Doo something now, before it's too late (Alternative energy sources)

Member Name: magpie

Product:	Alternative energy sources
Date:	15/02/01 (81 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap, non polluting

Disadvantages: Can be ugly, not used enough

Ten years ago, in Geography at school, we were told that there are only 30 years worth of oil left in the ground. Now we are told that even burning the oil we have is damaging the environment. What are the alternatives then, and why don't we use them more? I'm going to describe some alternative sources of energy, and then tell you why I think we are still an oil dependant country.

Bioenergy
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Natural materials such as wood, plant, food waste and so on can be burnt. In some places, such as Michigan, where logging is a large industry, wood chips are produced as waste. Biomass plants help to dispose of this waste by burning them to produce energy. In Austria, a biomass plant burns sunflower seed shells which are waste from a factory. The plant helps dispose of this waste, and warm water for the inhabitants.
The advantage of bioenergy is that it is a renewable resource, doesn't use any new technology, and is often very cheap and efficient to run, and reduces the amount of landfill produced by other industries. A disadvantage is that burning any material produces carbon dioxide which contributes to the greenhouse effect. Nevertheless, bioenergy is a better source of energy than fossil fuels.

Geothermal
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Geothermal energy is heat which comes from the earth (www.geothermal.org). The earth's molten core provides this heat. In places such as Iceland there are many geysers (hot springs), and this energy is used. In the US geothermal electric power generation produces 2200MW. Direct heat (using the heat to warm water which is actually used in houses) is currently enough to heat 40,000 houses. This source of energy is very cheap, has no resource cost and produces no pollution. It is obviously only suitable for certain locations (those where the earth's crust is thin).

Hydrogen
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Fuel cells which use hydrogen are being developed for commercial and local use. H
owever, one of the main problems currently with hydrogen fuel cells is that energy is needed to produce the hydrogen.

Solar
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Solar power is the ultimate in free energy. The sun emits radiation in many different frequencies, which can be used for many purposes. In countries such as Greece all hot water is heated by solar power. Large water tanks are seated on every house roof, and this heats the water directly. Solar panels are becoming more common, with many public buildings such as schools now generating electricity, and selling surplus back to the national grid. We are all accustomed to solar powered calculators, and a solar powered car is no longer just the dream of sci-fi authors. Obviously solar energy cannot be generated at night, but even in northern England on a cold misty winters day, the sun produces some energy.

Wind
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Possibly better suited to northern England than solar power, for centuries we have been using the power of the wind. The basic principle is wind blows, which turns a turbine which in turn generates electricity. Wind farms (large areas covered in windmills) are however ugly and noisy. Possibly the mass production of energy is not best done using windfarms, and instead it could be done on a more local level.

Water
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Again, the idea of using water to generate power is not new. There are two sorts of water generated power - water wheels which are turned by the flow of water, and floats which are moved by waves, which generate power as they are moved up and down. Currently this is not a major source of energy in the UK.

I have summarised the main sources of alternative energy. However, our main source of energy is still fossil fuels. There are several reasons for this:
* fossil fuels are cheap
* our ecomony is dependant on oil
* political will is not strong enough to reduce fossil fuel use
* oil companies make large donations to political parties

* oil companies hold the patents on fuel cells, and other new alternative fuel technologies

While the US remains an oil guzzling ecomony, we in the UK will not change greatly, and with Bush Jr in power over there, I don't see any immediate change likely to happen in the near future in our use of fossil fuels

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