fontanella.graham.energywaterwiki

1) **What is the problem at hand? The problem we face today is that as a country, we have become far too dependent on fossil fuels to run our country and this is starting to drastically change the ecosystem we live in. For example, people have said water levels have risen due to the increase in temperatures caused by excessive fossil fuel use. Also, global warming can be traced back to this, not to mention, fossil fuels aren't exactly healthy for us to breathe. **

The driving force behind this problem is people are concerned we are going to run out of fossil fuels and we will need to find an alternate method of creating energy which can be equally as efficient if not more. Also, as stated above many people believe it is good to become more eco-friendly which fossil fuels are not.
 * 2)** **What is the driving force of this problem?**

People have began to seek alternate ways of producing energy such as wind turbines, solar power, and hydro power. These are three of the leading alternate energy plans looking to replace fossil fuel consumption in the near future. **
 * 3) What are people currently doing or not doing to solve this?

Wind Turbines
 * 4) Pick your favorite from the following list**.

Wind Turbines work by converting wind into energy. Wind is a natural resource and if it can be proved to be as effective as fuel people are crazy not to switch over. When the wind pushes the blades this is a transfer of kinetic energy. As wind spins the windmill, it then moves the shaft connected to the generator where the energy will be stored. The energy is then stored inside batteries and distributed to electrical companies, homes, and water pumps. **
 * 5) Explain how it works?



6) Determine the amount of CO2 it produces or inhibits. =2006 Wind Installations Offset More Than 40 Million Tons of CO2= by Worldwatch Institute on July 25, 2007

Global wind power capacity increased almost 26 percent in 2006, exceeding 74,200 megawatts by year’s end. Global investment in wind power was roughly $22 billion in 2006, and in Europe and North America, the power industry added more capacity in wind than it did in coal and nuclear combined. The global market for wind equipment has risen 74 percent in the past two years, leading to long backorders for wind turbine equipment in much of the world. "Wind power is on track to soon play a major role in reducing fossil fuel dependence and slowing the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere," according to Worldwatch Senior Researcher Janet Sawin. "Already, the 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced by the new wind plants installed last year equaled more than 5 percent of the year’s growth in global emissions. If the wind market quadruples over the next nine years—a highly plausible scenario—wind power could be reducing global emissions growth by 20 percent in 2015."
 * WASHINGTON, D.C.—**The 15,200 megawatts of new wind turbines installed worldwide last year will generate enough clean electricity annually to offset the carbon dioxide emissions of 23 average-sized U.S. coal-fired power plants, according to a new Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute.[|[1]] The 43 million tons of carbon dioxide displaced in 2006 is equivalent to the emissions of 7,200 megawatts of coal-fired power plants, or nearly 8 million passenger cars.

This article was found on the website ( []).

Although wind turbines do not directly purify water, they could be capable of purifying water due to the energy they produce. However, this energy would have to be translated directly to the use of a water purifying system thus purifying the water. The amount of water that it can purify would depend on how much energy is sent to the purifier. **
 * 7) Determine the amount of water it can generate or purify.

The best aspect of switching to wind turbines for an alternate method of producing energy is that we would no longer be dependable on something that is eventually run out. I do not believe that we will ever come across such dry winds that this type of natural resource would no longer be effective. By switching to wind turbines we are also helping the environment and playing our part to help put a halt on global warming for the time being. Finally, by using natural resources we are saving money and are no longer relying on third world countries for our oil. When we rely on them they set the price and there is nothing we can really do about it because we have become addicted to using fossil fuels.
 * 8)** Highlight the best aspect of it.

Many people are in favor of wind turbines. Some people think that it gives them hope to see us adapting to new energy sources that don't harm our earth. What people like the most about wind turbines are that they use a source that won't ever go away. The world will always have wind, there is no sortage like oil. Wind being renewable makes the world last that much longer for our kids to enjoy it. Sadly, many people are worried about the noise wind turbines cause. They believe that it creates this loud ear piercing noise, when in reality it does not. Wind turbines only make a faint sound nothing would bother a human. This would all be worth it considering all the benefits wind turbines have.
 * 9)** **Describe how the critics would discuss it.**

Wind turbines are still growing across the U.S. They haven't been taken to their full advantage quite yet. The goverment is always looking for a new places to create wind farms. One of the biggest reasons why wind turbines aren't producing a signifcant amount of the U.S energy is due to space. A wind turbine needs to be put in a place with a constant wind and needs a sufficient amount of area to be operated. In todays growing population there are not a lot of places a wind turbines and be placed. This is very upseting because the benefits of wind turbines are huge! Many of the wind farms are in the mid west of the country were alot of ranches and farms are located. As of right now wind turbines only create roughly 2% of the U.S's energy which is not much at all.
 * 10/11) If it already makes up a lot of the world's fuel/energy supply explailn why. If it does not explain why.**

One of the biggest activist groups dealing with wind turbines are the American Wind Energy Association. This particular group states tht if we increase wind energy produced to 20% by 2030 7,600 million tons of co2 emissions would be saved, reduce water consumptions by 8%, lower natural gas prices by 12%, also creating 30,000 more jobs for people, and local revneues for land owners. Scientists estimate "that the government would pay lease to landovers and would give 600 million by 2030". These benefits would drastically help the nation and this would only occur in twenty years! Just by lowering the price of natural gas by 12% would save consumers over 130 billion dollars. []
 * 14. Explain how it could help solve some of the problems or contributes to those problems.**

There is a huge process that the govnment must go through in order to create a wind farm. Firt the governmet needs to go and find ln suitable to hld multipe turbine. These areas need a constant wind speed and enough space so the blades of the turbine can adjust to create the most energy. After the goverment pays for the large amount of land they need to decide on what size turbine to place on the property. It was stated that it roughly cost 2 million dollars per MW of power. So a 3 MW turbine would cost 6 million dollars. Once they decide that they can produce a wind farm. If the goverment take advantage of the wind turbine now they can exponentially slow the emissions of harmful greenhouse gases such as CO2. Many people are beginning to experiment with wind power. For example right in front of us Mass Maritime has a wind turbine. This one wind creates energy to power 75,537 house for a day. Since the turbione has been built is avoided 4,707,444 pounds of CO2. This is an astonishing number!! Another example of of people whop use this upcoming technology is at Spirit Lake, Iowa Elementary School built a turbine. This turbine single handedly provide enough energy to power the school. They also sell the excess of electricity to the local system. Over five years the school earned 25,000 dollars by selling the surplus of electricity. They were so happy with the wind turbine the built a second one soon after! [|**http://www.maritime.edu/static/windturbine.cfm**] [|**http://www.awea.org/faq/wwt_basics.html**] After learning how beneficial the wind turbine can be we decided that we would try to impliment it more to start saving global warming. The sooner we make these wind farms the sooner we can slow down the harmful process of global warming which is killing the earth. We also thought that we would like to try and make the technology more affordable. As time grows on new advances would found to make turbiones cheaper to mass produce. We would like to help produce and build these wind turbines upon graduation.
 * 15. Explain what it would take to do your thing better or in a larger scale.**
 * 16. Explain who uses that technology and why. If it isn't used very much explain that instead.**
 * 17. After learning about it what would you do next to change how its used? why?**