State Electricity on Google Earth: How many solar panels would it take?
Todd Greene California State University-Chico, Billy Goodman Passaic Valley High School, Maureen Padden McMaster University, CLEAN Community Collection
In this activity, students calculate electricity use by state and determine, using Google Earth, how much land would be required to replace all sources of electricity with solar panels.
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This activity presents a basic outline for a class project using Google Earth. Activity should be preceded by a lesson on how to use Google Earth in a scientific context to provide students with the basic skills needed to use this tool.
Educator will need to provide handouts and complete instructions.
The instructor can provide information on solar panel costs and/or state population, to expedite the lesson, or have students research this information.
This open-ended project has students use Google Earth to gather information to do an analysis of the feasibility of converting current non-renewable energy sources to solar energy.
Students use data to examine statewide electricity use. Students perform calculations to determine the extent of land area needed to supply the entire state with electricity via solar power. This activity requires merging data from multiple sources and considering the feasibility of using large areas of land to generate solar power.
The notion of land use and trade-offs needs to be considered in this activity, so students may have to discuss where to set aside large tracts of land for solar panels. This discussion could include how land is used by underserved groups.
Some students may need more scaffolding and specific instruction than this activity provides.
Educators need to be familiar with Google Earth in order to teach this lesson. Links to teaching tips with Google Earth are provided.
This activity does not have student handouts or instructions. These materials would need to be generated by the educator.
No background materials on the topic are provided - educator might have to provide additional information.
This activity is designed to use Google Earth but you can access the data through the related urls below.
Some of the Google Earth files do not state the source of the data, although data is also available from the Department of Energy. Information about solar panels is not supplied so students must find their own materials for that part of the assignment.
