technology Alternative energy, ideas?

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

 What, in your opinion, is the most reliable form of alternative energy?  I'll list some here with a general description. I'm only going to list the three most popular.

 

 

I for one am all for solar energy in the sunnier climates and wind energy in places where the weather is too cloudy year-round for solar energy to be conventional. This will at least solve much of the energy.

 

 

 

Solar Energy:

This is one of the biggest contenders for alternate energy. It is a great source that can use power from our sun to produce clean energy. Here is the issue, some places have climates that make this impractical. Take for example, Washington, USA. It is almost perpetually cloudy or raining in that state. This extremely limits the days of the year solar energy would be available. However, there might be some ways around problems like these.

 

 Solar panels can be initially extremely expensive. However some areas offer tax reductions if you do use them in order to encourage their use.

 

 

Pros of Solar:

-Clean

-Efficient

-Saves money in the long run

-Some governments provide benefits to those who have solar panels to encourage their uses

-Simple to set up

 

Cons of Solar:

-Expensive to purchase the panels initially

-Cloudy or otherwise unsunny climates make this power source impractical

-Produces a lot of heat 

-Besides on flat roofs and fields, the places to put solar panels are fairly limited.

-Can't be used at night

 

Ways around the problems:

 

Certain types of solar panels use mirrors to focus the suns rays. This could be used to harness more energy in a shorter time span and increase efficiency.

 

In order to address not being used at night, we just need stations capable of storing energy for a backup. Like a generator that will hold the voltage and the buildings will go to using that power once the Solar panel's power themselves are not enough.

 

Wind energy:

Another popular energy candidate is wind energy. It is widely available, clean, and there are many upsides. Wind turbines are generally efficient at producing electricity. Wind energy is one of the more currently popular ones, with many wind turbines in Europe and the Mid Western US.

 

Pros of Wind energy:

-Clean

-Generally efficient

-Widely Available

-Already has a level of popularity so converting would be less hard than converting to other methods

-Available during night and day

-Not that expensive compared to some energy sources

 

Cons of Wind energy

-Wind turbines are large and take up a lot of space

-Some places don't have access to that much wind

-Requires large open flat areas for efficient use

 

Hydroelectric power:

Another highly popular variant of alternate energy, hydroelectric. There are many models for hydroelectric power. Some models take advantage of natural kinetic energy from a river flowing downstream, while others have dams with water turbines. All in all, a generally efficient way to create power that isn't very expensive at all.

 

Pros of Hydroelectric power:

-Inexpensive

-Clean

-Efficient

-Widely available

-Easy to set up and maintain

 

Cons of Hydroelectric power:

-Dams stop some fish, especially Salmon, from swimming upstream to reproduce

-Requires a water source

-Problematic in areas that experience a lot of flooding, where the water turbines could get damaged or destroyed

 

 

 

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Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

[I used to be a stranger 7,994]

((Solar energy doesn't produce heat very much. And what little it would or does, is inordinately less than any system that relies on thermodynamic turbines (Nuclear, Coal, Gas, Geothermal, Oil, etc.) The problem for many is the fact that they have to strap stuff on their roof.))

 

I personally very much like Wind and Solar. It is already widely done in British Columbia that hydroelectricity is generated far inside the province and then distance-transmitted with high voltage power lines to where it's needed in major city centres. This could be adapted for other places, having inland (or sea-bound) wind farms and solar farms, and transmitting over land to where it's needed. And I honestly think the argument that there are health issues due to the shadows that they cast is a completely ridiculous argument. More harm comes from mobile phones than bleedin' shadows!

 

The expense for Hydroelectric Dams is the fact that they have a larger environmental footprint than any other renewable resource (barring fuel or exhaust considerations.) Research for the placement of a dam can take more than a decade, due to how much of an area is affected by its reservoir.

Another drawback that most people don't know about is that they are often seasonal. Dams run very effectively in early autumn and all the way through spring as the weather permits due to heavier rain. But in the dead of winter and in summer dams recede their usage somewhat due to less rain or decreased mobility in their reservoir (ice).

Edited January 16, 2013 by Blue and Red

[K3WRO 79]

Since I live in a country raped by Nuclear Disasters, Nuclear Power isn't really a way to go even if 90% of our power comes from it, ever since Fukushima, government officials recommended COMPLETE shutdown of nuclear power, for the most part, this is a bad thing.

 

So, Using Methane Calathrate is one of the options to replace all coal and oil power, it's a good alternate source because it's highly flammable and it only releases Water and atmospheric compounds when spent on hydrocarbon fuel, the problem is that it's expensive to extract and we only get so little of it's energy. All the natural Gas can disappear just like how oil did.

I think Human and Animal waste can be used as carbon fuel too, this is probably the best option. Imagine, Oil out of poop!

 

Thorium, Thorium is an radioactive element which is 2 blocks away from uranium on the periodic table, it's better than using uranium because the waste is more "clean" and less dangerous to human health than Uranium, since it's isotopes release alpha particles instead of gamma. The only advantage (or disadvantage) of uranium waste is to make bombs. (yay, bombs!) The reactors are'nt so expensive either sense it requires less water to maintain.

 

Geothermic fuel, Come on Japan, You've got active volcanoes everywhere! Why not use them to power our turbines?

 

Those are my thoughts

[akita-ken 581]

 What, in your opinion, is the most reliable form of alternative energy?  I'll list some here with a general description. I'm only going to list the three most popular.

 

Solar energy is a great choice for countries like mine, which is situated about a hundred miles above the equator. We get direct sunlight all year round and it's hot as hell here. The problem with solar panels is that the efficiency of photovoltaic cells are rather low, the typical silicon based PV cells that are available to the consumer only convert about 17 to 22 percent of the light that falls onto them into electricity, even the most cutting edge lab-grade PV cells that have been created have only been able to achieve slightly less than 45% efficiency. Until the technology matures, I think we shouldn't be too eager about putting panels everywhere, because once the new technology comes out, we're gonna have to replace everything again.

 

 

 

Certain types of solar panels use mirrors to focus the suns rays. This could be used to harness more energy in a shorter time span and increase efficiency.

 

 

What you're referring to is a Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) station. This, on the other hand, I agree that we should invest fully in. The concept could not be simpler, it's just getting a tonass of magnifying mirrors to concentrate the sunlight onto a water boiler in the center, and then the rest of the process is like any other power station, the steam generated is used to run turbines. If you've got the space, then there's really no reason not to build these plants. Mirror's aren't that very expensive.

 

 

Another popular energy candidate is wind energy. It is widely available, clean, and there are many upsides. Wind turbines are generally efficient at producing electricity.

 

Efficient yes, but windfarms take up a *lot* of space and the power generation is unpredictable too. Unless the station is situated somewhere where there's pretty much wind all year round (like the coast), the costs kind of outweigh the benefits.

 

 

 

Hydroelectric power:

Another highly popular variant of alternate energy, hydroelectric. There are many models for hydroelectric power. Some models take advantage of natural kinetic energy from a river flowing downstream, while others have dams with water turbines. All in all, a generally efficient way to create power that isn't very expensive at all.

 

True, hydroelectric dams produce inexpensive electricity once they've been built. The initial cost of building the dam however, is immense, and you have to resettle anyone who might be living downstream too. Not to mention the environmental changes dams tend to bring about.

 

Personally, I'm a proponent of nuclear energy. Nuclear power plants are actually very safe if the proper procedures are followed to the letter, with no room for deviation whatsoever. Majority of the past accidents at nuclear power plants have mostly been the result of either poor maintenance, or reckless tests gone wrong, or inexperienced crews being allowed to work on them. Properly maintained and regularly upgraded, a nuclear reactor could probably keep going for a few hundred years.

[sheparddog 8]

i prefer geo thermal energy its cheap to run a geo thermal set up its reliable and low maintenance or at least lower than solar wich need to be adjusted to the sun as the earth rotates.

 

altho it's a bit pricey to assemble naming a hole has to be drilled very deep to get at all that heat.

[Harmonic Revelations 8,835]

i prefer geo thermal energy its cheap to run a geo thermal set up its reliable and low maintenance or at least lower than solar wich need to be adjusted to the sun as the earth rotates.

 

altho it's a bit pricey to assemble naming a hole has to be drilled very deep to get at all that heat.

The problem with geothermal is that unless you're right next to some kind of source of geothermal energy like a volcano you really can't do it. It's good when it's available but there's almost nowhere that has it available.

[mycarhasaMoustache 449]

My problem with solar panels is I live in England and 80% of the year the sky is dull and cloudy so they would take for ever to pay for them selfs another downside to solar power is over time a fine layer of dust and dirt will build up on them and unless you have ones witch are self cleaning you will have 25% power loss from them. Hydrogen is the way of the future they just need to work out easier ways to store it.

[Jessper 735]

I'd say nuclear energy is the best thing we've got and prolly will have for a long time.

 

From what you offer I'd say wind energy is definitely the best, but it can never be main source of energy, because it cannot be used effectively in majority of countries.

For a long run, Solar, because as opposed to wind, it's viable in many countries, eco-friendly and doesn't take up whole lot of space. The "night time" or cloudy days doesn't seem to be too problematic to me, as the energy is getting stored anyway, rather than being pumped into the circuit directly.

Hydro energy is not as cool as it seems, it tends to damage the whole surrounding ecosystem and kill everything in the river where it's at.

[Milk Wave 454]

 What, in your opinion, is the most reliable form of alternative energy?

Cold fission.

One huge problem with that: We can hasnt figured how to make it yet. So until we get Cold fission, I think Solar is the best way to go as of now.

For places that cant really put solar panels, I think Nuclear power would be the best. It does produce radioactive waste, but teh waste is biodegradable so you can keep on making power from the plant for as long as it lives.

[khaine21x3 789]

Kinetic, gravitational and geothermal energies

 

I think that we need to do more research to convert human kinetic energy to electricity but I don't want to be the one to fork out the dough for any kind of energy research lol.Humans are the most abundant resource on the planet so human based kinetic energy makes sense.

[Hansel 1,512]

I think we should grow a potato the size of the moon and fire it into space, then get a really long wire and just plug it in to the Earth.