Renewable Energy: The Errors of Our Ways

Renewable energy is a popular forefront for energy production across the globe. While many countries scramble for fossil fuels almost every country has at least a small portion of its resources aimed at renewable energy production. Whether this renewable energy comes from water, geothermal, solar, wind or even biomass each type of renewable energy source comes with its pros and cons. Each form of energy production can be counter attacked and counter defended based on negative and positive effects that occur from that particular type of energy production. While the options for renewable energy are widely varied and may not be economically feasible at this point in time, as the world economy shifts, resources change, and technology advances, these non-economically feasible options become more and more possible, stable, efficient, and advanced. Taking the time to fully examine the current options for renewable energy is not only beneficial but important. As the future of this planet depends on the current management of these options, if we as a human race decide to plan for future involvement of these technologies or a form of them we can create jobs, save valuable resources, and keep our planet healthier, all while focusing on not restricting the future generations with energy production as we have in previous years.

Hydroelectric power generated from flowing water is the most commonly used form of renewable energy. Hydroelectric power accounted for only 6 percent of the total U.S. Electricity generation, but when compared to all forms of renewable energy, was 71 percent of U.S. Energy generated from renewable sources. Hydroelectric power is one of the oldest forms of energy production. The use of hydroelectric power can be traced back to when rivers where used to turn large wheels to grind grain. The U.S.'s first industrial use of hydroelectric power was in 1880 when Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan used 16 brush-arc lamps fro lighting that where being powered by a large water turbine. Then on September 30, 1882 near Appleton, Wisconsin near the Fox River the U.S.'s first hydroelectric power plant was opened. Up until 1880 coal was the only fuel used to produce electricity, unfortunately since hydroelectric power comes from water the plants must be located on a water source. This stalled its use in earlier days because the transportation of electricity over great distances was not possible, once possible hydroelectric power became very popular. Hydroelectric power is created by the mechanical rotation of large turbines, what determines the amount of available power in the moving water is determined by its flow or fall. Flowing or falling water carries a tremendous amount of energy. When the water either flowing or falling pushes against the fins of the turbine it rotated the shaft therefore generating electricity. While the demand for electricity is very high the number of water falls, like the Niagara Falls, is limited. Because of this humans have found that by creating storage systems such as dams they can control the creation of electricity. While the reservoirs or lakes created by the dams are used for recreational used such as fishing, boating or even whitewater rafting, there are ecological impacts that result from the land area needed for the water storage. In 1936 the Hoover Dam hydroelectric facility was completed creating Lake Mead a 110 mile long national recreational area. At the time of its completion the Hoover Dam created million of jobs and helped to push the economy to better times. Meanwhile the Three Gorge Dams in China while being the largest dam in the world, as wide as the Golden Gate Bridge and twice as tall, has the capacity to create 18 gigawatts of hydroelectric power is coming under some heavy scrutiny because of its environmental effects and cultural changes. These issues are raising concern whether these costs are worth the exchange. The strange thing about hydroelectric power is that most dams created in the U.S. Do not produce electricity, these dams are only for water control or recreational reasons. Over one-Half of the total electricity produced within the U.S. from hydroelectric plants is from only 3 states. With Washington, California, and Oregon producing over half of the hydroelectric power in the U.S. and 27 percent of that coming from Washington states Grand Coulee Dam, the nations largest, there is plenty of room for hydroelectric advancement. Because of these factors the popularity of hydroelectric power is very high, with many people believing it to be the ideal fuel for electricity, being nearly free, and as long as the Earth works as it should there will be no short supply of water flow.

Another highly renewable source of energy is from geothermal sources. But like all good things there are some major limitations to geothermal energy production. Geothermal energy is when heat fro within the Earth is used to create steam or hot water to heat buildings or generate electricity. Geothermal energy is considered renewable because while the heat comes from the Earth's core the water is replenished through regular rainfall. The limitations of geothermal energy are very restrictive though, and most geothermal reservoirs are deep underground with no visible clues showing on the surface. Geothermal energy can make its way to the Earth's surface through a few release spots, such as hot springs, volcanoes and geysers. A Large majority of the Earth's geothermal activity occurs along an area referred to as the "Ring of Fire" which rims the Pacific Ocean. The area's where the Earth's heat warms the ground water trapped within porous rocks or water running along fractured rock surfaces, are commonly referred to as geothermal reservoirs. Unfortunately the nature of geothermal energy is that the only way for scientists to be sure of geothermal activity is to drill a hole and test the temperature deep underground. Presently the Geysers dry steam reservoir in northern California is the largest known dry steam field in the world, producing electricity since 1960. There are some options tat technology has made available for geothermal energy production. Some require drilling miles into the earth while others use Earth's temperature nearer to the surface. Direct use and District Heating Systems use the hot water from springs or reservoirs nearer to the surface, while Electricity generation requires water or steam at very high temperatures, furthermore these generation plants are usually located at geothermal reservoirs which are 2-3 miles within the reach of the Earth's surface. The Geothermal heat pumps are probably the most efficient and economical use of geothermal energy, by using stable ground or water temperatures near the Earth's surface to control building temperatures not only makes good use of the geothermal energy but also lowers the cost s and use of other forms of electricity. Economically, practicality, and safety reasons have all been used to limit the advancement of geothermal energy use. It is simple not the most cost effective, practical or safe form of energy production when you must drill miles into the Earth to find these reservoirs, and the generation plants are unfortunately very limited on where they can be located. The great thing about geothermal energy production and use is that there are no known negative environmental side effects. Even the production of electricity from geothermal energy produces less than 1 percent of the carbon emissions that a fossil fuel plant would produce.

Solar power generation is another very popular method of energy production. While the sun has been producing energy for billions of years it took until the 1830's when British astronomer John Hershel used a solar collector box to actually cook food. Solar energy can be used for many things, from heating water, hating spaces, or converted into electricity. Using photvoltaic devices, also known as solar cells, or solar power plants, we can convert solar light to energy for storage and use. Solar cells change sunlight directly to electricity and are usually used in remote locations where connection to a central electrical grid is not feasible. Solar power plants indirectly generate electricity from the heat that solar energy transmits, using solar thermal collectors to heat fluid and create steam, we can then channel the stream for electricity production. Currently there are 15 known solar electric generating units in the U.S. 10 of which are in California and 5 are in Arizona. Unfortunately only statistics are being collected or solar plants that produce more than 1 megawatt of electricity, so there are smaller solar plants that are located in a number of other states that are not being figured into accounts. Another downside to solar power production is that the amount of energy arriving on the Earth's surface from the sun is not constant, it heavily depends on location, time of day, time of year, and weather conditions. Another limiting factor is that since the Sun does not delivery a very large amount of energy to any one place at one time a very large area of solar energy collection is needed. The great thing about solar power is that solar power is completely free and considered unlimited. Making solar power a very strong contender in the future of Earth's energy production.

Wind energy production is the use of harvesting the kinetic energy from moving wind to spin turbines creating electricity. With wind production creating no air, water or land pollution, wind power has become a very favorable form of energy production. In 2006 wind machines produced around 26.6 billion kWh per year of electricity which was enough to serve more than 2.4 million homes. This makes the output production of wind energy a very serious option to creating new electricity. With current fossil fuels, pollution, and government restrictions the use of wind power has grown rapidly in the past few years. Even in some remote locations you can find wind farms where as long as the terrain is windy and relatively flat, such as Benton and Newton counties in northern Indiana. One serious disadvantage to wind power is the issues of wild bird protection, for an odd reason the windmills tend to reduce the populations of wild birds, either through scaring them off or by simply getting them caught in the mill blades. Still even with this concern the economical, technology, and environmental issues have been found on a large scale to be worth the investment. Even the visual appearance on the landscape has been superseded by humans need for electricity.

Biomass fuels are another under appreciated form of energy production. Biomass fuels are all the forms of energy production that require the burning of biological media, anything from trash to grains. While the burning of these fuels does release carbon emissions and pollution, a very largely overlooked fact is that biomass fuels do not release sulfur which causes acid rain, and releases so little carbon emissions that the burning on 1 corn plant for energy will release just enough carbon for another 1 corn plant to grow in its place. This Carbon cycle is popular because it is the Earth's own cycle, we are simply trying to use its benefits to our advantage. Unfortunately for our current economy biomass fuels are still relatively expensive to produce and are therefore more expensive to use even while they cause less harm to the environment.

With the many various options for renewable energy, there is no simple solution. Advancing one form of renewable energy instead of another form is a waste of resources and in what I believe to be "pigeon holing" the world. If we cannot learn to use all forms of renewable energy together we will be stuck with one main form of energy production which severely limits the flexibility of future generations. This kind of mentality has already gotten the word as a whole into some deep trouble with pollution and natural resources. While every form of renewable energy production contains some negative concerns, some large some small, the economic, environmental, practicality, and efficiency of the methods will determine which methods are advanced first and which will take small but effective baby steps towards the future of renewable energy production.

For most energy needs I fully believe in wind farms, and solar power. With advancing technology we can focus some of the manpower on fixing the issues of windmill bird safety and some on intensifying the power to physical size of solar cells. The main concern I have for our renewable energy future is the proper and efficient storage of energy. While energy production has been improving, our technology for energy storage has been stalled. With the electric car coming into popular media, we have started to see how limiting our energy storage technologies have become. For the meantime, a conjunction of technologies for geothermal , wind, solar, water, and biomass energy production has the greatest chance of producing enough energy for the World's growing needs. Not only do these renewable energy production methods allow more energy to be produced but also allows for the flexibility that the future generations will need to survive. The narrow minded approach of one main energy production method will only repeat the problems of the World later in time. As a whole the human race must plan forwards not backwards.

References

Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC (2008). Retrieved November 11, 2008, from

http://www.nrel.gov/

Energy Information Administration. (2008). Energy in Brief, How much Renewable Energy do we use?. Washington,D.C.:Author

Dr.Ming L. Pei. (2008) Three Gorges Dam, Retrieved November 12, 2008, from

http://www.chinapage.com/3gorge/3gorge.html

Worldwatch Institute. (2008). Retrieved November 10, 2008, from

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3954