The Future of Energy

Unit 4 Assignment - The Future of Energy

SC300: Big Ideas in Science

08/22/2013

The intention of this assignment is to evaluate personal energy use and talk about the forms of energy that I presently count on and the sources that they originate from. In this paper I will talk about renewable energy sources, the advantage and disadvantage of the energy source that I currently use and in addition about the renewable ones that have been identified. The end of my paper will report about energy conservation and its impact on the environment.

As stated by Energy4me (2013), energy is incarnate in everything and it comes from a number of sources and forms. The forms of energy are classified in two general categories, potential and kinetic. Kinetic energy does the work. Light, heat, motion while Potential energy is energy stored in an object like chemical, mechanical, nuclear and gravitational. The light energy that we use in my home comes from a power plant of my city called NYSEG; it provides the electric energy to power up the electrical system. We also use solar panels on my home and that energy comes from the sun and it conquered through the solar panels into my home.

When it comes to light energy, the most significant renewable resource that we should use is solar. In accordance with NREL (2013), solar energy can be used within photovoltaic cells (PV) which catches it and transforms it into electric energy. Solar technologies are generally characterized by the way in which the solar radiation is captured. There is passive solar, which refers to the conversion of sunlight to useful energy without the assistance of any type mechanical devices (solarium). Active solar refers to the conversion of sunlight by means of some type electrical or mechanical equipment. Photovoltaic cells can be used in both passive and active solar capture. This is why I use solar panels where I live.

At this present time we are receiving our heat energy through the electrical system as well as with natural gas. This is a form of non- renewable energy and it is not the most suitable one. Where I live in NY State we should use the geothermal heating and cooling systems, because New York State lacks traditional geothermal energy sources (volcanoes, geysers and hot springs). However, the earth absorbs almost 50% of the sun's energy. Geothermal heat pumps utilize the energy absorbing capacity of the earth to heat indoor air during the cold winter months and remove heat from indoor air during the warm summer months.

The most important advantages of the energy source that we currently rely on in my household are electricity. They are a mixture of advantages and disadvantages of renewable and non- renewable energies in NY State. The advantage of renewable resources is that we can use renewable energy repeatedly without depleting it. The main advantage is the fact that these sources of energy are renewable. We will never run out of renewable energy (at least in our lifetime, as long as humans will exist) solar energy - the sun will always be there. With renewable energy we can use as much electricity as we like without adding to global warming. The disadvantage of renewable energy is energy derived from sources that will not run out. Some of the present disadvantages are that solar panels are expensive. Most Governments are not all willing to buy home generated electricity and not all climates are suitable for solar panels anyway.

The main disadvantage of non- renewable energy is that it can't be renewed. There is only a finite amount of these energy sources (oil, gas and coal) and if we keep using them they will eventually run out. Another disadvantage