Micus.MMA.Spring2009.EnergyandWater

"The answer is to end our reliance on carbon-based fuels... If we succeed, we create booming new industries, wealth, clean secure energy and maybe we prevent the greatest disaster so far in human history, saving millions of lives while improving billions more. If we fail, basically it's business as usual while things slowly get worse all around us." ~ [|Al Gore]

Looking back on my generation I have realized that during my life the United States and the world have encountered several obsitcles. Famine, natural disasters, civil war, genocide, have all been some issues of the past and present. When asked what I felt Americas obsticles of today are I instantly thought about the war in Iraq, terrorism, and disease such as the swine flue and SARs. But what about problems 20 or 30 years from now, after this war has come and gone and this disease has been cured. The problem of tomorrow is energy. Fossil fuels are becomming a thing of the past but still the United States and the rest of the world still depend on them. There are people out there working on the next form of energy but too few people are aware of the rising problem. In our generation fossile fuels will be consumed and a new form of energy will be required.

All though fossil fuels are slowly dissappearing they have left a permanent foot print in our enviroment. Combustion of these hydrocarbons has produced carbon dioxide and other green house gasses that have altered our atmosphere and damaged the ozone. These are things we are going to have to live with and adapt to and are a result of decades of careless burning of these fuels. Global warming is becomming more and more real but still alot of these issues go unnoticed, people still dont know what Al Gore is talking about.

Because of these issues the problem at hand is not only energy, and our changing enviroment but also the lack of knowledge about the issue. The driving force to these problems is gross ignorance. Granted there are recycling programs, catalytic converters, and other measures to help ensure our future but ask 10 people what they are worried about over the next 50 years and the majority of them will have no worries or concern about whats out side their windows. This lack of concern is what is slowing the steps in the right direction. The change needs to start at the government level and with out proper legislation this issue will go no where. Tax breaks will greatly help push this issue in the right direction. I feel as if the leaders of this country fail to see the big picture and address this issue with the same passion they addressed the threat of "IEDs."

In the follow paragraphs are some solutions to our energy crisis as well as what is currently being done to conserve what fossil fuels we have left and the creation of new forms of energy. This issue is extremely complicated and will involve a change in our world economic dependence on a non renewable resource to a renewable resource. This change will be extremely expensive as the world runs on petrolium products.

We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us. ~ [|Jimmy Carter]

--Solving the problem--
 * __The Present__**

Below are some of the measures taken to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels. Nuclear power to many is seen as the future. It is relatively clean, much less fuel is needed and the reaction produces a tremendous amount of energy. Some countries get around 80% of their energy from nuclear power plants. Allthough its green house gas free and removes our dependence on foreign oil, it replaces the green house gas problem with the issue of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is expensive to remove and to this day there is no method of disposing it other then burying it deep undrground. All this does is change the setting of the problem from our ozone to our watersheds and soil. Allthough nuclear energy has the potential to support our power needs in a world with out fossil fuels it still requires some dirty work and damages the enviroment in the long run. Plus energy is needed to produce nuclear fuel.
 * Nuclear Power**

I know that nuclear is better than fossil fuels when it comes to carbon dioxide, but nuclear energy is by no means clean. We don't know what to do with the waste we already have and it seems like a bad idea to me to make more when we have so many cleaner options such as wind and solar. -- [|Sheryl Crow]

Ethanol additives in gasoline are another solution that is being implimented. As you may see at the gas station up to 10% of the fuel going into your car is ethanol. Ethanol is a renewable resource and is used to oxygenate gasoline in an internal combustion engine. Ethanol is created from crops such as corn and sugar cane. This is done by fermentating sugar or the hydration of ethlyene. Allthough ethanol can be mass produced the amount of grains that will be required to relieve the dependence on fossil fuels could never be met. Ethanol also produces green house gasses when combusted. It may buy some time but ethanol is not the solution to the energy problem.
 * Ethanol**

"Ethanol’s production consumes nearly as much energy as it provides, and its use generates greenhouse gas. With only about 1% of gasoline now replaced by ethanol, some growers of corn have become rich, but many growers of domestic animals for food are in dire straits because of the unanticipated rise in the price of feed corn."[|William Schreiber]

"The use of plant oil as fuel may seem insignificant today. But such products can in time become just as important as kerosene and these coal-tar-products of today." ~ [|Rudolf Diesel,] inventor of the diesel engine, which originally ran on peanut oil.


 * Legislation**

All though not my favorite topic, legislature is key to the improvement of emmisions and or dependence on fossil fuels. A strong energy policy is necessary in order to create a more enviromentally friendly way of life. Currently the Energy Policy and Conservation Act are under effect. This policy raises the Corperate average fuel economy (CAFE). As of now these standards are at 27.5 miles per gallon for cars and 20.7 mpg for light trucks. This policy was implimented in 1990 and in 2007 was increased to 22.2 mpg for light trucks. If these standard are not met the manfacture could recieve fines. Also incease gas taxes are being discused and impliment to discourage unnecessary fuel consumption and could drop national fuel consumption 10%. With these ideas fuel consumption could be deterred resulting in less fuel consumption and as a result less green house gasses being released into the atmosphere. Yet this is not enough to save this nation from the energy crisis as it does nothing for independence from fossil fuels.

There are several other pieces to our national energy policy that were not mentioned they include but are not limited to:
 * Legislation on commercial energy activities
 * Effiency standards, for public and comercial energy use
 * emmision standards
 * Taxes on specific energy products and energy consumption(gass guzzler tax)
 * enviromental protection
 * energy generation, transportation and useage

Allthough there are regulations I feel as if there are not nearly enough to cause a substantial change in our fuel independence. We are in the SUV era and as gas prices rise, so do the size of the vehicles on the market. Something that doesnt make sense. All though there are fuel efficient vehicles being produced, the majority of the vehicles around you are not ULEV's (ultra low emmision vehicles.) A big step would be to put financial status aside and purchase smaller more fuel efficient cars. Allthough a gas guzzlers tax is implemented it is not adequate enough to deter the purchase of inefficient cars, this is the fault of the manifacture. If these vehicles did not exist the problem would be solved.

Energy conservation is the foundation of energy independence. -- Thomas H. Allen

--My solution--
 * The future**

There are infinite ways to prevent this energy disaster from occuring and with the knowledge I have, this is my take on how to help prevent the worlds next crisis. What is probably the largest supplier of energy to this planet and this solar system?. It requires no energy to create and produces no green house gases. The answer is the sun. "More solar energy hits the earth in one hour than all the energy the world consumes in a year," --Nate Lewis (professor of chemistry at the California Institute of Technology)

Allthough it will take decades to harvest efficiently and a few technological advancements the sun supplies more then enough energy to bail the world out of the arising energy crisis. The sun can liberate this nation from the dependence on arab oil, and help better the economy. Solar energy is clean and renewable. It is the future. --**How it works** There are several diferent ways one can harness the suns energy to become less relable on fossil fuels. One method of harnessing the suns energy is by the use of __Photovoltaic cells.__ Photovoltaic energy is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. Photovoltaic cells are non mechanical and directly convert the suns energy into useable electricity. Heres how it works. Sunlight is made up of photons. These photons carry energy from the sun to the earth. These photons hit the photovoltaic cells and do one of three things. They are abosorbed, or pass through the cell, or reflect off the cell. The photons that are absorbed generate electricity. These absorbed photons dislodge electrons, these electrons move towards the front of the cell. The resulting imbalance creates voltage, and is very similar to a battery. Cell;s are very small and only create 1-2 volts so thousands are needed in order to create any useable form of electricity. Advantages-
 * 1) No mechanical process needed to harness the energy (generator, steam turbine)
 * 2) Space efficient
 * 3) No hazardous waste
 * 4) enviromental impact is very low
 * 5) cheap and fast construction

Thermal Energy- This is probably the most basic form of harnessing the suns energy. Basically its using the heat from the suns rays to heat water or spaces. This can be done by using energy efficient windows and water tanks on the roof of buildings. There is no hazardous waste and costs is very low for the construction of these basic units

A slightly more complicated method of harnessing the suns thermal energy involves focusing the suns rays to heat and boil water. This involves using a series of large mirrors to focus the suns energy on a container of water creating steam. The steam is then converted to mechanical energy and spins a turbine. This turbine is connected to a generator and the end result is electricity. These setups are much more bulky but the enviromental impact is very low and no green house gases are created.


 * The catch--**

Effiency is very low ranging around 10%. Also very large areas are needed in order to generate any real power and the amount of energy absorbedy is directly effected by climate, weather, and location. For these reasons solar power not a primary provider of power as of right now.


 * Conclusion**

Allthough effiency is very low ranging around 10% the energy being collected is free and unlimited. As time goes on technology and effiency will increase. Area requirements restrict developement in suburbs and cities, but the construction of these facilities in deserts would be ideal. Vast unlivable space with months of dry season make a desert the perfect area for the creation of massive solar arrays. These arrays could be miles in diameter and generat huge supplies of electricity that could be used or stored. Initial cost would be high but due to the simplicity of the setup, up keep and maintaince would be very easy and cost efficient. A combination of solar farms in the desertsw with solar cells on the roofs of houses and commercial structures in more populated areas would easially relieve fossil fuel dependency. Space could also be implicated into this scenario but creating massive solar satelites with huge solar arrays, reflecting and focusing light to solar arrays on the earth. The possiblities are endless and the result is a clean and renewable resource.

Have a good summer!

[] [] [|http://web.mit.edu/fnl/volume/196/schreiber.html http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/DyeHard/story?id=3860102&page=1 http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energyfacts/sources/renewable/solar.html]

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