Danish Wind and Ions
Provided by: MIT OpenCourseWare|Published on: October 25, 2023|Last updated: September 26, 2026
Grades: 11, 12, AP
Type: Videos
Subjects: Physics, Engineering
Authors: Professor Jeffrey Grossman
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Synopsis
- This video lecture discusses the challenges of expanding renewable energy, the evolution of ion shuttling and storage over the past 150 years, and how gasoline compares to other energy sources when it comes to electrochemical storage, looking at data on wind towers in Denmark and solar energy in Arizona.
- Students will learn that wind and solar energy can be somewhat unpredictable, newer battery materials have lead to faster ion shuttling, and gasoline has more energy per volume than ethanol, wood, and batteries.
Teaching Materials
Positives
- Under the video, you will find its downloadable transcript, which is easy for students to annotate and highlight as they watch the video.
- Students can download the video as an MP4 file, which is helpful if you are assigning this video to students with limited internet access.
Additional Prerequisites
- Students should already know how fossil fuel emissions negatively impact the environment and should be familiar with alternative energy sources.
- It may benefit students to understand the environmental damage that (sometimes) comes with hydroelectric energy.
- Students should be familiar with related concepts that provide necessary background information, such as the composition of a battery, the shuffling of ions and electrons, and the idea of getting energy from "rolling things down hills."
Differentiation
- Students can use this video for an informative essay on the challenges of expanding renewable energy and some of the solutions for those challenges.
- Teachers can use this video as a conceptual introduction to energy return on investment (EROI).
- This video can support a lesson on innovations in renewable energy during the 20th and 21st centuries.
- This video can enhance a classroom discussion on the societal and economic alterations that could lessen demand for energy production.
The video on solid-state chemistry highlights the importance of improving energy storage capacity to scale renewable energy. It evaluates the need to improve the storage capacity of lithium-ion batteries commonly used and also the pumped hydro model used in Denmark as model strategies to enhance energy storage capacity. It spotlights on the need to improve all potential renewables that are available or untapped as it varies from one country to the other. This resource has no misconceptions, and is recommended for teaching.
Teaching Tips
Standards
Resource Type and Format
Scientist Reviewed
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Our review process ensures that every resource in our library reflects the current state of climate science.
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