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Category Archives: Energy
The Feasibility of Solar Power
Solar energy is a very popular source of alternative energy. It’s made leaps and bounds in technology in recent years, and it is frequently discussed in the media. When someone brings up green/alternative energy, solar power is most likely one of the first powers to come to mind. Today, I am hoping to examine the details of solar power, and break down whether or not it deserves its status as the face of renewable energy, or should we look elsewhere?
Currently, solar technology is a pretty expensive. To produce the panels and set them up properly costs a large sum of money, and the returns on solar energy can be a little lacking, as seen by the solar energy generated by a 10 x 10 m. solar panel over the course of one day.
This energy cannot compete with the energy necessary to run a car, much less a flight. However, a 10x10m. solar panel is the size of an average roof, and this would just be the amount of energy generated for one house for one day. When combining this energy with that of a solar panel farm, these are the energy returns.
More than enough energy. I think that it’s important that we use solar in conjunction with other types of renewable energy, as the advantages of solar power isn’t it’s ability to generate a lot of power all at once, but a large amount of stored power over a long time. Using solar farms in conjunction with wind and personal solar panels can generate more than enough energy for just one day, and putting time and effort into storing that energy to use over a long time could be very advantageous, and create more than enough energy to be used in a green and renewable way.
SOURCES:
http://www.withouthotair.com/c6/page_38.shtml
Wind Power
Wind energy is a form of non fossil-fuel energy that, if utilized more, could help us to get closer to a more sustainable future. Wind energy uses wind turbines in order to produce electricity out of kinetic energy created by wind. However, wind energy has a lot of aspects that can be seen as issues, which is why it isn’t used more broadly today. To start, the cost of installation of wind turbines is always an issue, as the larger they are, the more energy they produce, but they are in turn, more expensive. Commercial applications are difficult as well, as wind turbines usually need to be in rural areas for them to generate as much energy as possible (and are very large, so difficult to install in less rural areas,) but then have to send their energy off to more populated places. Finally, wind energy is unreliable because the amount of wind produced in a day cannot be controlled, so the amount of power produced may not be consistent. Although wind turbines are becoming less expensive as prices drop and they become more available (in 2016, wind energy was 16% of all energy produced by renewable sources), we have a long way to go before wind power replaces fossil fuels.
https://www.irena.org/wind
Geothermal Sustainability. Advantages and Disadvantages
Geothermal energy has become more popular in the past few decades as scientists race to find more sustainable forms of energy to fix the climate crisis. Countries like Iceland have been able to use their abundance of geothermal energy in order to power a large portion of their country. One of the many problems of other forms of energy like Solar power and wind power is that the amount of energy produced is based on the weather. You don’t get any power for wind turbines if there is no wind. And for solar power, you never get any power at night. This is one of the benefits of geothermal energy. There is essentially a limitless supply of energy in the earth’s core, however, it is not always coming out at the same rate. Financially, however, geothermal is quite effective. It is a large supply of energy that is just waiting to be harnessed. Perhaps one day we will figure out a way to harness geothermal energy more effectively, and it could be a better way of sustaining our planet.
Works Cited:
http://www.withouthotair.com/
Wind Energy!
There are many forms of non fossil-fuel based energy. But, for this post I will be specifically looking at wind energy. In order to understand wind energy, it is important to first understand wind. When the sun unevenly heats the Earth, that is when wind is created. Wind can then be used to create energy. Knowing this, wind energy is sustainable energy. It will continue to be a sustainable source of energy for as long as the sun continues to shine. Wind energy is caught by the giant windmills, called wind turbines, that tower over 100 feet in the air. Sometimes, the wind turbines work by themselves or they can also be connected to power grids or a solar cell system. When there is a decent amount of wind turbines clustered together it is called a wind plant, however only a handful of electricity providers use these wind plants to provide power for their customers.
Across the United States, there are 41 states have wind plants which have developed more than 100,000 jobs for American citizens. In fact, a wind turbine technician is one of the fastest growing jobs in America. It’s important to note that the wind industry is still growing and is nowhere near its peak. The most common use of wind turbines that are stand alone is to pump water. However, farmers could also use standalone wind turbines, as well as homeowners. When it comes to wind power, it is cost effective as it only costs “1–2 cents per kilowatt-hour after the production tax credit” (energy.gov). Lastly, the newly developing wind industry equals annual investments of over 10 billion dollars into the United States economy. This shows the promise and potential that the wind industry, as well as wind energy has.
Works Cited:
https://www.nrel.gov/research/re-wind.html
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/wind-energy-basics
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/advantages-and-challenges-wind-energy
The Power of Hydro Electricity
For this blog post, I chose to present information on Hydroelectric Power. It’s one of the oldest forms of renewable energy, which began use in 1950.
Hydroelectric power’s source of power is water and plants are usually located on or near a water source. The volume of the water flow and the change or fall in elevation is often referred to as head. The head from one point to another determines the amount of available energy in moving water. The greater the water flow and the higher the head, the more electricity a hydropower plant can produce.
There are about 1,450 conventional and 40 pumped-storage hydropower plants operating in the United States. The average lifespan of a hydropower facility is 100 years.
In 2021, hydroelectricity accounted for about 6.3% of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation and 31.5% of total utility-scale renewable electricity generation.
Hydroelectric energy is sustainable because it relies on and uses the environment, benefits society, and can benefit the economy. It’s an affordable form of renewable energy that is more affordable than other renewable energy sources. Another reason why it’s sustainable is it’s been used for a long time.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydropower/https://
www.energy.gov/eere/water/hydropower-basicshttps://
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/34916.pdf
Solar is Coming in Hot
In recent years, the US has increased its investments in solar energy. In fact, in 2016 47.06% of global energy investments went towards solar whereas in 2006 it was only 19.43%. This makes me feel that we are getting closer to commercial-level solar. In 2020 the US consumed 999 Kw hours of solar energy per capita. This is amongst the highest consumptions in the world. However, it is important to note that America has the lowest investment in renewable energy when looking at countries’ GDP. As we have learned the price for solar installation is decreasing, thus, I think more homes will begin to add solar arrays. If this is the case then families can provide their own electricity and even sell it back to the National Grid. My family is part of a Vermont State Program where any excess solar power our array generates is directly sent to the grid. Many electrical companies are pushing this and even offering a stipend to households who make this change. It is a win-win situation after the solar pays itself back after a few years.
Construction’s Relation to Sustainability
More often than ever, as a nation, we are witnessing forests and woodlands being torn down. The most common reason for tearing down all of these trees is to start up a new construction cites. Although there are a surplus of different reasons that these trees and animals habitats are being torn down, it eventually all comes down to greed. Most of the buildings that are being constructed are money-making entities. Consider some of the following examples; apartment buildings, storage facilities, casinos, etc. In fact, the amount of trees that are being planted opposed to torn down is an incredibly interesting ratio.
Annually, 15 billion trees are cut down. On the other hand, only 1.9 billion trees are planted a year. That means that the ratio of trees that are cut down to planted is 15 to 1.9. Meaning, for every 1.9 trees that are planted, 15 trees are torn down. To help better understand this idea, “For the 15 billion trees that are chopped down each year, every person on the planet could have 3,000 rolls of toilet paper” (Kilgore, 2022). According to Jonah Bader, “President Joe Biden has announced an ambitious goal of net-zero emissions by 2050… The idea of “net-zero emissions” is that any remaining emissions can be fully offset by so-called “negative emissions” — methods of sucking carbon out of the atmosphere. Planting trees is the most straightforward way to do that. Trees absorb CO2 for photosynthesis and store it as cellulose and lignin, the main components of wood” (Bader, 2021). Furthermore, “Planting trees may also be the most popular climate policy. Even former President Donald Trump loved the idea. He championed an international initiative to plant 1 trillion trees, which would be enough to soak up at least a decade of global emissions” (Bader, 2021). The possibilities are endless when it comes to further studying the ways that construction cites interfere with sustainability.
Works Cited:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/10/opinions/climate-plant-and-cut-trees-down-bader/index.html
https://www.gotreequotes.com/how-many-trees-are-planted-each-year-month-day-minute-second/
How Many Trees Cut Down Each Year or in 2022? The Deforestation Crisis Explained
Fast Fashion’s Effect on Environment
Since the Pandemic, shopping online has increased tremendously. With that being said, it’s not uncommon that many people try to find the cheapest “dupes” of high quality clothes. The fashion industry itself consumes one tenth of the water used industrially to clean products and run factories. Thinking about the total amount of water used to produce one cotton shirt that would be about 3,000 liters of water used. Not only is the water usage a big problem but fast fashion is responsible for higher carbon emissions than both international flights and maritime shipping combined. Within the next decade, an increase of 50% of carbon emissions is expected if we continue this trend.
A 2017 report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature had stated 35% of all micro plastics in the ocean come from synthetic clothing like polyester. Since Fast Fashion is in high demand of products in a short period of time, the amount of waste emitted into the air is heavily weighed upon fashion, with 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon being emitted due to the fashion industry. This is why it’s so important to stop shopping at stores such as Shein and forever 21 producing an exuberant amount of cotton and polyester, which not only puts the workers and farmers at harm when using toxic pesticides to grow the products, but many workers get injured due to the poor working conditions these fast fashion companies put their employees in. Thrifting old garments is an excellent way of decreasing the amount of carbon emission as well as lowering the water usage for production.
resources:
https://psci.princeton.edu/tips/2020/7/20/the-impact-of-fast-fashion-on-the-environment
Fast Fashion’s Environmental Impact: The True Price Of Trendiness
US Energy Consumption
The US in 2018 had a record high energy consumption of 101.3 Quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) then when comparing this to the US consumption of energy in 2020 there was a decrease to 92.94 quadrillions British thermal units. When doing the math this was actually a decay factor of 0.0825. I found that this was interesting that our energy consumption in the US actually decreased during the Covid shutdown. However when I think about it a large part of energy consumption comes from office buildings, factories, and such which were shut down during this time. Reducing your energy consumption is important on an individual level and can have a large effect on your carbon footprint.
