the league when it comes to wind power in Germany. There is just one wind turbine, located at Berlin Pankow, built in 2008.

Hydropower plants

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25°24′27″ S

54°35′19″ W

 Itaipú hydropower plant (Brazil/Paraguay). 20 turbines with a total capacity of 14 GW. The dam wall is 7760 m long and 196 m high.
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30°49′10″ N

111°00′00″ O

 Three Gorges Power Plant in China, built between 1993 and 2006. 26 turbines with a total capacity of 18 200 MW.
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36°00′58″ N

114°44′16″ W

 Hoover Dam (Nevada-Arizona, USA), built between 1931 to 1935; dam wall height 221 m; 17 turbines with a total capacity of 2074 MW.

 

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47°33′22″ N

8°02′56″ O

 Laufenburg run-of-river plant, River Rhine, completed in 1914, electrical capacity 106 MW.
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47°34′12″ N

7°48′46″ O

 Rheinfelden run-of-river plant, River Rhine. Europe's first run-of-river power plant, built in 1899. The power plant was recently refurbished and expanded.
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50°30′34″ N

11°01′16″ O

 Goldisthal pumped-storage plant, Thuringia, Germany. The upper basin holds 12 million m3 of water. The power plant capacity is 1060 MW.
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48°37′08″ N

2°01′11″ W

 Rance tidal power plant (Saint-Malo, France), completed in 1966; 24 turbines with a total capacity of 240 MW.

For readers of this book, all locations are also available as a download. After downloading the following file you can open it directly in Google Earth.

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A.3 Further Reading

 

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Information on renewable energies provided by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
Overview of funding opportunities for energy saving measures and renewable energy systems (in German)
Website of the German Section of the International Solar Energy Society
Comprehensive information on solar thermal energy and photovoltaics (in German)
Information on solar thermal energy and photovoltaics provided by the German Solar Association
Information provided by the German Association for the Promotion of Solar Power (SFV)
Website of the German Wind Energy Association
Website of the German wood fuel and pellet association (in German)
Website of the German Agency for Renewable Resources
Website of the German heat pumps association (in German)
Website of the German Environment Agency
Website of BINE Information Service for energy policy and energy research with a focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
Website containing comprehensive information on the environment, climate protection, and renewables
Information on renewables and climate protection provided by the author
YouTube channel of the author with videos on renewable energies and climate protection

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