Alternative energy use

Alternative energy sources have many uses in society today. Many of them are also referred to as “green energy,” signifying environmentally friendly energy sources. Today, there has been a trend toward conservation and the use of many alternate energy resources. Technology today has provided different sources of fuel – such as solid waste, landfill gas, wastepaper, biomass, and sugar cane wastes – to be used to provide the energy for power plants in order to produce more energy for consumers.

Methane

Methane is an important energy source. There are a variety of natural and human-influenced sources of methane: landfills, natural gas and petroleum, agricultural activities, coal mining, waste water treatment, and certain industrial processes. Methane gas can be also used to produce electricity. Recovering methane also helps the environment when it’s converted into an energy source, helping to keep methane out of the atmosphere since methane is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere 9-15 years. Methane is more than 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide is over a 100-year period. Electricity generated from “green sources” often attracts a new market that is even willing to pay more for their power in order to promote environmental protection. Besides biogas, other green sources of electricity include ocean energy, wind energy, solar energy, landfill gas and even the burning of alfalfa stems and other feedstock.

Solar energy

The sun’s energy can be used in many ways, such as heating water in our homes. In the 1920s, tens of thousands of solar water heaters were in use. Then, after large deposits of oil and natural gas were discovered in the western United States, and gas became a cheaper source of energy, solar water systems began to be replaced with heaters that burned fossil fuels, which then remained the principal source of heating. With the high price of gas today, solar water heaters are now beginning to make a comeback. Solar energy is also used to make electricity. Solar cells or photovoltaic energy are also used to change sunlight directly into electricity. Photovoltaic (PV) cells can be found on many small appliances, such as calculators and watches. They are even used on spacecraft. Individual solar cells are arranged together into a PV module and the modules are grouped together into an array (a cluster of solar cells) as mentioned previously.

Wind energy

Wind power used to provide energy to ships is not new and is still used to propel them. Today, however, it is mainly used for sport and leisure – for yachts, sailboats, sailing dinghies, and sailboards. There is also an interest in using wind power for commercial shipping. A few passenger liners, oil tankers, and other large commercial ships have been equipped with sails. They use their sails when the wind is strong enough, but switch to engine power when the wind speed drops. Using sail power with an engine as a back-up power source cuts costs and pollution by reducing the amount of fuel that has to be burned. If the wind is strong enough, it can also reduce voyage times.

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