August 18, 2017

In conjunction with the solar eclipse that is taking place on Monday, August 21, 2017, Dr. Razi Nalim of the School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI will be teaching about the environmental pollution implications of different types of power generation, such as from solar energy and fossil-fuel combustion. This total solar eclipse will be visible in totality within a band across the entire contiguous United States; it will only be visible in other countries as a partial eclipse. 

“One of the major issues of the shift towards renewable energy such as wind and solar is that these sources are often unpredictably variable”, stated Nalim. “Therefore, other more conventional sources of electricity have to be ready to quickly ramp up as needed. If traditional steam-turbines using coal power are used in standby mode, they actually will be burning a lot of fuel and creating pollution even if no power is delivered, and they are slow to pick up load.”