In my final thesis we research acceptability of different technologies for electricity production. These technologies have been defined on the foundation of eight types of power plants. The next were chosen: coal-fired power plant, gas-fired power plant, nuclear power plant, hydroelectric power plant, solar power plant, wind power plant, biomass power plant and geothermal power plant.
When determining the acceptability of these technologies, we were attentive on these three concepts: environment, society and the power system. To evaluate environment’s acceptability of electricity production, we needed to expose the effect that electricity production has on the environment. Bad effects have prevailed, from well known air pollution of coal-fired power plants and radioactive pollution of nuclear power plants, to less known negative effects of natural gas extraction and environmental issues of battery production.
In terms of social acceptability the most interesting was the relationship that formed between man and nuclear power plants. The nature of these relationship was mostly dictated by nuclear disasters that happened in Chernobyl, Fukushima and elsewhere. We also write about renewable electricity generation and how it was able to attract societies’ attention.
The goal of the fifth chapter was to give an electrotechnical background, which we cannot overlook while researching the most appropriate technology for electricity production. Through understanding, what kind of role do different kinds of power plants have in the power system, we could expose that societally and environmentally acceptable technologies (with little negative effects on environment and society), such as wind and solar power plants, are not always also technically acceptable. Unavailableness and unpredictability of electricity production from these technologies is just one of these problems. In addition to the roles technologies have in the power system, we had written about the costs and systemic services of power plants and also about the quality of electricity production, which expresses itself in the availability and predictability.
The practical part of the final thesis consists of an online survey. The point of it was to extend the theme of social acceptance of electricity production with concrete data. The survey was developed in a form of a test, in which we tested acquired knowledge on electricity production technologies. The questions encompassed themes of pollution, coal consumption, security of nuclear power plants, radioactive radiation and renewable energy sources. The second part of the survey was designed to gather personal opinions of interviewees about electricity production technologies. The interviewees needed to take a side about supporting nuclear, solar and wind power plant construction. They were also asked about the safety of nuclear power plant, the issues of wind power plants and positioning power plants into the environment.
From the results of the survey we confirmed the initial hypothesis we had. People find it hard to imagine, how much coal does one coal-fired power plant use. Nuclear disasters had a strong effect on what the interviewees or in fact the whole society thinks of nuclear power plants. The green appearance of wind and solar power plants convinced a lot of the interviewees, that the ideal electricity production would consist only of these two types of power plants. We find out, that technologies of electricity production are much more than just a physical system, rather they live in symbiosis with the environment, society and the power system.
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