Green Energy Feature

Alternative & Renewable Energy

Expert Article by: James Veach

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.