Wind turbines are clean, effective and nonpolluting; however, one cannot predict the speed or direction exactly. The heavier populated areas require more energy. Not enough wind and the turbine will not turn. Wind turbines are noisy, threatens wild life, and is an eye sore along with costly for the initial funding. Solar energy is a non-pollutant, cost effective, maintenance free, life span of up to 40 years; however the upfront cost is enormous, and not everyone can afford the cost to put the stylish panels on their roof tops.
This program exactly is the reason why the utilities companies want to stop it since it is unfair for the non-solar customers. While people benefit from California’s incentive plan of solar energy, the fossil fuel utilities company also has a plan giving credit to their users. Despite the solar power technology is challenged by the fossil fuel utilities, it has been considered as a possibility of substitution of utilities. In my opinion, it is somewhat simple to save money with solar power. You can build your own electricity generator by using solar panels.
It also has high social acceptability as it is cheap, not dangerous and not power plants are in industrial areas away from homes so it has limited NIMBY issues and noise, light and visual pollution. Wind power has medium social acceptability due to its noisiness and ugliness and positioning near residential areas causing NIMBY issues, however it is popular to some as it is a renewable and green energy source, this means it has low environmental impacts. It has medium economic cost as each turbine costs a lot and only produces a little amount of energy, however it is almost free to run after start up costs. Biofuels have high social acceptability, low cost and low environmental impacts because they are
One of the greatest advantages of nuclear power is that it avoids the wide variety of environmental problems arising from burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil. Currently 78% of Australia’s electricity comes from burning coal. Nuclear energy does not produce smoke or carbon dioxide, so it does not contribute to the greenhouse effect. Thus ‘global
Currently, substitutes to pellet fuel include fossil fuels, wind power, and solar power. All three types are expensive. Fossil fuels are diminishing in availability, and wind/solar power is reliant on the weather which is uncertain. MacTara is one of the first to own a pellet mill in the world, which makes them an important supplier of pellets. There are no evident barriers to entry into the pellet industry because pellets are an undifferentiated product; however, the cost to build a pellet mill is very
The idea that is new to me is I never knew green roofs reduced energy transfer year- round or reduces 10 reduction in heating costs during winter and 25 saving in air conditioning costs in the summer. It adds to my understanding because when sun heat energy is coming or transferring to the green roof. I knew that it wouldn’t cost lots of money in the end for the owner to pay. So when the green roof heat up it doesn’t take lots of sun heat or energy. 2.
The supply of solar energy demeans the supply of fossil fuels when compared. The unlimited supply does not pose the same destructive effects to the environment and health. Solar energy, according to Klare (2010) “is clean, green, safe and smart” (p. 12). Solar energy provides efficiencies because it does not need the current volume of resources needed today to generate power. The predominant draw back to relying on solar power it that it will take a dedicated plan over 40 years to complete.
The mechanical power is converted into electricity to power homes and businesses. Wind plants produce electricity that emits zero pollutants. The environmental concern from the wind power plants is minimal; the problems that arise are the noise created from the rotator blades and the killing of birds by flying into the blades. With some technological advances, that issue was drastically reduced. Another major challenge is that the wind does not blow all the time, therefore, the turbines do not spin and no power is created during these
2): We are unaware of how our fast-paced lives can affect the Earth, which we see as “an essentially stable background” (para. 2); and we think we are too small to impact the Earth, even though each of us is able “to produce our own cloud of carbon dioxide” (para. 2). After contemplating our misreading of the situation, McKibben tells the scientific story of global warming and explains how the term global warming can be misleading. Despite the scientific consensus around the world on global warming, little has happened in the way of change, particularly in the United States.
What happens to the waste? For example, nuclear energy does not produce smoke or carbon dioxide so it does not contribute to air pollution. (Technology Student ,2009) Nuclear power is characterized by the very large amount of energy available from a very small amount of fuel. The amount of waste is also relatively small. However, much of the waste is radioactive and therefore must be carefully managed as hazardous waste.