Alternative Energy

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The world is running out of fossil fuels for sure although changes in economy shall see periodic gluts and price falls over the next few decades. As the price of petroleum crude and coal increases, alternative sources of energy will be used in greater proportions. Besides wind energy, solar energy has been considered often as a source, but the hard facts are that laws of thermodynamics and heat transfer make electricity produced from solar energy very expensive. However, solar panel costs have been coming down and a combined hybrid solar + wind system has become economical in many areas. If one considers all the costs involved perhaps trees are the most economical solar collectors.

An electric steam power palnt can be visualised where water is first preheated to moderate temperatures with solar collectors and then to high temperature steam in wood fired boilers. In order to prevent depletion of forests this would have to be done in a sustainable manner so that trees that are cut and solar dried for wood are replaced on a continuous basis. Doing this will also eliminate the carbon footprint of these power palnt. The net carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by such a plant will be absolutely and precisely zero. A pilot plant based on this principle needs to be constructed and studied in detail.

For small communities an ideal solution would be to have a solar+wind energy plant combined with another based on wood or waste to make up shortfalls in unhelpful weather. In places where hydro energy is available, that remains an excellent solution too provided it does not block all of a river so as to permit fish life in rivers to flourish too. A bypass on the river needs to be made for this purpose.

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albina N muro said…
AltEnergy.org is helping public awareness of the coming energy crunch while working on creative solutions to ease the inevitable transition. λεβητες πέλλετ
May 12, 2013 at 5:44:00 AM PDT
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