O'Brien.O'Kane.wiki.spring.2011

= Depletion of Fossil Fuels and SOLAR ENERGY! =

The biggest problem at hand today is the depletion of our fossil fuels and also the effect they have on the environment. First we have to worry about the complete depletion of our fossil fuels and look for an alternative energy source or we are going to run out of energy; second we have to find an alternative energy source that can match the energy output of fossil fuels and leave little to no carbon footprint. Everything on our planet today relies on fossils fuels. How are food is processed, how our miscellaneous items are mass-produced and what makes our cars, buildings and homes run. So we can come to the conclusion that without fossil fuels we would not have our food, fresh water, and electricity. []

Since our economy is in such debt we cannot jus simply replace fossil fuels like that, it is not that easy. One of our main fossil fuels is oil and is used for cars, building and power plants everyday, which is exponentially depleting the world supply. Soon there will be no oil left. The government knows this but has spent little time and funding to finding an alternative, maybe even renewable, energy source that is cost efficient, earth friendly and that would suffice to our every day energy needs. Currently we have few means of producing renewable energy, such as hydro, solar, wind and hydrogen power.

The United States currently relies little on renewable resources and more on fossil fuels to supply energy to the public. The four main sources of power are coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear power. Nuclear is the cleanest and most efficient form of energy source among these four. This does not mean that it doesn't leave a huge footprint. Thermal emissions do just as much damage as carbon emissions. The even bigger threat that we have to worry about is the possibility of a nuclear meltdown. This would cause an area of 25 or more square miles uninhabitable fro many months, but most likely several years. This is taking into consideration that the half-life of Cesium 137, which is 30 years. This is why it is more important now than ever to start funding the research of more cost effective and practical renewable energies. Some renewable sources that we are actually starting to put to practical use now have been around since the creation of this planet. These include hydro, solar, wind and hydrogen. It is shocking how long it has taken us to be as far as we are now with implementing renewable energies. These are being used in today's society but a much smaller scale of what they could be potentially used for. You will see them used at a home, small business, a school, or even, if we're lucky, a small town. Our society is so reliant on the fossil fuels that it is making it difficult if not impossible to move forward. It will take some time before we are 100% green but until then we do what we can such as discovering new technologies and ways of producing energy.

A new type of energy that is new to the renewable energies list is hydrogen. The production of hydrogen is an easy process. It is done through a simple process known as electrolysis. This is where you take an electrical current and force it through water. This causes the electrons to start flowing. When they flow they want to flow from the cathode to the anode. When this happens hydrogen wants to collect near the cathode and oxygen wants to collect near the anode. Hydrogen is a very volatile gas yet really easy to produce and collect, but is difficult to store. When you combine hydrogen with another gas, oxygen, and react the two a chemical reaction takes place. With this reaction you get enormous amounts of heat and water. This energy produced can be used to replace the heating source in a steam turbine. This could be used to heat a building or a school. Although it does take energy (electricity) to produce hydrogen but there are means of producing that energy needed through other forms of renewable energy. We can use the free energies of water, wind, and solar to produce hydrogen but this does not make this a very cost efficient system. If you think about it you are going from electricity (wind, water, solar), to chemical energy, to thermal energy back to electricity. Between each of these changes you are loses energy which also means you are losing efficiency. It is just silly and defeats the purpose to produce electricity from electricity.

Hydrogen Enerygy: []
Picturing a hydrogen community now or even in the future because it costs more to produce and harvest hydrogen than to actually produce electricity. A more conventionally cost efficient renewable energy source is wind. Wind is practically everywhere you go and the best part is that it is free. The way to harvest this free source of energy is with wind turbines. These are basically giant fans that as they spin turn a turbine inside which produces electricity. These blades are connected to an armatures and when they spin the turn the generator that produces AC (alternating current). This type of electricity is used in every office building, school building, home, etc. The only cost would be the installation of the wind turbine and the constant maintenance and maintaining of it. In the long run the wind turbine will pay for itself and so much more.

In theory if we had a field of wind turbine and/ or solar panels we could easily produce the amount of electricity needed to produce hydrogen on a large scale instead of a small scale. As it was stated before, hydrogen could be used to heat a building or to create steam to power a small system of pumps to move a certain liquid or gas from point A to point B. Hydrogen is still extremely dangerous and that could be the main reason why the government hasn't put the use of it into effect. However, wind is a safe renewable source of energy and we are slowly implementing wind farms everywhere. Remember though, that they only operate where there is wind. Without any wind you have no electricity, which in this case, is essential if we want to create hydrogen without emitting carbon into the atmosphere.

How Wind Turbines Work: []
When you burn hydrogen the only product from the reaction is water, that is the best part of using hydrogen to burn as a heating source. The water produced is perfectly safe to drink and it is only hydrogen and oxygen that make a water molecule you can harvest oxygen on the side along with the hydrogen. The harvested oxygen can be used to fill oxygen bottles for welding or used in hospitals. If there was a more efficient way of producing and harvesting hydrogen it can easily find its place in our society. It not only is a good way of producing heat but can also be used as a fuel cell. Similar to batteries, fuel cells are a temporary source of power unless it is not charge. Fuel cells need to be charged in order to be used as a temporary source of power. There is just one main difference between the battery and the fuel cell. The battery will lose its voltage with normal use because its reactants are used as electrical current is drawn. The difference with a fuel cell is that its reactants are constantly being replenished. When the battery is in use, the reactants constantly flow through the batter generating electrical current. At the same time it generates an electrical current the reactants undergo a redox reaction. The most common fuel cell utilizes the reaction between oxygen and hydrogen. As hydrogen flows past the anode and undergoes oxidation, it loses electrons. Simultaneously oxygen is passing through the cathode gaining the lost electrons from hydrogen which a reaction known as reduction. This transfer of electrons creates an electrical current, which can power anything that requires electricity, such as small motors on fuel cell cars. Fifty-eight percent of our energy consumption is on transportation. This includes everything from cars, to trucks, to buses, to planes, to trains, to boats, etc. If we could make cars and trucks more fuel-efficient we could easily lessen our carbon footprint on the world. Also on top of that maybe put some renewable energy into effect. Every day fossil fuels are being depleted and this rate of depletion is exponentially increasing. Currently changing from a fossil fuel reliant society to a green society is not going to happen anytime soon. We can at least, in the mean time, put into effect small changes in what we use that requires the use of fossil fuels that can easily be transitioned. Such as houses at least having a solar panel for their heating or maybe cutting back on the number of cars. A big help to lessening our carbon footprint is the new fluorescent light bulbs. They save energy big time and are cheaper to buy and last longer. It is a win win for everyone. And in the long run the consumer saves money. If the United States continues to use its energy the way its using it then we will surely run out of resources before we have a chance to do a major flip to 100% green. If the United States can at least use the resources more efficiently, then that could buy us more time and lessen our carbon footprint and minimize the damage on the environment from what we have already done. To accomplish this nearly impossible task a good place to start is implementing wind, solar, hydro, and hydrogen renewable energy sources more and more in society. A good example of this is the large wind turbine farm that is being put out of the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The number of wind turbines they are planning to install is amazing. They plan on putting up 130 wind turbines that all together produce a total of 468 megawatts of power. This energy is enough to power all of Cape Cod and the islands. On average they are predicting to produce around 170 megawatts of power. This is about 75 percent of the average demand of Cape Cod and the islands around the cape. The average demand of Cape Cod and the islands, if calculated, is roughly 230 megawatts. There will always be wind and solar supplied to the earth so the resources for those two powers is limitless. So right now we need to take advantage of it before this free power somehow isn not available to us anymore. Another reason as to why we should get a jump on the renewable energies is because we are creating a lot of heat and producing a lot of emissions which is causing the earth is average temperature to increase, slowly but noticeable. This increase in the Earth's temperature is called global warming. This is a big deal because global warming is causing things like the polar ice caps to melt at a faster rate then what they are already. This in turn causes sea levels to increase by as much as an inch. Experts estimate that within the next century that tides will rise, on average, as much as five feet causing a bunch of land to be lost. Scientists fear their predictions that within the next 20 to 30 years we will no longer see ice caps in the photos from space. They say we have passed the point of no return with all the emissions that we have released into the atmosphere. All the ice caps will melt down at a critical rate during the summer months with the predicted temperature increase and melt at the current rate they are melting during the predicted onths. In the end the earth will be 90 percent water instead of 75 percent currently.

Global Warming: []


The list of reasons why we should put our focus towards research on putting renewable energies to use is infinite. Both current and future generations depend on it, both economically and environmentally. If we do not change our ways we probably will not have a future to look forward to. Solar, wind, and hydrogen all have their places in this world and the best part is that they are 100 percent free. If we implement these renewable resources properly we will eventually eliminate our fossil fuel consumption and emission production. The United Nations predicts that by 2050, 77 percent of the world power will be based upon the production of power from renewable sources. Another solution to the big problem is solar power. It also is a free source of renewable energy. The heat and light that the sun gives off can be used for many different applications. The heat from the sun can be harnessed and used for hot water heaters, space heaters, and water treatment. The light given off by the sun can be harnessed with the help of solar panels to generate electricity to power a house, building, or a school. The two different ways to produce this solar power from the sunlight are Photovoltaic (PV) systems and Concentrated Solar Power systems. The way Photovoltaic systems produce solar power is by the utilization of what is called the photovoltaic effect. This uses a type of radiation from the sun to heat conductors to get electrons flowing in what is called a solar cell. Inside the solar cell there is what is called a semi conductor. When hit with sunlight, the semi conductor releases some electrons, which can flow freely. The electrons flowing freely want to flow to one of two electrodes. These electrodes generate the electricity to power something. When you join many solar cells in a series you get what is called a solar panel. A way to produce electricity on a large scale using this renewable energy source is with a concentrated solar power system. The way a concentrated solar power system works is that it takes the light from the sun and sends it through a series of mirrors and lenses, concentrating the sunlight into a small beam. This beam is then used to heat something up, such as water from a hot water system for a house. Another idea for the use of a concentrated solar power system is heating a tank of water to produce steam. The steam can then be used to create mechanical energy to power a turbine that will in turn create electricity from the electric generator. Taking this power to the next level we can use it to heat, cool and ventilate our homes. Homes are a leader in the consumption of fossil fuels, right under transportation. If we found a way to heat our homes with the use of solar energy we could eliminate the use of heating oil with heat our homes when it is cold. This will instantly cut down on a large portion of our dependency on fossil fuels.

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