Why Do We Need Alternative Energy?

There is little cause to dispute that the world is facing an imminent, multi-faceted crisis. There is, also, little cause to dispute that this crisis is directly related to oil. As the world’s oil supply continues to diminish and will, ultimately, disappear, we are beginning to see the consequence of inaction. Experts have warned, consistently, during the latter half of the 20th century that this impending supply shortage would affect mankind in way’s we could not anticipate.
For example, when fuel supplies go down, and demand does not (in fact, it has continued to increase) it leads to a fuel shortage. This, in turn, causes fuel prices to rise, leading to economic and political failure. In addition, we have the more recently discovered environmental threat of global warming to contend with. The world is at a pivotal stage in history in which mankind must confront these dire issues facing our civilization today. Overcoming this challenge can only be achieved by eliminating our dependence on oil. To do this we must find viable alternative energy sources that will have little to no environmental impact and be steadily available. We are only just breaking ground into alternative energy research. Alternative energy is the frontier of the future.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen is a safe, clean, and renewable energy source and it is already growing into a lucrative business. Hydrogen power works by combining hydrogen and oxygen together in a molecular chemical reaction in which hydrogen and oxygen are joined together between two plates, resulting in the creation of electricity. The process’s only emission is pure water.

Fortunately, hydrogen is the most abundant gas in the Universe. This means that we will never face a shortage of hydrogen like we are now facing with oil. Unfortunately, it is almost never found in its pure state in nature, and current methods of splicing it from other sources use large amounts of energy. The National Research Council of Canada’s Biotechnology Research Institute has a solution to this predicament. They have started to develop a process to extract hydrogen from refuse such as manure using dark and photofermentation. The point of the research is to develop a multi-step procedure to harness as much of the hydrogen from the refuse as possible.
There is already a Chinese based corporation, Pearl Hydrogen, that plans to sell hydrogen fuel cell powered bicycles which have a top speed of 25 kilometers an hour, equivalent to 15.5 miles an hour with an engine capable of containing enough hydrogen to run for over 100 kilometers (equivalent to over 62 miles). As of now its cost is 20,000 Yuan, equivalent to US $2,650 but will soon be as low as 4,000 Yuan, or the equivalent of US $530. Currently, there are no plans to ship the bikes overseas.
BMW, also, is experimenting with hydrogen power in their new Hydrogen Seven prototype. The Hydrogen Seven is the first hydrogen powered, luxury performance vehicle. It can reach speeds of up to 143 miles an hour and can go from 0 to 60 in 9.5 seconds. It has a 12-cylinder, 260-horsepower engine capable of running on either hydrogen or gasoline because of the incompletion the hydrogen-refueling infrastructure.
BMW isn’t the only car company focusing on hydrogen. Honda has just released the Honda 08 FCX Clarity, a hydrogen powered vehicle. This vehicle is commercially available in Southern California for a 3- year lease price of $600 a month, which includes maintenance. It is able to go 280 miles on one tank of hydrogen. When you do need to refuel, Honda offers a home energy station, which uses the natural gas from your home to create the hydrogen necessary to refuel your car, as well as, electricity and heat for your home.
There is danger when using hydrogen, however, as it is extremely flammable. The world witnessed just how volatile hydrogen is on May 6, 1937, when the airship Hindenburg burst into flames. However, scientists say that a hydrogen fire is far less dangerous than a gasoline fire because it doesn’t burn as hot as a gasoline fire, which can melt the windows of the vehicle.
Hydrogen as a fuel source isn’t really anything new. There have been buses running on it for years in Europe and Iceland. What is new however, is the sale of commercially available hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles. Hydrogen not only offers a potential solution to our current fuel supply crisis, it, also, addresses the problem of vehicle greenhouse gas emission. This double-barreled solution to our current energy crisis could be why experts expect hydrogen to become the next big thing after gasoline.

Solar Energy

Solar energy, along with other naturally occurring energy resources such as wind, wave, and biomass, accounts for over 99.99% of the world’s renewable resources. In fact, the sun provides the earth with over 3850 Zetajoules of energy a year. That’s pretty impressive when you realize that one Zetajoules is equivalent to 1021 Joules, that’s 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Joules, so multiply that by 3850 and you get 3.85×1025 which is equivalent to 38,500,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. Or about thirty-eight point five octillion joules. As of last year the entire world only used .485 Zetajoules a year, or 485,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. In layman’s terms it creates enough energy to power the entire world yearly almost ten thousand times over! Scientists estimate, however, that it would take over 4.2 billion solar rooftops to do so.
Solar voltaic energy has great potential. Many states already offer coupon programs to help pay the immense cost of conversion (about $36,000 here in Connecticut). With the state’s help, however, it can be reduced to an almost practical $20,000. Luckily, approximately $7000 in tax credits will, also, be made available, bringing the total cost down roughly $13,000. There are already hundreds of companies who specialize in just installing solar panels and the equipment. If a homeowner installed solar panels on his rooftop and the power generated is greater than power used, the meter will, actually, spin backward. The excess power can then be sold back to the power company as they are obligated to issue rebate checks in such cases.
Solar voltaic isn’t the only form of solar energy. There are, also, solar heaters which pump water up into a black network of tubes, which uses the sun to heat the water to very high temperatures, and then is pumped back into your house or pool, whichever one you choose to have solar heated. This method of utilizing solar energy is known as passive solar.
Solar Energy is not just good for your wallet, but also for the environment. The average annual environmental impact per person is equivalent to not releasing over 7000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. That’s like planting 269 trees, or not driving a car for over 7000 miles.

Biodeisel

Biodeisel is any short chain alkyl, non-petroleum diesel fuel. An alkyl is a chain of hydrogen and carbon atoms linked in a chainlike formation. Many people create biodeisel from vegetable oil by using the transesterification process, or the process of exchanging the alkoxy group of an ester compound with another alcohol through heat and pressure, however, there is a lot of research being put into discovering how to make it out of algae. Biodeisel was first used to power heavy-duty vehicles in South Africa during WWII.
Restaurants, normally, have to pay for the removal of their used cooking oil as they are prohibited from disposing it through their drainage system for environmental reasons. There are a growing number of people who are collecting this used vegetable oil, free of charge, and turning it into biodeisel to run their cars. It is possible and practical to do this because the equipment needed to create biodeisel is very inexpensive, costing only $750 for a good quality machine and it is easy to use. Also, the Mercedes diesel engine can already run on biodeisel with only minimal modifications to the engine, costing about $800 and an average of about $2500 to convert any other car. Biodeisel, also, emits far less harmful exhaust than gasoline.
Unfortunately, biodeisel is not very practical in some places or vehicles. For example, biodeisel should not be used in cars made before 1992 that have not been properly converted, because it may erode the rubber gaskets in the engine. Also, in places where it can reach sub-zero temperatures, it should not be used due to the fact that it freezes at -10 C (14F).
Individual consumers aren’t the only one’s using converted vegetable oil as biodeisel fuel. The mega corporation, McDonalds, announced in the UK in July of 2007 that it would recycle it’s own spent cooking oil to run its fleet of trucks. They are doing this to save money, and to help the environment. They estimate that by switching to biodeisel, they will stop an estimated 1675 tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.
There are many different blends of biodeisel, which include b20, b99, and b100. This number shows the percentage of the blend that is, actually, biodeisel. So, this would indicate that b20 is 20 percent biodeisel, and 80 percent petroleum diesel, whereas b100 is pure biodeisel. Biodeisel can be used, not only in cars and trucks, but in railroad engines, aircraft engines, and even as heating oil.

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy operates in much the same way that geysers work. Large municipal companies harness the energy to power cities. This is done by pumping water deep down into the earth to flash it into steam. This steam is then pumped up through pipes to a power plant where it turns turbines, creating energy.
In a residential setting, geothermal energy is utilized through a system known as ground source heat pumps for both, heating and cooling purposes. In the heating process, the water or cold refrigerant, such as Freon, is pumped down into the ground and heated to a gas. When it reaches the surface it is pressurized in a compressor. This step can greatly raise the refrigerants temperature, sometimes, as high as 160 degrees. This gas is then condensed again, releasing all its heat into the house. For cooling the process is the same, only reversed. This system has been referred to by the EPA as “the most energy efficient and environmentally sensitive of all space conditioning systems,”. They say this due to the fact that although this process does use energy, it creates three units of energy for every one unit used.
There are two different methods of utilizing geothermal energy through ground source heat pumps; vertical and horizontal loop. Horizontal loop is best for people with a lot of land where pipes can be spread out along underneath the lawn, while vertical loop systems are best for city-like environments, in which the pipes are sent downward into the earth when little land is available.
Geothermal energy is very cost effective and, in some places, widely used. In fact, geothermal energy supplies Iceland with over 87% of its energy. However, the world leader in geothermal energy production is, surprisingly, the United States, as we do a lot of the harnessing along the San Andreas Fault and at hot spots like Hawaii and Alaska Unfortunately, though very practical, geothermal energy currently supplies the world with less than 1% of its energy. Although geothermal energy only releases about 5% of the emissions as gasoline, this figure can be cut down even further to less than .1%.
There are some downsides to geothermal energy, however. One significant downside is that the process to produce it may weaken land stability and many hot spots may cool down in the near future. If the land is weakened, there may be increased cavern collapses and the land may be unsuitable to support human settlements. If the hotspots do cool down, then the huge geothermal energy plants will be left derelict and useless where they once supplied energy.

Wind Energy

Wind energy is commonly defined as the process of turning the kinetic energy of wind into mechanical energy. If that mechanical energy is used directly by the machine creating it, then it is known as a windmill. If, however, that mechanical energy is turned, through turbines, into electricity, and routed to an outside source, it is known as a wind turbine. Wind turbines work by using the wind to turn the massive rotors they have located on the front, which in turn rotates a copper wire coil between two electromagnets, creating electricity. The very first of these electricity generating wind turbines was built in Castleton, Vermont, in 1941.
As of now, wind energy provides the Earth with a little over 1% of its energy, and scientists estimate it would take about 300 million wind turbines to power the world. Although T. Boone Pickens, the oil tycoon, has plans to construct the worlds largest wind farm just north of Amarillo, Texas, he is overlooking the states largest potential wind farm areas, the mountain passes and ridge tops of Trans Pecos, This mountain range funnels the wind, all the way from the northern Rockies, until it reaches extreme speeds, giving this section of Texas, the highest wind speeds in the state.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that wind currents in the lower atmosphere are affected by the seasons, there are may regions, such as Montana’s Judith Gap Energy Center, currently one of the largest wind farms in the U.S., where the potential for practical energy creation varies with the seasons. There is one place, however, that can constantly provide vast amounts of wind energy with little to no environmental impact (the noise from wind farms is known to disturb the local wildlife), the ocean.
Although onshore wind farms seem tapped out and too late for investing in, there are some very plausible ideas for offshore wind farms already on the drawing board. Just like when oil drilling boomed, and offshore drilling became more practical than onshore drilling because of the vast amounts of untapped oil, it is the same with wind farms. Onshore there are mountains, hills and buildings to provide friction and slow the wind down, ultimately reducing its energy potential. On the open ocean however, there is little friction to slow the wind down, allowing for a great increase in energy production. Because the floating plants would be isolated from the mainland by miles, there would be little to no environmental impact.

Wave Power

Because wave energy power is still in its infancy, it has much potential to grow into a successful and lucrative form of alternative energy, depending on future research. Wave power is defined as the use of ocean waves to create energy and sometimes, desalination. There are many types of wave power generators. One such example is the power buoy, which utilizes many buoys in one place out at sea, uses the movement of the waves to create mechanical energy. This energy is later converted to electricity and transmitted to the mainland via transmission cables. Another is neo-aerodynamic, which uses free flow bodies of water, tides, currents, and waves to turn a propeller, thus creating electricity in much the same way as a wind turbine. The most efficient design however, is Salter’s duck, developed in the 1970s in response to the oil crisis. Its ability to stop and harness 90% of the wave power available is what makes this design mare efficient than all others. It continues to be the device by which all others are compared.

Unfortunately, there are some hurdles to overcome when dealing with wave power, including the fact that waves are not high speed or constant, and many existing technologies need one or both of these components to operate efficiently. Another challenge is creating a device that can withstand storm damage and saltwater corrosion, which may cause designers to build devices so large and overbuilt they would no longer be practical.
Portugal has already built the worlds first commercial wave farm using three p-750 wave power generator. There are plans and funding for two more wave farms off of Scotland and England. The largest of these, the wave farm in Portugal, will still only create 72.5 MW (megawatts) of power after an additional 12 machines are added. To put that into perspective, an average American household uses ten MW a day, so the entire wave farm would only be capable of powering just over seven homes. Although this is an almost embarrassingly small amount, it is the first power plant in the world to use wave power to create energy, and therefore a pioneer in the vastly undiscovered world of alternative energy.

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“Americas Best Places for Alternative Energy.” Forbes 18 Jul 2008 .