Alternative Energy – Solar – Wind – Geothermal – Water

Alternative Energy – What is It?

Alternative energy, renewable energy, green energy – all these terms and more get tossed around a lot these days. Just what is alternative energy?

Most energy today is used as fuel to generate electricity, provide heat or run internal combustion engines. Fossils fuels – coal, oil and natural gas provide the vast majority of it.

This wasn’t always the case. In the not too distant past, animals provided transportation and water mills powered small industries.

A windmill by a ranch house is an icon of the American west because thousands of windmills were used to provide power to pump water before electricity was available.

Early in the 20th century nearly 1/3rd of homes in Florida used solar hot water. The availability of cheap electricity in the 1940′s changed that. At one point electric companies were even giving away hot water heaters to encourage consumption.

On the stage of human history, the dominance of fossil fuels has been very brief and very recent. As it becomes harder and more expensive to meet our energy needs with fossil fuel, we’re returning to other ways of obtaining power.

So the current definition of alternative energy is: energy from a source other than the burning of fossil fuels (again coal, oil and its derivatives and natural gas).

While many people automatically assume that alternative energy sources are renewable, that isn’t necessarily so. For example, burning peat for heat is an alternative energy, but it is neither clean nor renewable.

However most sources of alternative energy are renewable as well as better for the environment than fossil fuel. That is why there is such interest in these types of energy these days.

The alternative sources people most commonly think of are solar power, wind power and hydropower. However, researchers are eagerly exploring other innovative sources as well. These include things such geothermal, biomass and tidal power.

In the not too distant future we can expect that these forms of energy will no longer be “alternative” but instead be our dominate sources.

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Alternative Energy – What Will the Future Hold?

Much like fashion and music, our perception of what the future will hold changes as time passes. Around the turn of the last century, we got visions of moon shots, Martian invasions and journeys to the center of the planet from science fiction writers like Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. After Sputnik shot into orbit in the 1950s, our future became populated by robot butlers and flying cars. And today, as we face the specter of climate change and disappearing natural resources, our visions of the future include alternative energy solutions.

But what do we mean by the phrase “alternative energy?” Aside from crude oil, there’s a wide array of viable options: Natural gas. Coal. Geothermal. The list goes on and on.

But in the midst of international tension and pollution, relying on a dwindling supply of fossil fuels is a futile exercise at best. New forms of alternative energy must be free from the limitations of the ones we’re using now. The subtext here is sustainability — the ability of alternative energy sources to sustain themselves.

So what kinds of alternative energy can we predict for the next century? Here’s a quick list:

Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Since well before Toyota introduced the Prius gas-electric hybrid, we’ve been speculating as to how we’d power automobiles with alternative energy. But the popularity of the Prius has driven business and industry to pursue better ways to fuel cars. One of the best answers is hydrogen gas, since it can be drawn from conventional crude oil sources and (like gasoline), “alternative energy” sources (like biodiesel). The hydrogen drawn from these sources powers fuel cells to power a vehicle’s motor. The only emission is water.

Biofuels. If you’ve ever been camping, you’ve used biofuels: Campfires burn biomass (dried or decomposed organic material) to create heat and light. In the process known as prolysis, organic products are burned to create liquid fuels. These fuels can be used to power an internal combustion engine or a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle. However, burning biomass produces carbon, which contributes to global warming.

Solar Power. As far as sustainability goes, solar power wins the gold medal; the sun isn’t scheduled to expend its supply of hydrogen gas for another four and a half billion years. Solar power uses photovoltaic cells to turn sunlight into usable energy. And though business and industry have generally been slow to convert power systems to solar, there are several notable exceptions: One Southern California utility announced plans to spend $900 billion on photovoltaic power generation in the Mojave desert. Home Depot, the home improvement retail store, has also begun offering solar installation service to its clients.

Wind Power. Windmills aren’t just for quaint old farms anymore. Though wind power has been used as far back as the 1800s (when it helped to irrigate crops), it’s only come into its own relatively recently. Now, wind farms speckle the landscape throughout the American southwest.

Wave Energy. Off the coast of Portugal sits the world’s first commercial “wave farm” — an installation intended to generate power from the motion of ocean waves. The key to wave power is the Pelamis Wave Energy Converter, the device that makes the whole process possible. The Pelamis is designed to survive even the harshest waves, since it only absorbs a portion of the energy of each wave.

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