Renewable Energy

Energy is the one things that controls the economy. With the recent increase in gas prices, it is greatly affecting our cost of living and our quality of life. Each type of energy has its advantages and disadvantages. It's up to us to decide which to use and how. There are so many that it is a difficult task in trying to determining which is the best fuel.

One of the most common forms of renewable energy is that of Solar Power. Solar Power became a large prospect after the Oil Embargo in 1973. With the cost of Gasoline and oil becoming more and more unmanageable, it is a great idea. Unfortunately, there is little research going into the use of Solar Power. One of the greatest difficulties with Solar Power is the simple fact that the sun sets during the night. So how is energy kept and saved for night? Well, the energy when the sun is out can be saved in an axillary unit for use when the sun is out. It would be similar to that of a rechargeable battery. But this idea is far from use, and research is limited, so it's not too far in design. One of the other problems with Solar Power is the panels that are used for harnessing the sun's energy. These panels are very expensive to make, so it's very difficult to get enough of them to make enough energy for ethical use. But these panels have a variety of uses. But due to the sun setting, if people plan to build a "Solar House," they will need a generator or backup battery system for when there are extended times without sunlight.

One kind of energy that isn't discussed in common is Geothermal Energy. Geothermal Energy is using the planet's heat to create energy for use. It is used to heat buildings and many other things. The use of Geothermal Energy started in ancient times. Has anyone heard of a hot spring? Well, that's Geothermal Energy at work. More recently, it has been used to create electricity. This first started in Italy, where scientists built a generator that worked off of steam that is generated by the earth. There are several different countries that use Geothermal Energy, and surprisingly, the US is one of them. There are four different sources of Geothermal Energy: Magma, Hydrothermal, Hot Dry Rock, and Geopressure. Hydrothermal is generally the most common, because it uses water and the earth's heat to create energy. It depends of the kind of vent that the water comes out of. Depending on the vent, you can have dry and wet energy. Dry is where the water comes out in the form of vapor, and wet is where there is heated water. This is relatively inexpensive to use, but it costs a lot while building the utilities. This is because you need several different things, like the power plant, and the battery well, which is where the water is kept. The overall cost is cheaper, because it a steadier source of energy.

Tidal Power is using kinetic energy for more practical energy. It uses the moons' gravitational energy of pulling an pushing the waves for our use. The most common way of getting this energy is when the high tide comes in and moves out. When the tide move, the water is moved through turbines, which spin and create kinetic energy. This kinetic energy is then transformed into electrical energy using generators. Tidal power was first started to be used around the eighteenth century. And unlike other sources of energy that may damage or take up the surrounding area, Tidal Power is safe and very energy efficient.

Since the 1970's, it has been researched into using the ocean for many other uses. Scientists began to look to the waves for energy. Since then, they have created ideas that can actually be demonstrated and considered for use. There is a large amount of energy available, but unfortunately, very little of this can actually be used. This is because of the change in tide, and because waves greatly vary in strength. The other problems is the facilities that would harness this power. Could they handle the weather demands? This is a relatively new idea, and like most, it needs improvement. But I believe that it can be of great use in the future.

There are several different options open to us for getting energy. These don't have half the costs on the environment as the ones that we currently use. There are several great ideas out there, and with them, several jobs. Maybe that would be a great career field to enter? There are so many options, and we haven't even thought of them all yet...