Essays On Renewable Energy

The Impact Of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is the key to ensuring that humanity has a prosperous future here on Earth. Renewable energy is energy that can be gathered from renewable sources, which can be naturally replenished faster than it can be consumed, such as, sunlight, wind, geothermal heat, and biofuels. Currently, burning fossil fuels is the primary method countries rely on to produce energy and create electricity and power. Over many years of transporting and burning fossil fuels Earth's environment has begun to deteriorate, evidence of this being air pollution, fossil fuel waste, and oil spills. Eventually, this reliance on fossil fuels will come to an end, whether it be due to reserve depletion or its negative impact on the environment. To remedy this, there is the emergence ofrenewable energy technology. According to the International Energy Agency, renewable energy accounted for almost 22% of global energy generation in 2013 and predicted that in 2020 that share would grow to 26% (International Energy Agency). The Earth's natural processes like wind, sunlight, and running water need to be harnessed in order to create energy. This can be done with hydroelectric plants, solar energy panels, wind turbines, and many more harnessing technologies. The largest portion of global renewable energy production is created by hydroelectric power, the generation of electricity using flowing water. Hydroelectric power is typically created from water in a reservoir held behind a dam that flows

Get more content

Renewable Energies : Renewable Energy

Renewable Energies

BHARC1403 – ICWS

Rishabh

Bhasin

"I declare that this assessment is my own work and that the sources of information and material I have used (including the internet) have been fully identified and properly acknowledged as required in the referencing guidelines provided." Introduction

Renewable sources of energy are the ones that can never be exhausted as they are provided by nature. For example– solar, hydro, wind, biomass. They produce little or no pollution and hence, do not harm the environment. In times of crisis for the world, such as these, everyone is looking to these energy sources. The obvious advantages ofrenewable energy are that they do little or no harm to the environment. They produce minimal ...show more content...

Also, it is not completely green, as some air pollution is produced. The amount of energy also depends on the speed of the wind blowing. So, if the speed of the wind is less, less energy will be produced. Therefore, this form of energy is not suitable for every kind of area. Hydro Energy

Similarly, hydropower also has similar advantages. The dams used for creatinghydroelectricity also have long lives.

In the disadvantages of hydro–energy, dams are extremely expensive to build, and must have high standards. People living in villages and towns that are in the valley to be flooded, must move out. This means that they lose their farms and businesses. In some countries, people are forcibly removed so that hydropower schemes can go ahead. (Technologystudent.com, 2015). Building dams can also create natural disasters such as earthquakes. Biomass energy

Again, biomass energy creates little emissions and is considered to be a clean energy. When it comes to biomass energy, the main disadvantages are that it does not produce enough energy as compared to fossil fuels. It is harmful to the environment. Using animal and human waste to power engines may save on carbon dioxide emissions, but it increases methane gases, which are also harmful to the Earth's– ozone layer.

Meeting the changing demand

In times of energy crisis such as these, it is of vital importance that the world falls back

Get more content

Personal Standpoint

The most popular ways of generating power are natural resources (fossil fuels) such as oil and coal. These fuels are becoming more and more unobtainable in recent years. Many people have become aware of this and have made an effort in fixing this by creating new ways of generating power we call this renewable energy. There are many different types of renewable energy such as solar, wind, hydro and geothermal, these methods of energy generation are called sustainable energy. Natural resources however are unsustainable and are predicted to run out by 2050 and shall then be unobtainable for a very long time.

There are many benefits as to using renewable energy rather than natural resources. One of the biggest benefits is less air pollution. With natural resources the main way of obtaining the energy is burning the resource. In doing this there is a mountain of pollution added to the atmosphere this can add to global warming which will also be destroying the polar ice caps and most of the snow up north. There are many different ways that we use natural resources such as factories in which we burn a plethora of coal to generate enough energy to run the machines inside so not only are they adding to global warming by burning the resources but the machines also add to it. Another way we add to global warming is the fuel in our cars which is burned in the engine and emitted out of the exhaust and we use them daily which does not seem bad as they do not produce

Our world and specifically the U.S. are dependent on the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are a nonrenewable resource and one that we are extremely dependent on. We will soon run out of fossil fuels, and when that happens in the near future we must be prepared. There are groups that believe that renewable energy is not efficient, and the cost is too great to be effective. Some even believe that jobs will be lost and the economy will falter. There is some truth to this, but this argument is much deeper than monetary issues. In the long run, it is essential to develop renewable and clean energy sources because without it the U.S. may very well be doomed. It is also beneficial to develop alternative energy they have many advantages over conventional fossil fuels. A complete effort is essential in order to successfully transfer to clean andrenewable energy. These energy sources have major benefits for the U.S. who is far behind European nations, and without improvements will fall behind. Developing clean and renewable energy results in multifaceted benefits; these benefits along with the fact that we have a limited supply of fossil fuels allows for the conclusion that it is vital to commit to renewable energy. There are multitudes of problems with fossil fuels, but one is that they are nonrenewable. We will be out ofnatural gas in about 50 years and oil between 2025–2070 (Senior). Most of our world is currently dependent on fossil fuels, and this is an alarming fact.

The time has come, we're running out of fossil fuels and we need an alternative. That is where renewable energy comes in; The best part about it is that it is renewable so it will always be available to us, and we can acquire this energy through solar, water, and wind power. There is a lot of controversy as to whether we should rely on renewable energy, because some say it is not cost effective. However renewable energy can pay for itself, is available nearly everywhere through various methods of obtaining it, provides numerous amount of jobs and economical benefits, and it will not harm our environment.

One of the biggest, but not most obvious reasons for switching to renewable energy is that it will pay for itself. One of the first things people think about when they make an investment is price; Sure acquiring renewable energy such as solar power right now may not be cheap but as a matter of fact during the duration of 2009–2014 the price of solar power dropped 78%(Gardiner)! The best part about solar power is that it is available to nearly anyone. Likewise wind power has also dropped 58% in price and now is among one of the cheapest sources of power in the United States (Gardiner) even though wind power is not available to the ordinary citizen. Switching to renewable energy will save a boat load of money as the article "Committing to Renewable Energy Will Pay Off" states "Investing in a renewable energy as the source for electricity in our future will save 10 times the Get

As these days global warming, pollutions and fuel shortages are getting more and more serious through time, renewable and clean energy is increasingly the ideal solution to energy related problems we have to solve one way or another. Biofuel is currently one of the mainstream and highly supported solutions, an idea to make renewable fuel by living organisms such as fiber, corn, vegetable oil or sugarcane. Biofuels, unlike nonrenewable fossil fuels over extracted by people, contains the potential to tackle most of the problems people encounter when using fossil fuels. This makes renewable fuels making it a cleaner source of energy, and a better option than fossil fuels that will ran out shortly sooner or later. The two main categories in...show more content...

The second part of the essay will discuss some of the weaknesses in applying the fuel into practical usage. For example, corn ethanol is currently encountering technical limitations serving it as a standalone fuel, meaning that corn ethanol can only function by combining it with a certain amount of gasoline, while gasoline is a kind of fossil fuel. Finally, this essay will conduct a comparison with other renewable resources in the world, including solar power, other biofuels, and hydrogen fuel. The most noticeable advantage of corn fuel as an enhancement of fossil fuels is also the biggest advantage of ethanol energy a renewable fuel. Gasoline as a fuel is extracted from petroleum, and what makes petroleum an unreliable source of energy is that petroleum is nonrenewable, meaning it would run out some day in the future. Contrary, corn ethanol is a renewable source of energy, meaning if corns are replanted and remade into fuel, corn ethanol can be a long–term, sustainable energy source (gracelinks.org). Corn ethanol has the potential to produce a perfect solution of the energy crisis that will happen sooner or later, as experts predicted petroleum will run out in around fifty years (Gupta,p15). Another main benefit of corn fuel as the future fuel is that the

Get more content

Essay Renewable Resources

Renewable resources are also known as alternative energy sources. Alternative Energy is any source of energy that can be renewed (Issit). Renewable Energies include hydrogen fuel, biomass fuel, hydropower, solar power, geothermic energy, and nuclear power. Hydrogen fuel is an amalgamation of hydrogen and oxygen which is used to produce electricity (Issit). Biomass fuel is made from materials which have already been used, such as compost, and can be used to generate electricity (Issit). Hydropower can be created through moving water or wind to generate electricity (Issit). Using sunlight to produce electricity is called solar power (Issit). Geothermic energy is energy made by the heat under the earth's mantle (Issit). Nuclear power is...show more content...

The Constitution states that it is designed, "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries" (The Constitution). Simplified, this means that the government has the responsibility to promote the progress of science, such as discoveries about energy sources and preserving the environment. There are Supreme Court cases discussing whaling and emissions that are very similar to the topic of eliminating the use of fossil fuels. In a whaling case in late 2008, for example, the final ruling was that navy submarines can continue using sonar waves underwater, despite the harm these waves bring to underwater mammals (Top US Court). Environmentalists fought hard to make a law preventing these ships from using these harmful signals but were overruled by the "needs of the Navy to respond to threats" (Top US Court). This case is similar to energy sources because the harmful waves, like fossil fuels which are also damaging, are being permitted, just like fossil fuels are allowed today. Another case regarding concerns similar to renewable resources is the case on car emissions and whether they should be legal or not. Previously, the Environmental Protection Agency decided that regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from cars was not needed (US Supreme Court). However, in 2006, the Supreme Court ruled that this decision was "not in accordance with the law" (US

Get more content

The Benefits Of Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is not only viable, but an extremely beneficial alternative to fossil fuels. Sources such as solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, hydro, and ocean energy are found in abundance and are naturally replaced, and therefore are more feasible to use than fossil fuels. The use of sustainable energy will not harm the planet or our atmosphere. In addition to this, the growth of the renewable energy industry is sure to create jobs, especially when taking into consideration the lack of mechanization involved in clean energy technology. It is for these reasons that renewable energy should replace fossil fuels. Clean energy is the superior choice when it comes to power, mainly because of the reduced impact that clean sources have on the Earth. The use of sustainable energy is endorsed by many scientists and environmentalists as a solution to climate change. Widely believed to be caused by increased carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, which are produced by the use of fossil fuels, climate change is a serious issue that has plagued the international community for some time. Adnan Z Amin, of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), fully supports the immediate use of renewable energy in place of fossil fuels. In fact, Amin states that "when it comes to climate change and renewable energy solutions, we must be guided by science and facts, coupled with a sense of urgency" (Amin 1). Over the last century, the burning of fossil fuels has dramatically increased

Renewable Energy Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed: the first law of conservation of energy. Since the earliest days of human history, man have always been looking forward to control energy. But it wasn't until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that humanity finally learned to harness the high concentration of energy existent in fossil fuels. (''Why Sustainable Energy Matters,''Learning Space). Even though humans achieved to apply the first law of conservation of energy/matter, they failed to understand the principle. That is that energy /matter cannot be created or destroyed. Missing this premise and walking society towards modernization, humanity has been destroying the environment with contamination...show more content...

Second, renewable energy systems make use of organic wastes, producing energy as well as cleaning the environment. For example, bio–diesel from unwanted cooking oil has saved approximately 1 billion of US gallons of petrol–diesel while helping thousands of local restaurant owners get rid of their wastes. (''Renewable Energy,''American Green). Clearly, the use of the waste in the environment keeps both the carbon dioxide pollution and the organic wasted shedding under control. Finally, renewable energy is pro–environmental because is does not represent a hazard to the Earth. In the contrary, renewable energy resolves all menaces that could degrade the environment. (''Solar Energy,''Renewable Energy for America). As an illustration, nuclear energy plants have solved the pollution problem efficiently, but they yield to a similar problem–radiation while renewable energy facilities give rise no further complications. Also, renewable energy is the most suitable of the energy resources because it is economical. Primarily, renewable energy generators take advantage of the free energy in the environment. (''Solar Energy,''Renewable Energy for America). Furthermore, they make use of the surplus of energy in the environment. For instance, solar panels are the perfect form of renewable energy generation by making use of the solar energy the planet does not need. Second, renewable energy generators are economic to operate and maintain. Once

Get more content

Renewability

For nearly everyone on earth, fossil fuels are a part of our daily lives. Some of the more obvious places to find petroleum products would be gas and diesel in cars and trucks, but it is in more than just your tank. Without fossil fuels, we would not have things such as plastic to make a wide variety of things such as tires, kayaks, or even computers. The question remains, do we need fossil fuels? In this day and age, we have new energy sources that could be used to power our homes and transportation. Wind and solar power are used all over the world, but are still used far less than fossil fuels. Most would say it's not reliable or it doesn't make any profit. While both statements are true, it doesn't mean we can't make a better future using renewable energy. In fact, the only reason we don't use renewables for everything is that we don't want to change. The hard truth is we need to change. Fossil fuels are great right now, but if we run out, humanity must have another source of energy. Renewable energy may seem like a daunting task, but the benefits to humanity could be incredible. Public uses of renewable energy range from transportation all the way to heating and cooling. Everything we use could become less explosive and less expensive. Cities with a high concentration of people could become safer and healthier places to live. Transportation could be converted to electricity dramatically, improving smog conditions. Global warming may or may not Get

Gottfried Leibniz: Renewable Sources Of Energy

Energy Energy is a crucial necessity and with the ever increasing need for it and the high and fluctuating prices of oil, researchers are constantly coming up with newer and more sophisticated alternative sources of energy. However, energy comes at a cost, as it is either expensive or it possesses high health risks. This essay presents the concept of energy by discussing the two major types of energy, the various forms it could take, including renewable sources of energy, energy conservation and above all it talks about the safest and cleanest alternatives.

Gottfried Leibniz first coined the term energy from the concept vis viva to refer to the square totality of an object's mass and its speed, where total vis viva is stored. Energy is...show more content...

Other types of energy lie between kinetic and potential energy or are an amalgamation of both types. There are no definite forms of energy since possibilities of new forms of energy are limitless. However, the various forms of energy in physical science include thermal, chemical, electric, radiant, nuclear, magnetic, elastic, sound, mechanical, and luminous energies (Foland 13). Thermal energy or heat is the energy in random motion of particles. Chemical energy refers to the energy from the aggregate of positioning of electrons and protons. Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic radiation while nuclear energy and electric potential energy is energy emanating from nuclear fission and electrical processes respectively. Sound is a form of mechanical vibration, which propagates through any mechanical medium. It is closely related to the ability of the human ear to perceive noise. Clean sources of energy basically refer to those that do not encompass the burning of coal, petroleum or its products and the transformation of solid waste or nuclear division (Broyles 23). Therefore, renewable types of energy could be termed as clean sources of power because they are products of natural sources and do not emit hazardous by–products. Safe energy is not poisonous, is healthy, renewable, and sustainable and does not have devastating effects on the lives of the users, the

Get more content

What would happen to our world if our energy unexpectedly disappeared? Fossil fuels are very important to our world because they provide an overwhelming majority of our world energy. So, what happens when they run out? This research paper confronts this question with a balanced view attempting to address the issue of what sources might provide energy in the future and come to an objective conclusion. As the world enters a new century, new sources of energy such as wind, solar, and hydrogen power need to be developed to help the world keep running on all cylinders. With the development of these new energy sources, our world would become a cleaner place and the energy crisis would straighten itself out. Global Energy: Facts and Figures...show more content...

These figures convert into the fact that the United States contains only 5 percent of the global population, but consumes 25 percent of the world's energy. The amount of energy used in the United States alone poses a problem when looking at alternative energy sources. "Renewable energy sources will have to be successful and as plentiful as petroleum to provide the amount of energy needed around the world" (Mathewson, 1999, p. 279–80). Renewable Energy: Is It Necessary? Petroleum is at the heart of almost all the energy currently produced. While it is easy to transport and use, many people forget the hazards of using fossil fuels. Over the last century, many environmental problems have been caused by the production and transportation of fossil fuels. Such problems include oil spills that kill animals, pollute the ocean, and make economies crash. An example of this would be the Deepwater Horizon spill in Alaska in the early 90's and most recently the Gulf spill. Other problems on land have caused massive environmental disasters. Such disasters include large–scale erosion from strip mining and deforestation by mining organizations in search of new deposits of fossil fuels. "Problems caused by the burning of fossil fuels include acid rain that damages forests and contaminates soil, hazardous air pollution, and the suspected global warming effect"(Mathewson, 1999, p. 281). Over the last twenty years, many scientists and Get

When the new Southeast Polk High School opened they added many new energy saving products. This included installing geothermal heating under the high school cutting back on the cost of heating such a large building. Many new windows help save on energy used to light the building along with automatic lights that turn off after several minutes without movement. The new high school shows how easy it is to save money and help the environment. Renewable energy is good for all aspects of the U.S, providing jobs, economical growth, environmental cleanliness, and new research for improving energy efficiency. Therefore the United States should use renewable energy to benefit the economy and environment. The main way the environment is...show more content...

Some may believe that renewable energy is not beneficial.

In contrast, some believe that renewable energy is a key factor involved in helping the economy to grow. Many jobs are created in the manufacturing and running of renewable energy plants. The renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies created 8.5 million new jobs and $970 billion in revenue in the year 2006 (Langwith, "Renewable Energy is Economically"). The American Solar Energy Society says by 2030 it could generate up to $4.5 trillion in revenue for the U.S and create 40 million new jobs. This would represent one in every four jobs (Langwith, "Renewable Energy is Economically"). This shows how vital it is to get renewable energy companies in the U.S. It is important to build a stable economy again and do it all while helping the environment. The environment is negatively affected be the burning of fossil fuels. The affects of the gases contribute to global warming, along with acid rain and polluted air. This pollution cuts short an estimated 30,000 American lives according to the Clean Air Task Force (Rich). The United States must stop using fossil fuels because the gases produce harm the environment we live causing harm to come all the citizens. "The future of energy production will

Get more content

Every day the United States uses massive amounts of energy. Only about 8% of the United States' energy needs are met by renewable energy sources. That means that eventually 92% of the nation's energy resources will run out. Recently this problem has been brought into the public's eye and the American people's attention has shifted to renewable and "green" energy resources. President Jimmy Carter (1977) said that "[w]ith the exception of preventing war, this (the energy crisis) is the greatest challenge our country will face during our life time" (p. 418). There are many proposed solutions to this problem and wind and solar energy are just two renewable energy sources that could be used. North and South Dakota along with Texas have...show more content...

Both wind and solar energy technologies are extremely environmentally friendly. There are sometimes freak accidents in which birds or bats are killed by the rotating blades on a wind turbine but for the most part the only "pollution" one could complain about would be that the farms are not aesthetically pleasing. Compared to non–renewable fuels the emissions and waste produced from wind and solar energy is practically nonexistent. These new energy sources can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and provide energy that can be renewed. Some could argue that the price is high for a reason; the wind turbines could be inefficient, prone to breaking, or have some other hidden malady. The main problem with wind turbines is the fact that it needs to be windy for them to work. But looking at solar cells quickly reveals the same type of problem; they are useless without the sun. So the question becomes what is there naturally more of– wind or sun? The answer depends on location. Certain areas are known for being windy and certain areas are known to be dry and hot. Most of the time sunny and windy conditions do not exist together. If an area has little sun, it is windy, if it is hot and sunny all the time, it usually does not have a lot of wind. In the United States the best places for solar panels are in the desert states like California, Arizona, and New Mexico. As for turbines, the flatter Midwest states produce the highest wind speeds. There is also the problem of Get more content

Renewable Energy Essays

The most of global energy production produces from fossil fuel such as coal, oil and natural gas. The vast fossil fuels generate energy which use for many purposes for instant residential, transportation and industrial sectors. While the rate consumption of fossil fuel higher than their formation leads to oil price crisis. Another concern offossil fuel combustion is the impact on the environment. Global warming is a significant problem which results in increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. These problems drive researchers and societies to search alternative energy such as switching to renewable energy or carbon–free energy to replace fossil fuels. For example Nakata et al., (2011:465) show 'low–carbon society'...show more content...

Bilen et al., (2008:1531) predicted that global energy consumption will account for around 85% of the increase in world primary demand over 2002– 2030. The increasing of global energy demand happens the global stock of fossil fuel resources may be adequate for short term period, thus requiring the development of renewable energy sources, which would not decrease the stock of fossil fuel resources available for future generation. There is an increasing interest in the development of renewable energies such as biofuel and wind power, which have a great potential energy to produce enough power for the world's population demand.

This essay focuses on two renewable energy resources. First of all, biofuel is now accepted as alternative energy in worldwide. The figures continue upward trend in the biofuel production. 'An annual growth rate of 6.8% from 2006 to 2030 is expected for total biofuels consumption in the transport sector' (International Energy Agency: 2008 cited in Zhou, et al., 2009:S11). Significant leaders of the biofuel market are Brazil, the United States and the European Union. The results of research indicated that 92% of the world's ethanol is produced by Brazil and US together, while 90% of the world's biodiesel manufactured by the EU. In addition, several developing countries in Asia such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines have an enormous potential for biofuel production. Now these countries are

Get more content

As the world population rises, we are using more and more energy and it is depleting faster than ever. Our fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) will not last forever and at some point we will have to switch over completely to renewable energy sources. While most of the world still uses non–renewable energy sources, the future will rely on renewable energy and its applications. Right now, over 90% of the world still uses fossil fuels and developing countries even burn wood to generate energy. At the rate we are using our fossil fuels, they will not last us far into the 22nd century. Additionally, big consumers of fossil fuels like China, U.S., Russia, and India are creating large amounts of pollution and it is only increasing. For instance, India has major issues with pollution because of heavy traffic (which releases more fuel emissions into the air), the burning of biomass (wood and other organic matter), and runoff into lakes and rivers. Right now, our biggest goal should be to figure out how to implement more forms of renewable energy in our own society. We should start using renewable energy in America because: it is more environmentally friendly, opens up the job market, and improves the health of the public.

Picture the typical coal miner after a long day of work. He is tired, sweaty, and covered from head to toe in black soot from coal. Over time, this starts to wear out his lungs and breathing. He could possibly have a much higher life expectancy if he did not go Get

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Motivation

Recently, wind power has gained greater attention with respect to sources of renewable energy due to the maturity of the technology and its relative cost competitiveness. Wind power farms (WPFs) are scattered in remote areas (onshore and offshore) selected by the wind speed, water depth, and distance to shore. It is important to develop technology to monitor WPFs with higher capacities as the size and number of wind turbines in a WPF is continuously increasing. In order to provide real–time control and monitoring, reliable bi–directional communication infrastructure is needed. According to their needs, most turbine manufacturers have developed their own monitoring and control systems due to an absence...show more content...

1.2 Scope of the work

The dissertation is divided into three main parts. In the first part, we proposed the hierarchical communication network architectures that consist of a turbine area network (TAN), farm area network (FAN), and control area network (CAN) for WPFs. The wind turbines are modelled based on the logical nodes (LN) concepts of the IEC 61400–25 standard. The WPF communication network is configured with a switch–based architecture where each wind turbine has a dedicated link to the wind farm main switch. Servers at the control center are used to store and process the data received from the WPF. The network architecture is modelled and evaluated via OPNET. We investigated the end–to–end (ETE) delay for different WPF applications, and our network architecture is validated by analyzing the simulation results. In order to meet the growing demand of large–scale WPFs, integration of high reliability, high speed, cost effectiveness and secure communication networks are needed. In the second part of this dissertation, we proposed the Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) as one of promising candidates for next generation WPF. Critical communication network characteristics such as reliability, mean downtime, optical power budget, path loss and network cost are evaluated and compared with conventional switched–based architectures for five different architectures.

Much like our universe, the problems caused by humans and their upsetting impact on the planet are exponentially growing. Their actions extinguishing the place they all call home; paying no attention to the problem dejectedly makes it so much worse. Humans consume large amounts of energy, this would be fine in a faultless world, however the side effects result in a polluted atmosphere. The habit ofrenewable energy has turned out to be a seemingly more popular resource in the worlds pocket. The use of biofuels instead of fossil fuels greatly reduce pollution by cleaning the useable waste and creating a stable, lasting power source.

NASA concluded in an analysis of a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (2014) on carbon levels in the atmosphere that in recent years, the levels of CO2 has been on the rise. Charles David Keeling (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) concluded that during ice ages, carbon levels were in the low 200ppm (parts per million). Later hovering around 280ppm; however, in 2013, carbon levels surpassed 400ppm. NASA (2014) estimates that the levels will increase upwards of 1500ppm if humanity continues to abuse the usage of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels are an energy source that comes from decomposed plants over the course of millions of years. Since this process takes so long, the world depletes the reserves of oil and coal. The depletion of the supply is not even the biggest problem caused by the using of oil and coal.

Get more content

Renewable Energy

Is it possible to live without energy? Lately, the consumption of energy is increasing due to the growth of the world population. In this technological era where all the devices work by using energy, the new humankind challenge is providing sufficient amounts of energy. At Yale University, Dr. Ronald Smith teaches some courses in the areas of meteorology, oceanography, fluid mechanics, atmospheric physics, applied mathematics, mesoscale dynamics, environmental remote sensing. In The Atmosphere, the Ocean and Environmental Change lecture "Renewable Energy" (2012), Smith focuses his attention on build an overview of renewable energy and its ways of generation. Smith also does an excellent job in explain each mechanism to obtain renewable power, including the wind energy, the solar energy, and the biomass energy.

In "Renewable energy", Smith (2012) discusses about the generation of renewable energy, such as wind energy, solar energy, biomass energy and geothermal energy. According to Smith, wind energy is acquired through the use of large wind turbines which get the kinetic energy from the strong winds and convert it into electrical energy. In this way, there are some favorable conditions to install a wind turbine siting in an area, such as steady winds, and low surface roughness. Smith also points out that solar power is collected by the use of photovoltaic solar cells (PV) or concentrated solar power (CSP). For both mechanisms, it is necessary to analyze

Get more content