Public Open House at the Hopkins Power Plant

Sunday, October 13, from 1 to 5 pm

More details later, including directions, but I hope that my schedule will allow a group of our future engineers to go through a tour together and get more info than they usually provide.

This open house at the Hopkins power plant is a big deal, with lots of things going on that are suitable for children of all ages, but what should interest you is the opportunity to tour a large operating power plant that uses a new, highly efficient system for generating electricity from natural gas. Your homework assignment is to read Example 19.2 on page 318 of our physics textbook by Wolfson. If you aren't in physics yet, you can still read that page in one of the copies available in the Learning Commons. The city has a short description of this new facility on this web page, which includes a link to an article about the project.

The FAMU-FSU ASME students will be there with their robots and other display items. The fire department will have a truck there and might also demonstrate how they use the "jaws of life" to extract people from a wrecked car. Power company linemen will show how they work on power lines. There are usually lots of things going on. There also might be some folks from TAEVA with their homemade electric vehicles, since they were there two years ago as noted in this blog entry from 2011.

LOCATION:
Google Map Link
Zoom out and switch from satellite to map to see the location, which is just a few miles west of the TCC campus.

IMPORTANT:
The info from the City emphasizes that you cannot bring in large backpacks and that all purses and small backpacks or fanny packs will be searched at the gate. They do not mention banning cameras like they have in the past. They might have given up because of smart phones, but please be aware of the possibility that photography might be forbidden in certain areas of the plant.

REALLY IMPORTANT:
You need to wear real shoes (closed toes) to go on the tour. This is an operating industrial facility, not a tourist site.

You can read the City of Tallahassee press release about it by clicking on this link