Renewable
Energy
By: James Ball
Renewable energy James Ball
This paper is going to be written about renewable energy and about what I myself think about the topic. Also what other people think. Renewable energy is defined as energy that comes from natural resources. Such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal heat. This growing field will expand our horizons by creating jobs for the future. Allowing us to open our minds to gain, conserve and manipulate energy to help us with our daily lives.
I developed an opinion about renewable energy when I started taking college classes, learning how to install pv (photo voltaic) systems. To me renewable energy would be great to be taken in and used everywhere. In 2013 22% of the world's energy came from renewables. By 2020 they foresee that will increase to 26%.
Solar power is energy from the sun and converted into electrical energy. Wind power is the process where wind is converted into mechanical energy. Using the power of gravity gaining energy from water to produce hydroelectricity is now available. Geothermal energy is heat from the earth. All clean and reusable for years to come.
People have other opinions saying energy sources like wind, solar, waves and tides don't offer enough energy to last a lifetime. It's to difficult to generate enough power through renewable energy compared to fossil fuels. Most renewable energy relies on the weather so it could be very unpredictable, as clear sky's are needed for some energy to work properly. So with that being said there is an argument to renewable energy.
200 BC Europe used water energy to power mills.(James C. Williams, PhD "History of Energy," www.fi.edu, Apr. 25, 2006) In the 10th century windmills built in Persia were used to grind grain and pump water.(Robert W. Righter, PhD Wind Energy in America: A History, 1996) In 1860 the first solar powered system was developed in france to produce steam to drive machinery.(John Perlin From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricity, 1999) 10,000 years ago Indians used hot springs for cooking, bathing and cleaning. So a lot has come from that but we are still using renewable energy everywhere.
Solar power is energy from uv rays from the sun. converted into electrical or thermal energy. Solar energy is the most common, cleanest and abundant renewable energy source out there. The U.S has some of the richest solar power resources in the world. With solar power being available it can be cheap and a great way to keep the environment clean for years to come.
Technology coming out can absorb this energy for an abundance of uses, generating electricity for houses or businesses, providing light or a comfortable living space, also for heating water for domestic, commercial, or industrial use. All your living needs can be met by using solar power.
There are several ways to take in solar power, including solar photovoltaics or also named solar electricity. Solar heating and cooling can be used as a better alternative to natural gas. Concentrating solar power uses mirrors to collect the energy from uv rays to power steam turbines or engines that generate electricity. Passive solar Is using parts like panels for your house, windows and floors to generate electricity.
The first three listed above are active solar systems. They all use mechanical or electrical devices that transfers the energy taken from the sun and turns it into usable energy. Passive solar is designed to absorb, store and distribute the energy that comes from the heat of the sun, to help maintain healthy living environments with moving parts.
Solar power is a very dependable energy source. It can be used to power homes, commercial buildings and industrial buildings as well. It is cheap in the long run but very helpful every part of the way. With there being many different ways to obtain your solar power there is no point to not getting into solar energy. It is one of the best renewable energy sources out there and will be for millenniums to come. (http://www.seia.org/about/solar-energy)
Wind power is a form of solar energy. Winds are caused by the uneven heating of the earth from the sun. The rotation of the earth and the irregularities of the earth are also causes of wind. Because of the earth’s terrain is so different, wind can have different flow patterns. Bodies of water, mountains, and valleys can have different winds to the next.
When absorbed from wind turbines the energy that is generated from the motion of the turbines, and is stored or used for mechanical or electrical uses. Wind turbines reorganize the kinetic energy in the wind to use it as mechanical energy. The energy produced this way can be used for numerous of specific tasks. Such as grinding grain, pumping water, or as an electric generator are some examples.
Wind turbines are like jetcraft propeller blades.spinning to power an electrical generator to power a separate machine. Simply put, wind turbines are the opposite of desk fans. Spinning to take in energy instead of spinning to put out energy. This makes it a great way to store and power electrical devices.
Wind turbines are usually put together near a plant where the energy is stored, also referred to as a “wind farms”. With all of the combined wind turbines they have a pretty impressive turnout of energy collected. Energy collected this way is distributed to a utility grid, then distributed to customers accordingly, just as normal power plants.
Wind turbines come in a various sizes, and with that the power ratings change as well. Larger wind turbines have blades that measure out to the length of a football field, standing more than 20 stories tall and produces enough power or electricity to power 1,400 homes or businesses. Other’s range from 8 to 25 feet long blades, standing 30 feet tall and can supply power to an all electric home or business.
By taking advantage of gravity and the way water flows we have made a useful form of energy from one of nature's greats uses. Using the energy from flowing water has been around for thousands of years. Nowadays using water to generate power is known as hydroelectricity, one of the largest sources of clean renewable energy worldwide.It is also one of the most attainable forms of energy for anyone to get to.
On the earth’s surface water is always moving some way or another, with water evaporating from the ocean, Then forming into clouds,and the clouds letting out the moisture with rain and snow to fall and collect in rivers and streams. Finally it flows back into the ocean.This system is called the hydrologic cycle.
SInce hydropower depends on rivers or movement to take in energy, there are various ways across the country that hydropower is being used. The northwest produces two-thirds of its power from hydropower, with very large hydroelectric plants in the western states. The U.S has a lot of small hydropower plants around it’s country.
In order to gain enough kinetic energy to power anything, the water needs to move with enough speed to spin a turbine. Spinning that turbine is what creates the energy to produce electricity. Roughly estimated, one gallon of water per second falling per one hundred feet can produce one kilowatt of electricity. Dams are used to collect the energy coming from the moving water, causing magnets inside a turbine to spin and create electricity.
Hydropower can also be produced without dams, through a system called the run-of-the-river. With the process, the volume and speed of the water is not augmented by a dam. Instead spinning turbine blades capture the kinetic energy of the moving water. Because of this you can’t control the amount of energy that is taken in and when and where the energy is stored. (http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-hydroelectric-energy.html#.V0NTEYthx0g)
Heat resonanting from the earth can be used for many different uses, ranging from large power stations to small and simple pumping stations. The energy produced from the heat is call geothermal energy. And it can be found relatively everywhere, from deep wells around the world to the dirt in our own backyard. In thousands of buildings across the U.S geothermal energy heats and cools buildings clean and for no cost.
Many places around the world have already began tapping into the geothermal energy as a sustainable source of energy, reducing the need to use fossil fuels. Currently more than 3,300 megawatts are being produced in more than eight states. The U.S is a global leader in harnessing geothermal energy. Eight percent of the energy harnessed comes from California.
Below the earth’s crust there is a layer of molten rock called magma. In this layer heat is constantly produced, caused by the decay of radioactive material like potassium and uranium . The amount of heat given within 10,000 meters of the earth’s surface is 50,000 times more energy than all the oil and natural gas resources anywhere.The areas with the highest underground temperatures in the places near active volcanos.
These areas, also named “hot spots”, occur around tectonic plates or at places the crust is weak enough to push heat through. The pacific rim also known as “the ring of fire” has numerous of hot spots. Including some in Alaska, California, and Oregon. Nevada has hundreds of hot spots covering most of the northern part of the state.
The most common way of harnessing geothermal energy is to tap into the naturally occurring “hydrothermal convection”. Cold water seeps into the ground, gets heated up then rises to the surface. Once the heated water has risen it is relatively easy to capture the energy from the steam and use it to power generators. Geothermal plants drill holes into rock to harness this energy more effectively.
The following ten paragraphs are about the history of renewable energy:
200 BC: Europeans began to use water wheels absorb energy. The vertical water wheel was invented two centuries before Christ, used all over Europe. Within a few hundred years, water wheels were powering mills to crush grain, fold cloth, smelt, and many more uses. Making industrial productivity higher than it ever has been.
1590’s: The Dutch built windmills for multiple uses. The windmill reached its greatest size with the best efficiency the hands of the Dutch engineers. Dutch windmill ground the grain that was harvested in the meadows, sawed wood and ground spices. The windmill was the best resource for in land reclamation.
1860: First solar power system was created in France to produce steam to drive machinery. Worried about the effects of fossil fuels, Augustine Mouchot developed a solar powered steam system to drive machinery. Mouchot felt it was possible that the sun’s heat could replace coal to run Europe. His research into mirrors led him to create the first sun motor.
1888: First windmill to produce electricity created in Cleveland, Ohio. Charles F. Brush created this windmill to generate electricity for himself. The speed of the dynamo at a full load was 500 revolutions per minute. It’s normal capacity at a full load was 12,000 watts. His house had 350 incandescent lights, 2 arch lights and three electric motors that he powered with the windmill.
1892: World’s first Geothermal District heating system was built in Boise, Idaho. Water was piped from hot springs to buildings in town. Within a couple years more than 200 homes and 40 businesses were being heated this way. Today there are four different heating systems in Boise that provide heat for 5 million square feet of space. There are now 17 geothermal heating systems in the U.S and many more around the globe.
1921: World’s first geothermal plant was built in California. The geysers (71 miles north of San Francisco)were discovered in the early part of the 1800’s. John D. Grant drilled a geothermal well and ran a small current generator which produced electricity to light the geyser resort. Because of the materials not being able to withhold the geothermal steam. The resort couldn’t compete with other resort who were using more efficient resources.
1927: First commercial wind turbine was sold to create electricity for farms. Marcellus and Joe Jacobs came up with and created the first commercially available wind turbine to generate electricity. The brothers knew that farms didn’t have any other way to power their home without using gas powered generators. They were too costly and very inconvenient for many farm since gas needed to be transported in bulk. Throughout the 1930’s and 1940’s hundred of thousands of wind turbine systems were in operation around the country.
1935: Hoover dam, the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant, was finished. On the Colorado river in Arizona.After four years of construction. When built the Hoover Dam was the largest hydroelectric producer on the globe, and continued to be the largest until 1948.
1953: First silicon solar cell was created at Bell Laboratories. Scientists Gerald Pearson, Daryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller created the first silicon solar cell. It was efficient enough to hold a measurable electrical current, it was reported as “the beginning of a new era”, leading to the belief of harnessing a nearly limitless source of energy from the sun.
1970’s: Solar cells begin to lower in price and become cost effective for use on land. The use of solar cells first boomed during the 1960’s and early 70’s being used for space expeditions. On earth cheap electricity seemed out of our grasp. Until Dr. Elliot Berman created a less costly solar cell. Using a cheap grade of silicon and packing cells, less costly material brought the price down from $100 per watt to $20 per watt.
With solar energy, I think it should have been harnessed a lot sooner then it was. Through just using a mirror you can create fire, and with that you are using energy to create some form of energy. Why not use the limitless potential of the sun and create usable energy. With technology coming out that we can better harness solar energy. we will get to where I think is sufficient enough, having everyone using solar energy.
Using the flow of water has been around for hundreds of thousands of years, and using the energy created from hydropower has brought us some great inventions and landmarks around the world. I don’t really approve of dams and the way the are creating droughts in some places not letting the natural water flow where it should. But I do like the fact that we can harness energy from the moving water. So water wheels to me are ideal and they even look really interesting.
I remember driving through Nebraska and Iowa and seeing the giant wind turbines and thinking that whoever invented these had a great idea. I really think that using wind to our advantage is a must. Just like water we will always have some type of wind blowing around us. To me wind energy is a lot like using hydroelectricity, at least in harnessing it as the same basic method.
The idea that heat is always emitting from the earth and using that to heat homes and businesses is a phenomenal idea. You can even use the earth as a cooler. For your comfort needs the earth can keep you at temperatures that are comfy and pleasant to be in. With that being said geothermal energy can be used everywhere, from dirt in your backyard to giant holes in the earth, it is another limitless source.
WIth using all of the methods of harnessing renewable energy, we could cut out a lot of pollution in the world, get rid of using oil and gas, create a more sustainable world, and simply just better ourselves. We can effectively fight to reduce the effects of global warming and climate change.
Other opinions against renewable energy include that since we as a people are already dependent on oil,natural gas and nuclear power, that we should just stick with it. In our lifetime the resources we are using aren’t going to end, so why should we stop using it. Or better yet why should we care about the environment when we can’t save it in our lifetime.
With renewable energy we currently can’t generate enough energy from it to sustain everybody on the planet. We can build a battery to store all the energy but we can’t build anything big enough to fill that battery. It’s too much of a hassle to build all of these great things, and we can’t use them to sustain every single person. Water can dry up, the wind won’t blow as strong as we need, clouds always cover the sky and can’t collect sunlight But we can always drill from the ground.
The cost to keep a renewable energy going is really high. It fluctuates up and down but isn't cheap enough for everybody to afford, and a lot of people don’t have access to it. With that being said how can everybody be supplied with power . When only a limited amount of people can afford it of build it.
Land is needed to have any renewable energy source. To build a watermill, you need to own land on a river. To build a windmill, you have to live where there are strong winds. To have effective solar panels you will need to have clear skies, and you still need electricity to run pumps for geothermal energy.
Not everything is perfect, oil, gas and nuclear power are used everywhere. The oil and gas industry does create a lot of jobs. If used right renewable energy can be used as a main source. Producing an even greater number of jobs. Oil and gas doesn't have to go away, but I don't want to see our planet die.
Renewable energy can be defined as any type of energy that is limitless. Solar, wind, hydroelectric, and geothermal energy all fall in this category. All these fields are continuously growing, and all of them are looking for people to come up with ways to make them better. Jobs open up every minute for these fields and if you can get one you’ll be in a profession that will last a lifetime.
Solar energy is energy that comes from the uv ray from the sun. Wind energy is from the wind spinning turbines. Hydroelectricity is the energy produced from the flowing water. Geothermal heat is energy that comes from the heat from the earth. All of these are clean and renewable sources of energy. Many have been used for centuries, and the use of renewable energy is currently increases at an enormous rate each year
In conclusion renewable energy to me is still a very underused resource. We could be using these sources a lot more but some people still choose not to. We could really impact our environment and our everyday living just by using them more. Preserving our planet is something everybody needs to take into consideration. Using renewable energy is a must and should be used around the globe.
Website used
http://www.comfort-pro.com/2015/06/geothermal-energy-pros-and-cons/
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-renewable-energy.php
http://alternativeenergy.procon.org/view.timeline.php?timelineID=000015
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-geothermal-energy-works.html
http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/GeothermalEnergyHistory.php
http://www.seia.org/about/solar-energy
http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/how-hydroelectric-energy.html#.Vz6VtiNMHqA