Alternative Energy

Alternative Energy:

In general alternative energy is also termed as alternative energy sources. These sources of energy are created as an alternative to the traditional or classic fossil fuels. However, there is no consensus on what technologies are covered with this concept, and the definition of alternative "alternative energy" differs according to different authors. In a more precise definition, alternative energy would be equivalent to the concept of renewable energy to green power, while broader definitions considered alternative energy to all energy sources that do not involve burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. (Jared, 228-56)These definitions include nuclear energy as well hydro.

There are many sources for the green energy (alternative energy) such as bio fuels, hydrogen, solar, geothermal, or nuclear energy. However, there are many doubts that alternative energy can meet energy demands better than finite fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Therefore, I chose to discuss this argumentative issue after researching the benefits and specifications of each energy source and compare them in my paper. I find this research topic very interesting since it touches one of the most contemporary issues in the 20th century concerning a matter that has been ignored for many centuries. (Sorensen, 59-75)Nonetheless, I am aiming to demonstrate how efficient are alternative energy in comparison to fossil fuels sources and explain more about energy and economy. In this research paper, I want to raise an argument focusing on efficiency, availability, cost of alternative energy, and its capability to replace fossil fuels and how it has started to supply energy demands in the US.

Availability of Alternative Energy:

There is indeed an increase in the amount of need of energy in the world. All these resources are waiting for us to utilise them. For the utilisation of these resources, we need to invest a lot of money and time, but this is much better than making use of fossil fuels that damage our environment. The alternative energy highly differs on the basis of their cost-effectiveness and on the basis of their availability in United States. (Cradd, 57-85)Even though, the natural resources such as water, wind and sun might appear to be free for use, but the cost is applied for their collection, preservation, transporting and harnessing the power in order to make it useful. For example, to take the energy from water, there is a requirement of dam to be developed which includes the transmission line and electric generators.

Wind power is one of the most abundantly available resources that we use with the wind turbines. These resources are continuously developing with the increasing amount of need and are gradually becoming far more effective and cheap in terms of energy. There are a number of wind farms developed strategically in order to avoid jeopardizing the population of birds and their natural environment. The first wind turbine was not well placed. The rule behind the Wind power is that the force produced by the wind and water currents is passed via the wind turbine that converts the force energy into electric energy.

One of the most famous alternative energy is photo voltaic power, which almost everyone is aware of. There are a number of instruments available in the market that people get for using at their home. These new innovations use photo voltaic power such as solar lanterns, fountain in the garden and solar lighting. Photo voltaic cell collects the power from the sun and converts it into electrical energy for heating and lighting purposes. This energy produces zero amount of energy.

The far most available alternative resource is called LPG. This helps in targeting maximum number of customers and helps the majority of the customer to reach the fuel stations. LPG is best suitable for the thirsty, fuel consuming cars or those cars which have a high mileage. Cars using LPG fuel have more benefits such as less toxic emissions, discounts on congestion zones and cost savings per mile. (David, 112-145)

The plants of hydro-electric power have been here since many years including the strong generators that were set up have also been there since a long time. These have proved to be cleaner and effective than the power grids for generating energy. There are some limitations for deciding the location of this because one needs to build a huge dam inside a place that is suitable for water. For this, there are placed significant scale-down hydro-electric power generators that are set up recently in rivers, so that these are placed in order to accommodate them.

Geothermal power is another resource that is abundantly available, below the surface of the earth. We can easily tap into this energy but digging a few miles beneath the surface of the earth. The energy is created by heating up the drinking water by hot molten core from beneath the earth. This is then immediately used as soon as the water turns into steam. This steam is then utilized to generate turbine engines for producing electricity. (Berinstein, 22-35)There is still a lot of research carried on geothermal power for developing and using it to fulfill more needs.

The sun provides an ample amount of energy that can be stored and used even after the setting down of the sun and even when there is a cloudy weather. But making the solar energy available is far more expensive and cost prohibitive for the excessive world's consumption in the coming future. Although, the technology is ready for use in many consumer and business applications, but the replacement of current energy structure for fossil fuel energy is very expensive.

According to the European Photovoltaic Industry application, the solar energy can provide energy to more than 1 billion people by the year 2020 and 26 percent of global energy by the year 2040.

Ethanol is a type of bio-fuel used as a substitute for gasoline. Ethanol is used because it is quick and easy to create and the procedure for making this involves items such as grapes, wheat, corns, wood chips, wood cellulose and sugar cane. This is still under debate that whether this resource is an inexpensive one or not- because a lot of land is required for the production of crops and there are also concerns of pollutants from the use of this resource. This resource is available at some places, and technology is being used to extract and admixture it.

Another very abundantly available resource is the biomass energy or the energy produced from burning up of burning plants and other organic plants. Woods were once, one of the main sources for generating power for heat and are still used in numerous developing countries. Majority of the people in developing countries use this resource only for