Benefits of Green Energy Sources
It provides heat to our homes, gas for our cars and electricity. Since we are now using it more than ever, there is a consequence.
We are depleting our resources and slowly killing our planet. Fortunately, we can change our ways and then shift our attention to green energy sources.
But why green energy sources? Well because there are advantages to using them which we will never be able to get if we don't change our ways. This is also even if some will argue that the problem with green energy is that it is sometimes difficult to generate the power we need.
While that may be true, that is why there are other green energy sources available and we just to know which ones are viable given the geographic location.
The various green energy sources such as solar, wind, wave, hydropower and geothermal do not produce anything harmful which may have a negative effect on the environment. This is the exact opposite of what you get when you continue to operate a coal or nuclear power plant.
Coal you have to remember releases carbon dioxide into the air. On its own, it may not cause that much damage but there are currently 50,000 coal plants around the world and that number is expected to grow.
Nuclear plants may not release anything harmful into the air. The issue is how we dispose of the spend rods and if another nuclear accident should occur. We remember Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.
We have probably learned better ways to prevent another incident from happening. Through the years, a few minor accidents have occurred and although the leak was contained, just imagine if it wasn't?
Green energy sources may not be maintenance free but at least it does not require that much to maintain them compared to conventional means. In the end, we save money because such facilities don't cost that much to operate.
The next advantage of using green energy sources is that we will never run out of them. For centuries, the sun's rays have reached so has the wind which is blown from the sea. By using it, we decrease our dependence on oil which is a nonrenewable resource.
If you think about it, many of us have taken these green energy sources for granted. If we do the right thing now, future generations will not have to face the mess that we could have handled on our own years before.
In short, the power is in our hands. We have the technology and we know what to do with it. The only thing we need is to do is to put our money where our mouth is because despite the number of conferences on global warming and climate change, little has happened.
It is easy to talk about how concerned we are about the environment but you have to ask yourself when will more solar panels or wind turbines will be erected? When will the number of coal or nuclear power plants be reduced?
Green energy sources is the solution to the environmental, political and social problems of this lifetime. By spending more on these technologies, no country will have to depend on another or even a corporation for their power needs because they are self dependent and free.
Do you want help from the experts?
Please take a minute to read more about this here, I think you will find it very useful:
A Guide To Efficient Living!
Can You Use a Green Energy Source like Water to Power a Car?
For more than a century, we rely on oil to fuel our cars.But did you know that the world's oil is close to drying up because it is a nonrenewable resource?
Well that may not happen tomorrow or next year but we are getting closer because of the demand in the world market.
Why wait for that day when we can rely on a green energy source like water to power our cars.
Water can power a car? If you think that's impossible, well it is already here but this is not yet being made on a commercial scale.
The German automobile BMW has produced the world's first ever hydrogen powered car. While only 100 of these units were produced, you can already imagine if more of these vehicles are on the road.
The initial model namely the BMW Hydrogen 7 uses the body of the 760i model. Once you pop the hood, you will notice that the engine is different since it uses gas and hydrogen.
This just means we have not yet totally abandoned are dependence on gas. Given more time and money, the current 4.7 miles per gallon it can travel using water alone could hit double digits in the future.
The biggest challenge to using water as a green energy source as opposed to oil in vehicles is the engine. While there are cars around like the Prius which runs on electricity and gas thanks to fuel cell technology, the hydrogen combustion is less than 10 years old so you could say we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg.
To prevent the water from evaporating, this has to be stored in a large, 30-gallon, bi-layered and highly insulated tank so this does not evaporate into compressed gas. Another safety mechanism is the valves which are designed to open should the pressure within the tank exceed 5 bars.
With the success of the BMW H7, the company came out with a new car that is also partly powered by water known as the H2R. While we cannot yet put our garden hose into the fuselage to fill it up, this vehicle uses liquid nitrogen as a fuel.
Tests on this vehicle have shown it can achieve 285hp and reach a top cruising speed of 185.5 miles per hour. It can also accelerate from 0 to 60 miles per hour under 6 seconds.
But why use water? It is because hydrogen combustion is clean so it does not emit harmful gases into the atmosphere unlike cars that run on petrol or diesel that emit carbon monoxide. Studies have shown that it also weighs less than hydrocarbon-based fuels and burns faster than conventional gasoline.
So when can you expect to buy a car that uses water as a green energy source? Hopefully in the next 10 to 20 years. It is really up to the automakers because all we can do is wait until a better and clear car hits the dealership.
Right now, the best option we have are electric cars. Since its introduction in 1999, more people are using it because they don't want to spend anymore for gasoline that could hit an all time high of more than $110 per barrel.
If water as a green energy source can be used to power a car, why don't we do the same for solar power which has been around much longer?
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You Can Build Your Car Powered by Solar, a Green Energy Source
All cars are powered by gas.But with the volatility of crude oil prices and because it is not a renewable, something must be done before it is too late. Given that solar energy, a green energy source is used to power a community, you can also do this on a small scale by using the same principles to build your own car.
But what do you need to make this work? A lot of things but the two most important are the solar array and the batteries.
The solar array is vital because this is what's used to collect the sun's rays and then converts this into electrical energy. There are two types to choose from in the market namely the prefabricated type and the individual kind which you set up yourself.
If you are looking for branded parts, check out either Siemens or ASE Americas that sell terrestrial grade cells and the space grade cells. The lower end model which can produce a significant amount of power is the terrestrial grade version.
Proper wiring must be done to make sure that if one of the panels is not working, your vehicle will still move. If you are worried that the voltage of the solar array should match the system voltage of your motor, you should not to worry because it will still run.
We mentioned earlier that the battery is also important because this is where the solar energy will be stored. Your options for this are lead acid, lithium-ion or nickel-cadmium. Just how many you need to buy will depend on your motor's voltage.
When you finally have these two components, these will now have to be connected to the motor. So you know how much juice is left in your batteries, you will also need to install instrumentation similar to the heads up display console on regular cars which tells you your speed, mileage and gas.
Don't forget to put a steering wheel, suspension, brakes, tires and hubs. You may not be able to make a car that have the same features as like what you see done by one of the three US automakers but just enough to be able to drive it from one place to the next.
The only cars that use solar energy so far are the ones only used in races especially the one held in Australia from travels from the northern part of the country all the way to the south. If this has helped people realize that renewable energy is really the key to the future, the big automakers should try tapping this technology instead of relying of still relying on gasoline.
But apart from solar energy as a green energy source, biodiesel is another alternative. This is a combination of alcohol like methanol and a chemical process that separates glycerine and methyl esters (biodiesel) from fats or vegetable oils. This can also be done using corn and sugarcane.
Although these are not renewable, these are still considered as a green energy sources because it is cleaner than conventional gasoline. This means you do not release harmful chemicals such as carbon monoxide into the air which causes damage to the environment. So if you can't build a solar powered car, consider a different fuel alternative.
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Green Energy
How to Make Your Own Green Energy Source
Wouldn't it be great if we can produce our own green energy source?If we can do that, we don't have to pay electrical bills or gasoline anymore for our cars. While we can buy some of the equipment, the rest will have to be done on our own.
Take solar or wind energy for example. We already know how to harness and make it. If you want to make one, do some research online and then set up the system yourself.
To have solar energy, you will need to buy an inverter, battery, charge controller, solar panels, some wires and support structure. The only difference with wind energy is that you need a fan. Once you have everything you need, you can put it all together.
If you are not skillful, you will be happy to know that some companies sell the entire system. By buying it from them and having it installed by their experts, you are sure that there won't be any problems the moment you switch it on.
There is one more thing you need before you can use one or the two green energy sources. Before you buy the materials or the system, make sure you have a flat area that is about a hundred square feet or so because it occupies a lot of space.
For those who don't have the space or the budget to use these two energy sources, another option is to create your own biofuels.
Biofuels are used in many countries and they get it from harvesting corn, sugar and other crops. Luckily, you don't need a farm to produce it because you can also make your own using some recycled waste.
A good example of this is vegetable oil which we use for cooking. To turn this into a biofuel, we first filter it by warming up the liquid and then filtering this with a coffee filter. The next step is to remove the water also by boiling it again at 100 degrees for a short period of time.
We need to know the amount of lye present in the vegetable oil and we do this by a process known as titration. When we are done with that, we now mix sodium hydroxide to produce sodium methoxide.
The process of converting used vegetable oil before it becomes a biofuel takes quite awhile and it must be heated the entire time. This is done so the fuel we produce is pure and only when this is achieved that we give it time to cool.
Just how much biofuel we make after all the work varies but you will have an idea of how much you have produced since this is the one you see floating at the top. If there is still some glycerin present, filter it again. From there, you already have your own backyard biofuel which you can use and even sell to those who are just as concerned with the environment as you are.
By making our own green energy sources, we make ourselves less dependent on gasoline in its various forms to power our heater, home or car. Why don't a lot of people do it? Well simply because they don't have the time to make it and would rather rely on someone else to do it for them.
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Alternative Energy Sources - A Brief Glimpse
It seems like the efforts to find the best alternative energy sources are seriously being looked into by lots of countries including most US cities.One proof is the signing of the Kyoto Treaty. The main aim of the concerned group and individuals is to lessen the greenhouse gases and pollutants.
The renewable energy sources have proven to be of great help in reducing the quantity of toxins, which are by-products of the use of energy.
These sources also preserve most of the natural resources that people use as resources of energy. What are the most popular sources of renewable energy?
Here's a list to give you some basic understanding about the matter.
1. Solar.
This works when the sun's rays are trapped into solar cells. The process turns the heat coming from the sun into electricity. When the sun's rays hit solar thermal panels, the power is then converted to heat air or water.
The sun's rays can also hit parabolic mirrors. This process can produce steam by heating the water. But you don't need all these scientific processes to be able to benefit from solar power.
All you have to do is open the windows and blinds on your room to let the sunshine in. You'll get an instant heater without having to go to any processes that will require conversion of this energy source.
To date, the main disadvantage of using this source is that it is limited.
You cannot use it obviously on nighttime and during days when it is raining or even on cloudy days. This has been acted upon through solar power stations. But these are too expensive that there aren't so many of such piece around the globe.
2. Wind.
The energy coming from the wind boosts the blades of the wind turbines. As this happens, electricity is produced through the use of electrical generator.
In the old days, windmills are created so that mechanical machinery could perform physical labor. This includes the pumping of water and crushing of grains that are essential in planting and farming.
Now there are large scale wind farms that produce electrical currents. The end products are then distributed to national electrical grids and small turbines owned by individuals to distribute electricity to far flung areas and homes.
There are many advantages of this kind of power. The main one, of course, is that this doesn't produce any by-products that can be harmful to the environment. And we will never run out of this source of renewable energy.
3. Geothermal.
This comes from the bottom of the earth. Holes are being drilled in certain regions. The hot rocks that can be found underneath produce steam. This is being purified to be used to be able to drive turbines. The latter then become power source for electric generators.
To secure that no harmful by-products are going to be produced in the process, geothermal plants must be created accordingly. Once this has been set up, this will be self-sufficient in creating energy sources.
4. Hydroelectric.
This power is being created through dams that contain water that can drive generator and water turbine. Tidal power can also be used if dam is not available. The idea here is to make use of the kinetic energy of water.
Just by reading through the available alternative energy sources, you will be amazed at how nature works wonders. It is your responsibility to care for everything around you as to be able to gain from the benefits that each source of energy can give you.
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Reader Feedback
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- Pryzym Pryzym Sep 23, 2009 @ 8:49 pm
- Good lens.
I agree with Henry about the Geothermal energy. More people would be interested if they knew how accessible and affordable and great it is. My daughter did a school project on the subject: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRHfyfnVUgI
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- goldmember goldmember Sep 18, 2009 @ 9:07 pm
- Great lens
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- HenryE HenryE May 15, 2009 @ 10:26 am
- Great information! I work for a geothermal heating and air conditioning company in Florida and we are actively trying to spread the word about alternative energy sources! Especially with the huge tax credits and energy savings - they're great. I think more people would be interested if they knew how accessible and affordable and great they are.
Henry
www.geothermalexperts.net
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