Alternative & Renewable Energy - The Need In The 21st Century

Alternative energy is going to be the savior when it
comes to cutting ties with our addiction to foreign
oil. Alternative energy describes many other energy
sources not associated with fossil fuels and falls into
the category of renewable energy.

Everywhere you look these days people are talking Green
Technology. This is nothing more than using
alternative fuel sources that are Earth
friendly. Renewable resources will help clean up our
environment and make the planet a better place for all.

Renewable energy comes in many forms and I will go over
some of these below....

Solar Power:

Solar energy is nothing more than taking energy from the
sun and turning it into more useful energy we all can
benefit from.

Below I will go over the different types of solar energy
available and how it is used.

Types of Solar Energy:

Solar Photo voltaic Technology is used to produce
electricity from the power of the sun. Sunbeams shine
on solar panels collecting energy and turning it into
electricity.

Solar thermal is heating fluid or air directly to
produce heat. This heated water or air is then used
different, with methods to heat our homes and businesses
through passive heating. This is a great way to heat
water and is becoming more popular in the heating of
swimming pools.

Solar panels are used to a great deal now days in our
homes. For best results these solar panels should be
facing the south in order to get the full benefit of the
sun's energy. As stated above this is the way solar
photo voltaic and solar thermal collect energy from the
sun. They do differ but the same principal is involved
using the same properties. The energy collected differs
with surface areas, the bigger the better.

Solar Concentrators are large curved mirrors that focus
the sunlight to a specific place, usually a Stirling
Engine or a photo voltaic cell. These solar concentrators
vary a great deal in size, anywhere from the size of a
basketball to the size of a football field, depending on
the energy needed.

Wind energy:

The U.S. is considered to be the Saudi Arabia of Wind
Energy. Studies show that the Great Plains from the
Texas panhandle up to the Dakotas has the greatest
potential of wind power in the world. We need to take
advantage of this natural resource and put it to good
use. Wind farms are being developed nationwide to
produce electricity for everyday use. Wind towers vary
in size, and produce different amounts of power,
according to the needed amount of electricity.

Biomass Energy:

Biomass is any plant derived organic matter available on a renewable basis, including energy crops and trees, agricultural food and feed crops, agriculture crop waste and residue, wood waste and residues, animal and municipal waste, aquatic plants and many other waste materials.

Hydro-Electric Power:

Hydro -electric power plants is second to coal fired plants when it comes to the production of electricity in the U.S. Hydro-electric is totally dependable on water flow and the force for driving mechanical turbines.

All of the above mentioned renewable resources are Earth friendly and our environmentally safe. We, the people of the greatest nation on the planet, need top buckle down and do our part anyway we can to make the renewable resource revolution a reality.