Sun, water and wind three advantageous sources of alternative energy

Priscylla Rodrigues Vilella

5335179
Rebecca Vos
5 D
Brock University
March 25, 2013.












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Nowadays, fossil fuels are the widely used resource to supply the worlds energy
demand. Dresselhaus and Thomas claims that although the use of fossil fuels might be
acceptable for the following few generations, its use has unacceptable consequences in a
long term, such as the emission of carbon dioxide (CO
2
) and oxides of sulphur and ash.
For this reason, scientists must seize this period to measure and evaluate the use of
alternative energy in order to determine what could be environmentally advantageous,
scientifically acceptable and technologically promising (Dresselhaus & Thomas, 2011).
Knowing the problems of using fossil fuels, what should the society do in order to
minimize these problems, such as the emissions of polluting gases? According to
Dresselhaus and Thomas, alternative energy provides the answer for this question
because it is a sustainable energy that comes from the natural environment. Some
sources of energy can be called renewable which means that they are maintained or
replaced by nature. Different from fossil fuel which is a finite supply and cannot be
replaced, alternative energy is obtained from sources that are essentially inexhaustible
(Dresselhaus & Thomas, 2011). According to Stuebi (2006, as cited in Donald, 2006,
pp. 1), in a long-term the investment in alternative sources of energy is totally favorable,
since conventional energys sources are becoming more expensive, and therefore the
alternative sources of energy might become more appealing to the consumers and
principally to the investors. Many energy sources have been currently presented to
society as climate-friendly alternatives to replace fossil fuels. Solar energy,
hydroelectric energy, and wind energy are three advantageous types of alternative
energy.
Black (2010) explains that solar energy derives from the Sun and produces
thermal and light energy. The harvest of solar energy can be done in some different
ways. Firstly, photovoltaic panels are used to harvest sunlight because they are capable
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to convert them straight into electricity. The panels can be used anywhere that receives
the sunlight and they are capable to reduce the electric bill to very few rates. Another
way would be concentrating the sunlight to boil water, and then generating solar
thermal electricity by using steam turbines. And lastly the thermal collectors can be
used to collect the sunlight in order to heat air and water. It consists in the use of mirrors
to reflect the sunlight into the water in order to heat it and produce a steam which is
used to produce electricity. Scientists claim that the electricity which is thermally
produced is the most economically promising application for industries to use solar
energy and the price has fallen due the technological improvement. And lastly, the
sunlight can be concentrated to boil water to generate solar thermal electricity by using
steam turbines (Black, 2010). According to Michaelides (2012), the major advantage of
using solar power is that it does not have nuclear or chemical reactions involved, and
therefore, there is no emission of polluting gases, such as, carbon dioxide and nitrogen
dioxide. Weis and Cobb (2008) presented that heating costs can be reduced by up to
30% and 50% each year by using solar heaters. Solar water heaters can be installed in
most of buildings that use a large amount of water and can be paid themselves within
ten years of use. In addition, solar energy is advantageous because all manners of
collecting solar energy are pollution-free and uses no fresh water (Black, 2010). Beyond
the environmental advantage, the solar energy is available and abundant anywhere and
although the sunlight just can be collected during the day, the collectors are able to store
the solar energy. Thus the use of solar energy is a significant option among the
alternative energy for the society (ibid).
Hydroelectric energy is another beneficial alternative to replace fossil fuels.
Klein (2012) defines hydroelectric power as the energy produced using flowing water
such as streams and rivers. The utilization of water to produce kinetic energy had
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already been applied to grind grain in Europe and Asia for thousands of years (Klein,
2012). Thus, currently the plants are constructed to transform the kinetic energy in to
electricity following the same model and they represent 20% of the worlds generation
of energy (ibid). One of the main advantages of using hydroelectric systems is that it
can produce a big amount of energy for a relative size of built area. Additionally, hydro
systems are widely established, and its operations are understood, and it is relatively
simple to maintain the system working (Weis & Cobb, 2008). Another benefit is that the
hydroelectric power is a renewable source of energy that causes neither water nor air
pollution (Kaygusuz, 2010). According to Akpinar (2013), hydropower is an
advantageous source of energy in the worldwide because it is renewable,
environmentally friendly, clean and inexpensive. The hydro sources are very well
spread around the world, and compared with fossil fuel it has small rates of atmospheric
emissions. And also it has being considered as the lowest operation costs among the
options of power generation (Akpinar, 2013).
The wind power, which is the kinetic energy shown in the air movement is also
an advantageous type of alternative energy (Lakey, 2006). Still according to Lakey
(2006), depending on the heating of the earth by the sun an area is warmed so the air
becomes less dense and raises and decreases the pressure of that area. Then the cooler
air moves the warm air toward creating a movement called wind. The quantity of the
potential energy can be affected by the wind speed and the airs density, which
determined by altitude, pressure and temperature. A wind turbine works in the contrary
way of a fan, using the winds to make the blades spin to produce electricity. There are
mainly , two types of wind energy generator, the Vertical axis wind turbines and the
Horizontal axis wind turbines, depending on the amount of air passing through the
blades they are going to rotate faster and generate more electricity (Lakey, 2006).
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Mathew (2006) argues that currently, wind is the energy source, which is growing faster
than the other alternative energy sources in the world, because the cost of production
has been reduced over the past years. Furthermore, the credibility in renewable energy
has been intensified recently, and therefore wind power growth will remain during the
next years (Mathew, 2006). According to Black (2010), the production of wind energy
has become economically competitive because it can be done costing only five cents for
each kilowatt per hour (kWh), which is one cent cheaper than the costs to produce
electricity using fossil fuels. Mathew (2006) explains that an advantage of wind energy
for the farmers is the increasing in the land value where the wind turbines are installed.
Although wind turbines produce noise pollution, it produces no air or water pollution
because there is no gas emission to the atmosphere, and also it does not use any water
resource (Mathew, 2006). In other words, the wind energy is presented as a smart
alternative when the sun energy production is limited due to cloud areas. And the use of
both sources might be a good option for energy supply worldwide (ibid).
Is important understand that once the fossil fuels are not a renewable source of
energy they cannot supply the energy demand in the next generations. The world needs
a sustainable solution to replace the use of fossil fuels. In addition, studies are
constantly showing that the environmental problems caused by fossil fuels such as
water and air pollution are increasing faster. There are several reasons that motivate the
intensification of the use of alternative and renewable energy. As a result of the need of
generating cleaner power to avoid environmental problems, the use of sun, water and
wind as sources of energy can be considerate as an extremely advantageous choice in
order to produce renewable energy.

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References
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