This programme aims to develop geographical ideas around the issue of renewable energy or ‘green power’. It will help young people to make informed judgements about how we use the natural environment by engaging them with an environmental issue and will create opportunities for development in the classroom.
The programme starts with the presenter, Donna Traynor, giving us a riddle:
At the BBC Television
Town Challenge set, with the mountains of Mourne as a backdrop, we see lots of different energy types in action and hear lots of words connected with energy – muscle power, electricity, fuel, generator, fossil fuels, electrical energy, sound energy, battery and power stations.
In the old days people used wind and water as power sources; nowadays electricity is used for so many things. We learn that the resource that is used to produce electricity is where problems arise. Most electricity in Northern Ireland is made from fossil fuels that are non-renewable and also pollute our environment. Donna tells us that to protect our health and save resources we need to find other ways to trap power. These ways are not necessarily new, they are from the world around us. Today people are going back to SUN, WIND and WATER.
Eadaoin and Declan, co-presenters with Donna, now go off to find out more about renewable energy resources in Northern Ireland. Have a close look at their hats!
Their first stop is at Patterson’s spade mill in Co. Antrim. Here John Shirley explains how water from the Ballymartin Water drives a water turbine, which in turn powers the machinery to make spades in the mill. He summarises this simply by saying that they borrow the water, use its power and then give it back to the river without polluting it at all. This use of water as a power source is also discussed with relation to hydroelectricity in which the power from the water is used to turn a water turbine that makes electricity. Eadaoin and Declan’s next stop is Ballycopeland windmill in County Down. The windmill catches the wind, the sails go round and so turn lots of cogs inside which drive the grinding stones, so grinding the corn. In 6 locations in NI there are wind farms. These great wind turbines catch the wind and use it to make electricity.
Next Eadaoin and Declan take to the mountains at Shannaghmore outdoor education centre. Here the warden, Andy Carden, tells them how they make their own electricity by using power from the sun. Eadaoin and Declan climb the mountain behind the centre and find large solar cells that make electricity from light. The power is stored in batteries and then used to heat water for hot showers which children need after a wet day in canoes or bouldering. Shannaghmore also has 2 wind turbines which are used for the same purpose.
Having discovered that energy from natural sources can be used to power many things Eadaoin and Declan find out that we can all do our bit to save energy.
We can help look after our environment by doing 2 things:
- Using energy that is made from renewable sources, such as wind, water and sun.
- Reducing the amount of electricity we use as most of our electricity is made from fossil fuels.
Finally Eadaoin and Declan find out about saving energy. They have some fun at the NIE energy road show, where games are used to help get the message of saving energy across. To conclude we get some 'Top Tips'.
- Boiling only one cup of water in a kettle saves enough energy in a week to power a TV for 26 hours!
- A computer monitor left on for 1 hour wastes enough energy to print 61 pages!
- If every household installed just 1 energy saving light bulb, we could save enough energy to light 2 million homes for 1 year!
