1. I have read the second quarter of the book which covers 3 chapters: Solar Energy, Wind Power, and Water Power. Pages 33-141.
2 & 3.
These 3 chapters cover 3 different types of renewable energy sources. The first is solar energy. Solar energy is very easy to acquire; enough solar energy falls onto the Earth every 45 minutes to power the entire world's energy use for one year. We need to discover a way to harness this energy. Solar energy can be used for electricity, heating, and lightening. The main ways to harness solar energy is building design,
active solar systems, and
photovoltaic installations (solar panels). There are basically 2 types of solar design: active and passive.
Active solar design is when in order to capture the sun's energy you must have a specially designed system such as pipes, fans ducts, that move the energy into a storage place to be later used. An example of this would be a water heater system that uses solar energy.
Passive solar design does not require special equipment or mechanical design. For example, a building is designed with large windows facing the East and South to properly catch the sun and provide heat.
In the second chapter, wind power is discussed. The primary way wind power is collected is through the use of
wind turbines. Most of the world's wind turbines reside in Europe, Denmark and Germany are leading the way, but the United States has made a lot of progress in developing wind turbines. There are 2 main designs of wind turbines;
vertical and
horizontal. One of the most important things to consider before constructing a wind turbine is location; there must be adequate wind in the area in order to make the turbine work. In the United States, Minnesota has some of the most wind turbines.
Minnesota is leading the way in promoting and using locally owned wind turbine projects. In the United States, community owned wind turbine projects are encouraged. The advantages of using wind power are creating jobs (workers need to construct the wind turbines) tax credit and new income for the owners; all of these are advantages along with wind power being very clean and reusable free power.
In the third chapter I read, Pahl discusses water power. Hydro-power has been used for hundreds of years. One of the oldest inventions to capture energy was the
water wheel from the time of the Romans and Greeks. Hydroelectricity powers about 20% of the world's electricity. In the United States, hydro-power is most notably relied on for power grid failures. There are 3 main types of hydro-power facilities:
impoundment, diversion, and pumped storage. Impoundment is when a dam is used to capture water energy. Diversion uses only a part of the river flow to create hydro-power. Finally, pumped storage is when water from a lower reservoir is pumped to a higher reservoir for times when energy is high demand. Hydro-power can also be captured from the Ocean.
Energy from ocean waves can be harnessed. There are 3 main ways to harness wave energy: using floating devices that use the bobbing from the waves to create energy, using water columns that rotate in the ocean to measure energy, and the use of "focus" devices that channel wave energy into a reservoir. One final way to harness energy from the ocean is thermal energy.
Thermal energy from the ocean can also be used. This is when heat from the sun that has been captured by the ocean water is used as an energy source.
I have just read about 3 different types of readily available renewable energy sources. These 3 energy sources need to implemented into the United States because eventually our non-renewable energy sources, such as oil, which we rely so heavily on, our going to run dry. By now knowing more about these different energy supplies we can either start using them, for example building our homes more solar efficient, or push for our government to build systems to harness the solar, wind, and water power. These sources are all literally in our backyard and we should take advantage of them. The costs might be steep upfront but over time these systems will pay for themselves.
