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What is World Met. Day?
Every year on 23 March, the World
Meteorological Organization - a specialised agency of the
United Nations that unites all meteorological services around
the world - commemorates its formation with World Met. Day.
In 2005 the theme for World Met. Day is Weather, Climate, Water
and Sustainable Development.
How is the Met Office celebrating World
Met. Day?
The Met Office is celebrating World Met. Day by encouraging primary
schools to organise activities which focus on one particular aspect
of sustainable development - renewable energy.
We can harness renewable energy from natural sources in several
ways.
- Solar power
- Wind power
- Water power
How can your school join in?
Would you like to investigate how the weather and climate where
you are affect renewable energy sources? Why not try these activities.
We'd like to know how you get on in your class, so please e-mail
photos and descriptions of your activities to WorldMetDay@metoffice.gov.uk
We will put the best pieces of work on the web site.
Uganda schools
weather experiments report
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There are two ways to take advantage
of the power generated from the Sun - photovoltaic cells (PVs)
that convert sunlight directly into electricity, and solar
thermal collectors which produce hot water and warm air. |
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The most common way of getting energy from the wind is
through 'wind farms' of turbines. Wind turbines usually
have three blades which are blown around by the wind. The
blades are connected to a shaft inside the turbine, which
is connected to a generator which produces the electricity.
The first wind farm was set up in the UK in November 1991.
Now there are around 1,000 wind turbines in operation, including
two offshore wind farms, one in Liverpool Bay and one in
the North Sea, providing 0.3-0.4% of the UK's electricity
supply.
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There are three ways of generating energy from water.
- Hydroelectric power. This is the most common form of
generating electricity which works when a mass of water held
back by a dam, is suddenly released all at once, sending the
water at great force through a turbine.
- Tidal power. This works by using the gravitational
pull of the moon, which creates tidal rises and falls, to produce
energy. It's not a very common system at the moment, although
experts believe 5.5% of Britain's electricity could be produced
by tidal power.
- Wave power. This uses the energy created by waves.
There are several ways of capturing the energy from waves, including
building dams or pipes for the water to go up.
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The effectiveness of renewable energy sources depends on
many factors but for solar, wind and water sources the most
important are weather (day-to-day atmospheric conditions)
and climate (how weather acts over many years).
The weather and climate in Africa is very different to
that in the UK, so we asked schools in the UK, Uganda and
South Africa to investigate how the weather and climate
affect renewable energy sources where they are. We will
be adding information and pictures about what they found
over the next few weeks.
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