Alternative Energy?
July 28, 2009 by Alternative Energy Tips
Filed under More Alternative Energy Answers
Can you answer Carolina P’s question about Alternative Energy?:
I’ve read reports that by 2030, 115 million barrels of oil need to be produced to the meet the increase needs of China and India.
This particular author advocated highly for alternative energies.
However, I read another source, where the argument was that alternative energies were just as harmful to the environment.
It is clear that the stifling need of fuels from over-populated India and China pose a large challenge, but is alternative energy the answer? Is there really enough oil to last us at least a century as some sources suggest? It’s difficult to get the truth from so many differing biases on our economy and fuel-usage.
Alternative Sources Of Energy
I’ve read reports that by 2030, 115 million barrels of oil need to be produced to the meet the increase needs of China and India.
This particular author advocated highly for alternative energies.
However, I read another source, where the argument was that alternative energies were just as harmful to the environment.
It is clear that the stifling need of fuels from over-populated India and China pose a large challenge, but is alternative energy the answer? Is there really enough oil to last us at least a century as some sources suggest? It’s difficult to get the truth from so many differing biases on our economy and fuel-usage.
Alternative Sources Of Energy
Alternative Energy Feedback: The oil is running out and there is no question about that. It won’t suddenly run out one day and that is the end of it. It will get more difficult to extract and so you will see the price rise steadily. No doubt there will be more wars about oil as it gets more scarce. Eventually people will have to switch to something renewable just because they can no longer afford oil.
Alternative Energy Feedback: All there is is oil and alternatives to oil.
It will not last 100 years unless we use the alternatives.
Alternative Energy Feedback: I hope we run out of oil very soon. If we keep on driving these machines all day long, we will ruin our home (earth). The sun gives us all the energy we need to survive.
Alternative Energy Feedback: don’t count on oil meeting your long term demands. I don’t know who told you alternatives are just as bad. Wind energy, for example, has no pollution emissions. Ethanol emits about 10% of the greenhouse gasses that gasoline does.
Most experts agree that we are currently into peak production, meaning we are basically depleating our usable oil reserves.
There is a large amount of shale oil, but at this time with all the advanced technology, it still costs more energy to drill it than it produces.
There are many practical other means of energy resources, but the average consumer must start to demand them.
Alternative Energy Feedback: Both of the things you read is probably true.
but dont you think they are bias a little?
there is probably just enough to squeeze us through 100 years.
but whats going to happen after then..? or even before if the demand is higher.
alternative energy wont be very good for then if it is not set up soon.
harnessing the powers of nature has been done for thousands of years.
the uk is surrounded by sea.
america gets lots of sun and wind.
we could make it last longer if we used them both.
at least untill a good clean system is set up.
the trick is seeing past the exaggerations and making your own decision. or read both biases and fid a middle ground.
Alternative Energy Feedback: Depends on the alternative that you are talking about. I have also seen that. But always check the source… were the authors tied to the oil industry; somehow?!
I was watching something about this on discovery and they were saying that there are solid natural gases locked under the oceans that will meet our energy needs when we use up the oil.
I think that economics have a huge influence on why we are not able to get away from oil today. The technologies are out there, acceptance and adoption are another story. But with things like the new fuel cells (that just emit water) coming out… at least we are making some progress.
However, I would really like to see technological improvements in solar generated power… plenty of free energy hitting us every day! “If only there was a way that we could channel that power into the flux capacitor!”
Alternative Energy Feedback: Don’t worry. China will burn plenty of coal and wipe out all life on the planet so they can make those clothes for Wal-Mart. We’ll need a mix of nuclear, wind, solar, conservation to stem the tide. Nothing breeds innovation like a crisis.
Alternative Energy Feedback: It’s widely agreed that we need some sort of alternative energy source. Fossil fuels in the planet are being depleted and they are definitely non-renewable. However, the current issue remains, in that there still is no suitable alternative energy source that can run things with the efficiency that we currently get using fossil fuels. There are tax-breaks for solar powered communities, which again, are not entirely solar powered (they power their homes the same way everyone else does when there’s no sun), and really expensive. The problem isn’t really that people disagree about fuel usage, it’s really about a feasible alternative that is both cost and energy efficient, nothing which we find now. Usually they are ridiculously expensive, or just don’t provide enough power for things to run optimally.
Alternative Energy Feedback: I would suggest reading ” The Death to Environmentalism.” I participated a conference from the author. Alternative fuel sources aren’t as harmful actually a lot of them come from the natural operations from our environment (not including corn because corn can be genetically modified, and forest are cut down for farm land). The author, Michael Shellenberger talks about how many people need to invest tons of money into solar energy. Yes ok, so its expensive now but look at computer chips. Computer chips were extremely expensive and because we have invested in them they can be less than a buck today. Kennedy wanted to beat the Soviet Union to space. They knew it wasn’t going to be cheap or easy but we didn’t make lame butt excuses we did it. This oil thing is ridiculous. It’s time to invest in more green energy alternatives. Currently hydro-power for cars are also being tested. Solar power and wind power again just need more money and research vested into it so it becomes cheap.
Alternative Energy Feedback: i dont know i personally cant figure out why our town mayor has cancer im shure its not the coal smoke the highway smog or the smells from industry drifting in my yard im kinda weighting out do i mind my buddys having nightmares or dieing for oil or would i mind looking at a large solar array or off shore wind farms all along our coasts were not bothered by all the trash no matter were we go and lots of recycleing not going on we probably should keep milking the earth for all its worth keep filling the landfills matter of fact they should be alloud to be at least 3 times higher than any of our skyscrapers i like everytime i want to git warm during winter that more coal miners wives and family members will be crying on tv and 100% of our energy is imported thats nice i think were fine were were at with the 800 times more pollutants then the federal limit allows and the reclamation project from the war of 1812 site i think we should just have grass growing there so that way we can continue on the tradition of energy from other places and i dont think we should have recycleing there just like all the other places in town besides what would we do with out oil and how would the handicapped people bunny hop the curb if there was more trails so they could git out i think its great that everything is made only with cars in mind why would i want to git to grandmothers house on a trail that i could go thruout the usa when i can suck energy from people we pay and they shoot at us why change what works well and besides theres no profits to be made from oil crimes against humanity shmanity we need more cars that are less efficent than forigen auto makers why make cars that are more efficent than the tin lizzy lets continue staying less efficent were ever we can
Alternative Energy Feedback: Talking to an oil industry executive, there’s oil available for hundreds of years. The problem is how expensive is it to remove that oil from the ground. In places like Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran, it’s very cheap to pump each barrel of oil out. Canadian oil is definitiely more expensive to drill for, but now that gas prices are so much higher, the Canadian crude is starting to make more economic sense to refineries.
Alternative Energy Feedback: It doen’t really matter if there is enough oil to last us for 100 years. As you can see by the last run up of oil prices we will not be able to afford the cost of oil 100 years in the future.
We as world leaders need to migrate to renewable power sources such as solar, wind, wave, geothermal, and hydroelectric as first tier sources for the power grid.
While these are developing we will need to use clean coal to continue producing power for the grid. We have enough coal to last 400 years according to some estimates.
One of the most interesting ways to reduce the CO2 signature of the coal plants was proposed by a group at MIT. They used CO2 hungry algea to scrub out the CO2. The algae are latter harvested and oil is produced from the algae and used to produce Biodiesel. While biodiesel and diesel will be needed for sometime it has been determined that clean diesel and biodiesel are an improvement over the older diesel products. Biodiesle can also be produced from vegetable oils and waste cooking oil.
Agriculture is realing form price increases caused by the increase in using corn crops to produce ethanol for automobile fuel additives. But this chaos will only last as long as auto producers refuse to market electric cars. Hybrids are only a stop gap. Electric cars will drive more of the energy requirements to the power grid, a place were we can use renewable energy.
Then there is hydrogen power. It can be used two ways.
First hydrogen can be produced from the electrolysis of water into H2 and O2. Hydrogen is then run over a fuel cell to produce electricity and water. This system would be most effective if excess electricity produced for the grid were used to produce hydrogen. The hydrogen is then stored until needed during peak usage to keep from having to bring a coal or gas fired plants back on line.
The second way to use Hydrogen is to fuel automobiles, trucks, planes, and trains as well as powering homes and office buildings.
But I digress H2 is a topic for a later date.
We could easily intoduce massive solar and wind farms to replace coal, gas, and oil fired power plants. We could all easily be dirving electric cars if just the government, oil companies, and auto industry would cooperated and give the public the products needed to get off of fossil fuels.
Alternative Energy Feedback: Look at the site renewableenergyaccess.com. They discuss in many articles there about this problem from people on both sides of the debate who actually know what they are talking about.