Darkness Ahead-The Quest For Sustainable Power
November 4, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
A looming danger is ahead, darkness everywhere, no electricity, no oil. What happens to us when oil runs out? Can you imagine nothing to fuel our cars, airplanes, tractors, a decline in farming, a decline in food production? The future seems gloom, everybody’s predicting that humanity itself will fall into decline. The richer countries siphoning of crops from third world countries to create bio-fuel; the third world countries slowly fading in hunger. We need to find sustainable power and we need it fast; our very existence depends upon it.
Solar Power
When we think of alternative energy resources, solar power immediately comes to mind. Evidently when we talk of solar power, we speak of harnessing the suns god given energy. This solar energy is transformed into electric current with the use of photovoltaics, concentrating solar power and other various technologies which are currently in the developmental and experimental stage. Solar energy works well for domestic electricity supply.
Wind Power
Employed for ages with remnants of its bygone past still evident in Northwestern Europe, the Wind Mill is making a come back. The best thing about the power of the wind is that it can never be depleted. It is natural, all around us and all we have to do is construct wind farms and then everything’s done. Economically utilizing the power of the wind makes sense. It literally has no maintenance and overhead costs.
Tropical countries use hydroelectricity as their source of power, using the waters gravitational force which comes from a high source. This is a great alternative for energy, it is a whole lot cheaper and it is environmentally safe because hydroelectric plants do not emit dangerous substances in the air nor the waters. It is pure nature. Fossil fuel driven power plants emit dangerous gases into the air while plants that are hydroelectrically driven are proven to emit a much lesser degree of greenhouse grass.
Nuclear Energy
Another source of alternative energy is nuclear energy. Nuclear energy together with other kinds of nuclear technology can harness energy. Nuclear reactors can generate steam energy by heating the water thus converting water into steam and then converting the steam into electricity. Nuclear energy are widely used in vessels and ships from all over the world.
Geothermal Power
Geothermal power is the heat that is being amassed down below from the earth’s surface. This is another way of making conventional power than that of fossil driven plants which is very much costly. This power is much feasible and also another environmental friendly alternative source of power driven by nature itself.
One big geothermal plant can power up to one whole urban community, supplying all the power it needs while a small geothermal plant can power up a small village and small buildings. One good thing about natural sources such as this one is that a geothermal power plant does not harm the air or the ozone layer because they do not emit poisonous gasses while in operation.
Using any of these alternative power sources can help us and the earth as well. It is cost effective and they are much less harmful to the earth. Using bio-fuel and using alternative power sources can be a way to save the earth and this is the future of our world.
To learn how to reduce your electricity bills by 70-80%, visit: home made solar power. With the help of home made solar power you can not only fulfill your energy requirement but also make some money from it. Read more at home made solar power.
Sustainable Power Of The Wind
November 4, 2009 by Go Green Tips · Leave a Comment
With so much talk about environmental damage, dwindling fossil fuels, and sky rocketing oil and energy prices it is now clear that we must look for alternative energy resources that will be able to supply our endless needs without the possibility of it being exhausted.
A Brief Lesson in History
A sustainable energy source since ancient times, the power of the wind has been harnessed by sailors, farmer, and architects alike. In times long gone, from 5,000 years ago and rediscovered again today the Egyptians used wind power to propel their sailing vessels, and Babylonian architects use architectural designs to make use of the wind to ventilate their palace and temple complexes.
As early as 300 B.C. the Sinhalese bygones used monsoon winds to power their furnaces. Constructed right where monsoon winds pass the furnaces were powered up to 1100 to 1200 centigrade. In the 1st century AD the first ever primitively built windmill was used to power an organ. Later during the 7th century the first and most primary windmill was built in Afghanistan in a small town called Sistan. The Windmill has a vertical axle with blades shaped like a rectangle and with a long driveshaft. In the 1100’s wind mills were built to grind flour, for sugar manufacturing and the gristmilling industries. The Dutch built windmills that stand until this day.
Beneath Power Is Wind
The Sun unevenly heats the Earth that differences of heat distribution; the poles receive less than the equators do. Unlike the land, the oceans, seas and rivers do not have covering so it retains more heat than soil. This contrast results in a global atmospheric convection that reaches from the stratosphere and into the earth’s surface. Energy in these wind movements are stored at high altitudes where in the wind can achieve speeds up to 160km/hr. Here after with the effects of friction the wind’s energy is diffused into heat throughout the planet and its atmosphere. This vast amount of sustainable power can provide us unimaginable amounts of energy, far more than we currently consume.
Wind Speed Distribution
Wind varies in strength. The average value of a certain location does not specify the energy of a single wind turbine. The wind speed’s frequency can be assessed in a particular location, they are fitted by a probable distribution function to the particular observed data. Different wind distributions varies from different locations, hourly wind speeds at different locations are being monitored by the Rayleigh model, which basically means a continuous probability distribution which was named after Lord Rayleigh.
Electrical Generation
Using the power of electricity from a wind farm is usually fed through a network of electrical power transmissions. This is done by connecting the individual turbines with a medium voltage power system and a series of communications networks. The electrical current is then increased with a transformer to be able to connect to the high voltage transmitting system. System operators supplies the wind farm owner with a code that indicates requirements to be able to connect to the transmission grid which includes the power factor, the constancy of the frequency and the behavior of the wind turbines when experiencing system faults.
Now that we know that the speed of wind is not constant, a farm’s energy production is not as much as the sum of the nameplate rating being multiplied by the year’s total hours being used. The ratio of this productivity in a whole year is called the capacity factor. This is the ratio of productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum.
To learn how to reduce your electricity bills by 70-80%, visit: home made solar power. With the help of home made solar power you can not only fulfill your energy requirement but also make some money from it. Read more at home made solar power.
