Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
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Importance of Alternative
Energy
As the world watches, the price of oil rises, the world economy falls, and oil
companies gets rich; one must ask what are we going to do? Alternative energy needs to
be further developed because these alternative fuels sources will lead to less pollution
world wide and more jobs with more money. There are many different energy sources
they all have there advantages and disadvantages. Four different sources of energy are
hydrogen, wind, solar, geothermal. Each of these should be examined to see how it can
because of where it comes from. Hydrogen comes from water. Water (H2O) which is 2/3
hydrogen and 1/3 oxygen. In order to separate the hydrogen and oxygen from water an
electric current is used. This results in forming a hydrogen gas, which is stored in
pressurized tanks like propane tanks. The hydrogen gas then can be distributed to
customers.
General Motors is now working on a car that will run on hydrogen; it will be done
by 2010. Honda also is working on the FCX which is another fuel cell car. We call these
cars fuel-cell. The fuel cell system chemically converts hydrogen to electricity and has
water as a byproduct. This will have the potential to replace the internal combustion
engine which is an engine where hot air builds up pressure and cause the movement of
solid parts of the engine. It turns in to water because it comes out hydrogen and the
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oxygen hits it and it turns to water. ("Consider the Alternatives"). A way to understand
this would be to think of blood, it starts out blue but the oxygen in the air makes you
bleed red.
Hydrogen is cleaner and safer to use then oil. The down fall of this fuel source is
that more research is needed to make it easier to use. Scientists are working on a way to
Wind turbines are large steel, free standing structures with a shaft, blades and a
generator. When the wind blows on the blades, the blades start to spin. This is due to the
kinetic energy of wind. As the blades start to spin they spin the shaft. The shaft sends the
power to a generator. The power from the shaft moves large magnets around a coil which
The advantage of wind energy is that it’s clean and renewable. Global wind power
capacity rises about 28% each year. At that rate we may double our global wind power
capacities in less than 4 years. Germany is the leader in wind power capacity and the
The disadvantages of wind power are that birds can get in the way of the blades and die.
Just remember what ever you do something negative will happen. Even wind makes
tornadoes. In the USA we have the strongest wind zone in the world. Behind the Rockie
mountains is the nations strongest wind zone. But why do we lack in wind power?
“Wind farms cost in the area of $1,000 per Kilo Watts (KW) of capacity, so a
wind farm consisting of seven 1.8-Mega Watts (MW) turbines runs about $12.6 million.
The "payback time" for a large wind turbine -- the time it takes to generate enough
electricity to make up for the energy consumed building and installing the turbine -- is
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about three to eight months, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
(“Udall”)
Transportation of the parts for the wind mill takes a lot of work. The wind
generator may weigh 240,000 pounds. Trucks have to be specially made because they
have to carry the wind blade which is over 180 feet long. That is three times the weight
Energy from sun light is converted into energy using solar panels. Solar panels are
made of silicon. Silicon absorbs the light and eventually transforms it into an electrical
current with the help of other electrons. Each panel has a 25 year life span. Solar panels
are fifty percent affective meaning they can only turn half the power from sun light into
energy. Solar panels may not get sun all year long depending on where they are.
The picture above is an example of a typical 2 Kilo Watt system, a really a small
system. The solar panels are really only a small part of the system but are the most
important piece. After the solar panel the electric current must go though a charge
controller then goes to other places of the system. A small system like this one can cost
about $32,000.
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The down falls of a solar energy system is its cost. This system is very expensive.
The pros of this system are like the rest, free energy and yet renewable.
Geothermal is energy from the earth. “Geo” means earth. “Thermal” means heat.
So geothermal is heat from under the ground. Five percent of all the geothermal energy
under the U.S. would generate enough electricity to meet the needs of 260 million
generated when hot water or steam underground is piped to the surface to drive a turbine,
usually through heating an intermediate working fluid that actually turns the turbine's
blades. The turbine drives a dynamo that then produces the electricity. Crucially, the
temperature of the piped-up water dictates the efficiency of a turbine-based system: the
hotter the better, with a minimum of about 200 degrees Fahrenheit needed.”
Geothermal energy has the needed power to run the country power at current
levels for 30,000 years and is free energy and renewable. Washington State has the high
temperature resources that are required for electricity generation. Cons of geothermal
energy are that it is not efficient and cost a lot of cash about $3.5 million to $4 million per
What all of this means is with these four energy sources we can change our future.
We can build our geothermal plants on our west coast. Raise our large wind mills in the
plains and our solar panels. On the east coast build our hydro plants. We can show the
world that we have our own sources. This time we won’t import energy but export. This
time global energy won’t be a problem. This time oil won’t be a problem.
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Some people wonder how they can fix this problem. I say lets spread the word.
That is why the web site I’m going to make will be about spreading the word about
alternative energy. It will be where you can get the facts and at the same time sharing
ideas with others. It will be were you can walk in with no idea about the topic and walk
out a genius on the topic with a group of friends, made on the site, that will back you up
My idea of how to do this is to set up the site so that it will have the facts and
allow people to post in forums so that we can have a community on the site. This is a
example of advocacy because it will inform people on the topic and it would be indirect
Works Cited
Eastwood, Ken. "Power into the future." Australian Geographic July-Aug. 2002: 36-36.
<http://www.nesea.org/energy/info/wind.html>.
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Olson, Robert L. "The promise and pit falls of hydrogen energy." The futurist July-Aug.
2003: 46-52.
Sawin, Janet L. "Wind Power Continues Rapid Rise." World Watch 21.2 (July 2008) 4
December 2008.
Predd, Prachi P. "Why have we ignored the green energy beneath our feet?" Discover
Magazine 2008.
Udall, James R. "Living off the grid, part 3 a new era in home owner hydro." Mother
<http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/states/alternatives/resources_wa.cfm?print#end#end>.