Tommy
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
An Introduction to Energy
With the extreme prices for gasoline and crude oil, society finally decided to focus on an issue with major impacts on the future of humanity – the issue of renewable energy. Fossil fuels may be the dominate fuel of today’s society, but are hampered by its limited supplies. Once fossil fuels are depleted, they can only be reformed by decomposing organic material and allowing the newly formed peat to rest for approximately three hundred million years. Also, fossil fuels have been theorized, according to the Energy Information Administration, to contribute seventy-five percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. Renewable energy sources do not contribute to these harmful emissions, and these sources regenerate much faster. Additionally, renewable energy sources can potentially provide untold amounts of energy. According to a diagram on Wikipedia, an online user-reviewed encyclopedia, the world consumes approximately fifteen terawatts of power. In the same diagram, geothermal energy alone can potentially provide thirty-two terawatts of power, wind energy could provide eight hundred and seventy terawatts of power, and solar energy can donate a whopping eighty-six thousand terawatts of power. Even with this immense power, renewable energy sources remain limited, primarily because of technological limitations and high costs. These drawbacks would give anyone, including myself, doubts, especially given the current financial situation. Despite my doubts, I still chose to support the vigorous pursuit of renewable energy, as I asked myself “What would happen if fossil fuels vanished, and society had no permanent alternatives?” I have already seen a preview of the answer in the current energy crisis, and I do not want to risk that crisis expanding to a larger scale.
Tommy
Tommy
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7 comments:
Thomas,
you make a good point as to why it is a good choice to switch dependency from oil to renewable resources. Yet, I have a few questions on the subject? Where do rechargeable cars and electric "clean energy" devices get their energy from? Don't these cars just plug into electrical outlets that are powered by coal-burning plants? If so, in what ways or if there already are ways, is it possible to make renewable energies completely independent of coal or oil?
thanks,
Robert Lapp
I must agree that we need to switch to renewable energy as soon as possible, but let's face the facts.
A major disadvantage with renewable energy is that it's difficult to actually harness enough power to produce as much electricity as traditional fossil fuels. That means more energy facilities must be built all over America, or humans must consume less energy. Since I'm guessing energy consumption will not decrease, the first solution needs to looked at.
More energy facilities would cost more money, and land will be needed to house these institutions. Where will this land come from? Neighborhoods, schools, natural forests?
Please help me understand how renewable energy sources could be made plausible.
All the best,
Emily
The current energy crisis is a very pertinent topic, as you mentioned. It is an unsettling situation knowing that so much energy is used and other sources don't quite deliver what is expected. I think the country, in its current economic state, needs to weigh out the benefits and negatives with this issue. Are the costs of eco-friendly supplies, cars, ways of living, energy sources equatable to how much is actually needed? Or is the amount of energy put out by new forms not nearly as much as fossil fuels but much more expensive?
Thanks,
Britney
IGetNoSleep,
Just for clarification, rechargeable cars are actually called Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles(PHEV's). And yes, these vehicles do charge with electricity produced from fossil fuels. PHEV's are only going to be constructed to capitalize on the demand for electricity, which costs less per mile than gasoline. There are technologies, though, that can provide complete independence from fossil fuels. The Chevy Volt, a future PHEV, as an illustration, will feature a photovoltaic roof as an accessory, allowing the car to recharge with solar energy. This form of power is certainly renewable, but in general, PHEV's do not use renewable energy, for now at least.
Emily,
Indeed, renewable energy is much more difficult to harvest than fossil fuels. Solar energy can only be harvested for approximately twelve hours per day, while wind energy can variate greatly. Also, some forms of renewable energy are expensive, but others, like geothermal energy, are already fiscally competitive. Geothermal energy, though, is not global, and can only be harvested at predetermined sites, such as volcanoes. In terms of land, however, other renewable energy facilities can also be placed in similarly non-populated areas, such as oceans and deserts. I will detail the advantages and disadvantages of each source in future posts, but renewable energy sources are already being used to generate power, and that power can only increase in the future.
Renewable energy is on everyones mind but I would argue that on the way we obtain the renewable energy is just as important as converting to renewable energy. I think that converting to renewable energy for a large developed nation like America will take lots of money as well as many years. In my research into hybrid cars I found that not only that wait list was an average of six months for a prius and that dealers were selling cars up to five thousand dollars over sticker. I think that we need to concentrate on converting to renewable energy in a safe practical way. This way the government and eco friendly citizens will not have to cut funds else where or back track to other cheap energy sources when they are trying to make the world a cleaner place.
Edit: For the GM Photovoltaic Cell, see this link: http://gm-volt.com/2008/09/18/laugh-break-bob-lutz-on-colbert-nation-photovoltaic-roof-option-confirmed/
The video is comical, but the GM Vice Chairman confirms the accessory there.
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