1. Solar Energy
Despite the Solandra debacle, solar energy will continue to be pursued as a viable source of renewable energy. The secret is, of course, to find cheaper and more reliable ways to harness the incredible energy of the sun. The reasons why a well funded, seemingly well organized firm such as Solandra failed to produce solar energy profitably may never be known, but solar energy is being used by many small companies and even home owners as an excellent source of power.
2. Wind Energy
Wind energy is probably one of the most utilized and well known of the renewable energy sources today. Everywhere you go, you will spot the long arms of modern windmills slowly turning and producing clean, safe energy, much like the farmers of the Netherlands have done for centuries. These wind turbines can be placed on mountains as well as out in the ocean and we will surely be seeing more and more of them throughout 2012.
3. Kinetic Energy
I was reading about a poor village in Africa that had no electricity, so aid workers set up a battery system whereby they could produce their own. Using a bike lifted off the ground, with the wheels spinning free, members of the community took turns riding the bike and generating energy via a fly wheel system that stored it in a battery.
Small remote villages such as this will turn to this simple system more and more, but I wondered at that point why gyms, who have dozens of members running, biking and elipto-climbing at any given time, don’t use such a system to produce their own electricity? This kind of kinetic energy can and should be further exploited to produce energy in small, self contained units.
In a perfect example of reverting to the past, we should all remember the old corn mills that were powered by a donkey, walking in a circle to turn the wheel that ran the mill.
4. Water energy
The old mills were sometimes also powered by water; remember the song “Down by the Old Mill Stream’? Mills were built near rushing bodies of water so that the motion of the water could power the mill.
Today, hydroelectric plants are used today to turn, instead of the wheel, gigantic dynamos (generators) that produce thousands more kilowatts of energy. Niagara Falls is a natural source of unending water energy, and Hoover Dam and other such dams create their own water energy by forcing the water over the edge of the dam.
More and more sources of natural water power will be exploited (building new dams destroys entire communities and is no longer a viable option in developed countries) to take advantage of this incredible power source.
5. Wave motion energy
This relatively new system of energy production uses another never ending source of motion as its energy supply: the waves of the ocean. A gigantic tube is placed in the water. It has holes in the bottom and top, and so when the tube moves up or down because of wave motion, it forces water through. This water passing through is converted to energy via generators, similar in manner to the water in a dam or over a waterfall. With the earth covered 70% by oceans, this seems like a solution that can produce an unlimited supply of energy.
Solyandra’s failure is extremely shameful in regards to half a billion dollars plus of the hard working public’s money being put into the hands of a corporation in which the White House thought would sustain jobs and create a prospering solar industry. It was poorly researched on the Obama Administration’s part and a rather naive decision to give any solar company such substantial amounts of money when there are so many emerging companies with more promising technology that couldn’t even secure a $10 million seed money to help them. Granted Solyandra was one of four large companies but the bottom line is this was an extremely costly mistake on the Obama Administration’s part which should never happen again whether it is a Democrat led government or a Republican one and regardless of what industry the government may wish to back.
Natcore technology was looking for government grants but because it was a start up–emerging junior company it wasn’t given the chance even though it was attracting substantial interest from the Chinese. If junior companies like Natcore are not even given what would have been a drop in the bucket in comparison to Solyandra to help them along and they decide to go overseas with promising technology this should be a lesson to the domestic government for not supporting, nurturing and growing interests at the grass roots level.
This is a a great summary of what sustainable and green power sources there are in the world. Plus love the picture.
It would be interesting to see which one of these methods grows the fastest in 2012
How much energy could a drifting iceberg generate? Imagine one dragging rotors that generated electricity. The biggest problem, I’d think, is how to get the energy to shore.
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ok so if the sun burns out we moved under ground wed die but if we made somerthing
to stop aging in lets say a space ship and we go to a diferent solar sytem. If u think this is poseble Email me at aidanshep@gmail.com and if u dont bielive this is possible Email my friend at brivers052@gmail.com