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Renewable and alternative energy resources exist as huge but
relatively untapped sources of clean energy to power our economy into
the future. Existing in many forms, they can be converted in a variety
of useful fuels and electricity sources to power homes, businesses, and
transportation needs. The key to utilizing them will be in the
development of cost-effective means to convert the raw resource into a
useable form of energy.
Solar Energy
Solar energy is one of the most abundant and visible renewable
resources on Earth. Many national, state, and local governments are
engaged in programs to expand programs that enable homes, businesses,
and large-scale project developers to make use of this clean energy
resource.
Solar power technologies convert radiant light energy to into more
usable forms of energy such as electricity or hot water. Photovoltaic
cells made from silicon are the most well know, and can leverage mature
silicon electronics manufacturing technology to lower their
manufacturing cost in order to expand their market reach. Other solar
technologies concentrate the sunlight into a small area to heat a
working fluid such as water to generate electric power or provide
useful hot water for space conditioning.
BioEnergy
Bioenergy resources refers to renewable plant and animal wastes that
are easily available to be converted into energy. These resources are
large, but with a low energy density, the cost-effectiveness of these
technologies rests on the ability to gather large amounts of the
resource cheaply and convert it efficiently. Currently many resources
such as grains are also used in existing agricultural markets so that
often the difficult issues of collecting this widely-dispersed resource
for conversion to energy only need to be expanded.
Currently, many bioenergy projects only convert a portion of the
collected biomass material to usable energy because of low-efficiency
processes. Significant efforts are underway from ethanol and
biochemical conversion facilities to power projects aimed at increasing
operating efficiency in order to lower the cost of the end-product.
Additional work is also underway so that non-traditional resources such
as cellulose can be converted into the same useful (or new)
end-products.
Wind Energy
Mankind has used the Earth’s wind resources throughout recorded
history—first for sailing and then for milling and pumping water,
especially in remote areas. Now, wind turbines are being used to
convert wind into electricity. This multi-billion dollar global
industry is growing fast, with significant resources located in a
variety of remote locations such as in the mountains, on flat prairies,
and off-shore in the ocean.
Wind turbine technology has advanced steadily over the last few
decades, and now can produce electrical power competitively with power
plants fueled with fossil fuels. The progress of these wind turbines
will continue as very large and very small wind turbines find more
locations where they are cost effective and promise an alternative
means of harnessing a readily available resource.
Water Energy
The movement of water holds great potential for another resource of
renewable, clean energy. Hyower is already a significant generator
of electricity, but the environmental impact of large dams on rivers is
driving the development of smaller types of water technology that will
not have as great an impact on the environment. Ocean power is also
becoming an area of growing interest because of the immense energy
resources to be found just off-shore.
New hyower technologies include run-of-the river facilities that
capture part of the energy within the fast moving flow of rivers. Other
water energy technologies include tidal and wave power. Wave power
technologies promise significant growth in the near term as their level
of technology improves and as they start to leverage all of the
additional marine engineering capabilities found across the globe.
Geothermal Energy
Deep beneath the surface, the Earth holds great amounts of energy in
some locations hot spots can be found near the surface and captured.
Some of the largest resources are found in California and Iceland, but
a number of other locations exist around the World, holding out promise
for continued expansion of locations to access this energy resource.
The most common application of geothermal technology is to use
superheated water and steam from circulation pipes that extend into the
ground for use in a turbine to generate electricity. Although the basic
technology is not evolving, the use of new materials and processes to
increase the efficiency of the process continues unabated.
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