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The future can be as bright as we want to make it. Their are several possibilities of alternative power sources for America and the rest of the world. In this article I'm going to mention just a few of them, and define some of their uses and benefits. I will be discussing the different types of renewable energy that we have, and a brief description of each one. These will include wind power, solar power,and hydroelectric.
Wind power is the conversion of wind into a useful power source. These can range from a single wind turbine for a single house, or a wind farm which can consist of hundreds or thousands of turbines to produce electricity. With the technology of today, we can utilize switching stations, to use power lines in use now, to provide electricity or power companies will buy the power produced. Wind is a very clean source of power, compared to the fossil fuels we burn now, and maybe in the near future we can use the wind for our main power supply, with fossil fuel backup power. Wind energy continues to grow every year and in the future, we can only hope it helps solve some of our energy problems.
Solar power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity. The upfront cost of solar power is one of the drawbacks, but over time and with more research, in time we can make this a affordable option. Solar uses mirrors to attract the sun and this produces heat, which in return produces electricity. With the combination of wind power and solar power, between the two we can produce and store power year around. At this time solar power plants take up lots of land, but as we learn more, the learning curve keeps changing to make this a more useful energy. The future looks very bright as we develop more uses for this renewable energy.
Hydroelectric is the conversion of the gravitational force of flowing or falling water into electricity. We have used hydroelectric power for several years now, and it is a very effective way to produce electricity. This is produced by damming up a water way and then released to produce the pressure needed to turn generator turbines to produce the electricity. Hoover Dam is the most familiar hydroelectric dam in the U.S. Hydroelectric production is #1 as far as its effect of greenhouse gases, reason being their are no fossil fuels used at all to produce this form of energy.
This is a brief description of a few of our renewable energies. The U.S. has all the knowledge and manpower to progress these renewable energies into useful everyday sources of electricity. Hopefully as we learn more about these forms of energy, we can develop them into efficient and low cost forms of energy to the world. Simply put fossil fuels continue to soar in price with no end in sight, and our only resource is to produce the natural ones we've always had on earth. Save fossil fuels for the back up supply!
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