muchapedia alternative energy hub
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our health, our economy, our national security, and our planet.
Even though some of the smaller details still tend to arouse debate, the bigger picture; namely the inevitable necessity to implement alternative energy solutions on a massive scale, is universally, unequivocally agreed upon by experts, scientists, and political leaders everywhere.
No one is debating whether or not the consequences of these issues will occur.
The only debate is around when they will come about.
Meanwhile, as the arguments have raged on for decades over who is responsible for what, and how long we actually have before oil runs out and the earth becomes uninhabitable, we have persisted in our escalating reliance on fossil fuels, our air and water pollution has increased, the earth's atmosphere has continued to get progressively warmer, the arctic ice has depleted even further, and now... we finally find ourselves in a state of emergency.
So, what are we going to do about it?
How will we turn this ship around before we collide with the last iceberg on earth? What are we willing to throw overboard? It's time to wake up and take responsibility for our own livelihood, because no one else is going to do it for us. So, let's stand up, take the fossil fuel needle out of our arm, and act. We need to vote for alternative energy. We need to start to spend our money on renewable resources, instead of feeding the beast of fossil fuel, and we need to support businesses that do the same. We need to reduce, reuse, and recycle, and we need to do it now. Our time is up. The party's over. Last known iceberg dead ahead.
WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE ENERGY?
If you were to look up the definition of alternative energy online, you would find a slew of different definitions from a slew of different sources. The bottom line, and the point of concurrence between all of these sources, lies within the agreement of what alternative energy is not.
It is not our current system of using non-renewable energy sources like oil, coal, and other fossil fuels, which pollute the planet, and make us dependent on foreign entities.
Therefore, in order to be considered 'alternative energy', the source must meet the following criteria:
- It must be renewable.
- It must significantly reduce, or eliminate altogether, harmful pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions.
- It must not be reliant upon foreign entities of any kind.
Many well known alternative energy sources meet all three of these requirements. Others may satisfy one or two. Obviously, the options that eliminate the entire spectrum of issues are going to prove most valuable. However, just as it is true that one person can make a difference, it is also true that every little bit helps.
So, with that in mind, we will cover all of the widely known alternative energy sources on this site. We will rate each of them with one 
, two , or three recycle wheels, based on how many of the above-mentioned criteria they meet. Each alternative energy resource carries its own set of pros and cons, and it will ultimately take a combination of them all to enable us to kick our current energy habits. So, the better we can understand each one, the further we can get in our quest for energy independence.
EARTH, WIND, AND FIRE:
Geothermal, Wind, and Solar Energy Alternatives
Geothermal Energy
The word 'geothermal' is derived from the greek 'geo' (meaning 'earth') and 'therme' (meaning 'heat'). Put 'em together and what've ya got? Earth Heat.
The earth's core is hot, hot, hot! Depending on who you ask, it's either just a tiny bit cooler, or a little bit hotter than the surface of the sun. Nobody knows for sure. What we do know, however, is that we can use this heat to generate electricity. Geothermal power plants use the steam, heat, or hot water from naturally occurring geothermal reservoirs to spin the turbine generators that produce electricity. Then, the used water is returned through an injection well back into the reservoir to be reheated and reused, maintaining pressure, and sustaining the reservoir all at once. A very efficient source of alternative energy, no?
Goethermal energy has a variety of other direct uses as well. These include the support of agriculture and aquaculture; industrial applications like pastuerizing milk, drying onions and lumber, and washing wool; and the heating and cooling of buildings, homes, soil (to prevent freezing and provide a longer growing season), and roads (to keep them from icing over in the winter). In fact, the utilization of geothermal energy is limited only by our imagination.
And just think... it is renewable, clean, and in no way dependent on foreign entities of any kind!
- Learn more about the applications, implications, advantages, and disadvantages of Geothermal Energy, on muchapedia.
Wind Energy
When billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens hops right off of the oil field and onto the alternative energy wind farm, people tend to take notice. "I have the same feelings about wind," Mr. Pickens said in an interview, "as I had about the best oil field I ever found." How's that grab ya? Must be something to it, right? Well, T. Boone Pickens isn't the only one who thinks so. According to the DOE,[glossary] wind is the fastest growing energy source in the world.
Wind is created by circulation patterns in the earth's atmosphere that are driven by heat from the sun (so it is actually a converted form of solar energy). It can not be used up, the domestic supply is abundant, and it does not generate greenhouse gases of any kind.
Good, so, how do we harness the energy of the wind and convert it into power? We build wind turbines high in the air, because that's where the wind is most powerful, and they work like a fan, only backwards. Instead of using electricity to spin the blades, the blades spin as the wind flows past them, and they, in turn, spin a shaft, which is connected to a generator that makes electricity. These generators can be connected to a single residence or farm, or they can be plugged in to a larger, commercial system, and leased out. This is particularly beneficial to rural landowners and farmers, who can make extra income in this way, while still maintaining access to their land for farming and other agricultural activities, as the turbines take up very little space.
- Learn more about the applications, implications, advantages, and disadvantages of Wind Power, on muchapedia.
Solar Energy
What is solar energy? Quite simply put, it is the radiant light and heat from the sun. According to the Stanford University Global Climate and Energy Project; in a single year, the amount of solar energy that reaches the earth's surface is so vast that it is around twice as much than would ever be obtained from all of the planet's non-renewable resources of coal, oil, natural gas, and mined uranium combined. That's a lot of energy!
So, now the question is "What is solar power"? And how do we convert some of that clean, renewable, domestically bountiful solar energy, into it?
First, there are two different categories to consider when discussing current solar technologies: Active Solar, and Passive Solar, so named according to the way that they capture, convert, and distribute solar energy.
Passive Solar technologies use sunlight for heating and ventilating (water, air, thermal mass) without the use of active mechanical systems. Passive Solar Design maximizes the use of passive solar energy to warm and light building interiors, thereby reducing the use of fossil fuels for these purposes.
Active Solar technologies directly convert sunlight into electricity via the use of Photovoltaics (PV), or indirectly with concentrating solar power (CSP). Photovoltaics convert sunlight (including ultra-violet radiation) into electricity using solar cells and photovoltaic arrays. These are the 'solar panels' you may have seen on roof tops. PV production has been increasing by an average of 48% each year since 2002.
CSP technologies use mirrors to reflect and concentrate sunlight onto receivers that collect the energy and convert it to thermal energy, which is turned into steam, which drives a generator and produces electricity. Three main Concentrating Solar Power technologies are in use today, each of which collect and use solar energy in a different way to run utility scale power plants.
Solar technologies continue to evolve at lightning speed, and are considered to be amongst the most viable, powerful alternative energy advancements toward our energy independence.
- Learn more about the applications, implications, advantages, and disadvantages of Solar Energy, on muchapedia.
- Read the Stanford University Data in a new window.
WOOD, FOOD, HOOCH, TOOTS and POOP:
Just a few sources of Biomass Energy
Biomass Energy
Biomass is organic material from plants and animals that contains stored energy from the sun. Some of the materials that are used as biomass energy sources are wood, food crops (corn, sugar cane, etc.), other plants and trees (switchgrass, hemp, poplar, eucalyptus, etc.), human and animal waste products, alcohol fuels, methane gases (from landfills and livestock), and some garbage/municipal solid waste.
All of these things, through different processes, can be burned to generate electricity, converted into other usable forms of energy like transportation fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, and/or used to produce heat. A good example of the latter are pellet stoves, which are used to burn biomass pellets for a variety of commercial and domestic purposes. Our friends at pelletstovefires.com have an abundance of quality information on this particular subject.
Waste-To-Energy plants burn wood and organic waste (trash) to make steam that can be used to heat buildings, or generate electricity. Considering the fact that the average American dumps four and a half pounds of trash every day, this seems like a far better solution than letting it sit in a landfill, where unchecked methane gases would simply be released into the atmosphere, and contribute even further to the global warming crisis. As for the landfills and dairy farms (Cows Toot!... And Poop! A LOT!) that already exist and consistently produce this toxic CH4,[glossary] there are systems that can collect the methane, so that it can be used as a fuel source. Unfortunately, this technology is not currently implemented in all of these places.
Biofuels, like ethanol and biodiesel, are made from the sugars found in grains like corn, wheat, rice, sugar cane, and yard clippings (among others), and from vegetable oils, animal fats, and greases. These alternative fuels can be used to run either gasoline or diesel engines, depending on the type and the mixture. These fuels are safe, biodegradable, and they reduce the emissions of most air pollutants.
Biomass as an alternative energy form is renewable, and not dependent on foreign entities. While the burning of biomass does release greenhouse gases, it still gets half of a recycle wheel in this category, because the crops that are grown for biomass energy purposes do reabsorb some of the CO2[glossary] that is burned during these processes.
- Learn more about the applications, implications, advantages, and disadvantages of Biomass, on muchapedia.
LET THE WATER FLOW: Hydro Energy
Hydro Energy
Hydro Electric Energy, or hydroelectricity, is prouced when naturally running water flows through a hydroelectric turbine. The hydrokinetic energy of the moving water spins the turbine to power a generator, producing clean, renewable, domestically plentiful electricity.
Hydro Electric Energy is, by far, the most widely used form of renewable energy in the world, and has been for quite some time.
Hydrokinetic energy can be captured from any flowing water source, including rivers, streams, and tidal forces, or wave power. Currently, new projects are being planned to take advantage of more of these sources in the United States.
Another use of hydro energy relates to hydrogen cars, which run on a hydrogen fuel cell. We will discuss this further in the Green Cars section of this website.
- Learn more about the applications, implications, advantages, and disadvantages of Hydro Energy, on muchapedia.
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We Are All in
The Same Boat
"We're in a race for our lives against people who want to kill us. And a lot of the reasons that we are entangled in the Middle East is because our money buys their oil, that money ends up coming back to us in the way of Islamo-fascism terrorists. We've got to come to the place where everything is on the table: nuclear, biofuels, ethanol, wind, solar - any and everything this country can produce."
Mike Huckabee
Republican Presidential Debate, 2008
"Clearly, we need more incentives to quickly increase the use of wind and solar power; they will cut costs, increase our energy independence and our national security, and reduce the consequences of global warming."
Hillary Rodham Clinton
From a speech at
Cleantech Venture Forum VIII
October 25, 2005
"While scientists are still debating how much human activity impacts the environment, we can all agree that alternative energy sources will be good for the planet. For any and all of these reasons, the time for true energy independence has come."
Mitt Romney
From the book 'The Man, His Values, and His Vision'
Published Aug., 2007
"As President, I'll invest in renewable energies like wind power, solar power, and the next generation of homegrown biofuels. That's how America is going to free itself from our dependence on foreign oil - not through short-term gimmicks, but through a real, long-term commitment to transform our energy sector."
The Town Hall on Energy
in Cedar Rapids, Iowa
July 31,2008
"We have to stop sending $700 billion a year to countries that don't like us very much. It's wind, tide, solar, natural gas, nuclear, off-shore drilling... And the point is that we become energy independent and we will create millions of jobs in America."
3rd Presidential Debate
against Barack Obama
October 15,2008
CLEAN FOSSIL FUELS:
Nuclear Energy and "Clean" Coal
Nuclear Energy
Through the process of nuclear fission, nuclear energy is converted for use as electricity or propulsion. The latter is usually seen in military submarines, aircraft carriers, civilian surface ships, and rockets that use some form of nuclear reaction as their primary power source.
Electricity is generated in nuclear power plants in much the same way as most conventional thermal power stations. The energy released from the nucleus of an atom during nuclear fission is converted into energy, which powers the electrical mechanisms.
Nuclear processes do require materials such as uranium, which, while plentiful, is not renewable.
However, it does burn cleaner than most conventional fossil fuels, and it does warrant half of a recycle wheel for reserve supply in the United States, though the majority of uranium is spread out across the rest of the world.
Clean Coal Technology
Well, okay... so, the term "clean coal" is something of an oxymoron. Let's be honest, coal is filthy stuff. It is the second largest contributor to CO2[glossary] emissions in the U.S., and the sulfur dioxide particulates carried within it are the most important gases in the causation of acid rain. It's dirty, and it's not like there's a magical coal mine somewhere that contains pure, white, clean burning coal.
Instead, clean coal technology focuses on ways to reduce the environmental impact of coal. The cap and trade policy, which puts a mandatory cap on emissions, encourages the industry to find innovative ways to succeed in these endeavors, though very little applicable progress has been made at this point in the U.S.
If we were to find a clean coal technology that could be put into practice, then hypothetically speaking, it would burn cleaner, and there would be plenty of supply left in America, although coal is found throughout the world.
- Learn more about the applications, implications, advantages, and disadvantages of Nuclear Energy and Clean Coal, on muchapedia.
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