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There may be loads of energy that we can harness if we solely search to research and develop the technologies needed to do so. We are able to get away from the fossil fuels and the outdated electrical grids by turning to alternatives to these energy sources.

Considered one of these alternative energy sources is wind power. Wind generators continue to be developed which are progressively more energy efficient and less costly. Wind farms have been arising in many countries, they usually have even become more strategically positioned over time in order that they are not jeopardizing birds as former wind generators did.

One other alternative energy resource is the one that is most well-known: solar energy. This includes the manufacturing of photo voltaic cells which collect and focus the power given off directly by the solar, and translate it into electricity or, in some cases, hot water. A similarity with wind power is, solar energy creates absolutely zero pollution.

Ocean wave energy is seen by governments and investors as having enormous power generating potential. A generator in France has been in operation for many years now and is taken into account to be an incredible success, and the Irish and Scots are operating experimental facilities.

Hydroelectric power has been with us for a while and where it’s set up, it is a highly effective generator of electricity and cleaner than a grid. However, there are particular limitations to the provision of the correct places to set up a big dam. Many run-of-the-river, or small and localized, hydroelectric generators have been set up in recent instances resulting from this limitation.

Geothermal energy is extraordinarily abundant, since it lies directly beneath our toes, just a few miles beneath the earth’s surface. This power is produced by the heating of water via the actions of earth’s fantastically hot molten core. The water turns to steam, which could be harnessed and used to drive turbine engines which in turn generate electricity. Great amounts of research and development ought to be put into geothermal energy tapping.

Waste gas energies, that are primarily methane, reverse the usual energy-pollution relationship by creating energy from waste that lies in the dumps and from some air pollutants. This gas is used in fuel cells and can be utilized in normal gasoline generators.

Ethanol is a gasoline substitute and is created from such things as wheat, sugarcane, grapes, strawberries, corn, and even wood chips and wood cellulose. There’s controversy over this fuel with regards to its ever becoming truly economical or practical besides in very localized areas, however technologies for its extraction and admixturing are continuously being refined.

Biodiesel energy is created out of the oil contained in plants. To date, the business stores of biodiesel have been created using soybean, rapeseed, and sunflower oils. On the time of this writing, biodiesel is often produced by entrepreneurial minded people or those who want to experiment with alternative energy, but commercial interest from companies is on the rise. It burns much cleaner than oil-based diesel.

Atomic energy is created in atomic power plants utilizing the process of nuclear fission. This power is extraordinarily efficient and can generate enormous amounts of power. There’s concern from some individuals about what to do with the relatively small amount of waste product atomic energy gives off, since it is radioactive and takes hundreds of years to decay into harmlessness.

A magnetic generator, as the name suggests, is a generator that produces electricity on the fundamental principles of magnetism. The magnetic motor uses three kinds of magnets in it. Such generator can provide around 7,000 watts of power which may be enough for many households. A magnetic motor is extremely useful as it’s a consistent supply of power that is neither harmful to the environment nor requires any type of maintenance. Furthermore, it is a highly reliable and reliable device that can lead to major financial savings for households.

Among various green electricity, the most promising are solar energy, wind energy, hydro-energy and magnetic motor. Being confined by conventional technologies, there seem to be no alternatives to break out of this cycle of power needs. As rightly predicted my many experts years ago, the only way to break such a vicious circle is to create something that is entirely new and revolutionary with respect to physics and its limiting theories.

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Hydroelectricity is often presented as a green energy source, but how true is this? Hydro has several environmental and aesthetic drawbacks that make it less than ideal compared to the clean energy provided by sources such as wind and sun.

The most visible environmental aspect of Hydroelectricity is its impact on the environment, as it requires the damming of rivers. This causes the flooding of low lying land behind the dam and while this is often not desirable, the reality is that it is just an alteration to the environment. If the dam was to remain filled with water all the time, this would have no environmental effect outside the dam area.

Why is it then that Hydroelectric installations are associated with high levels of methane production? When organic matter from plants and animals breaks down without oxygen present, methane is formed. This anaerobic process is very similar to the ones that resulted in the formation of the fossil fuels we use today.

Consider the following chain of events that unfold once the dam has been constructed.

First the land is submerged and the vegetation with it. The vegetation drowns and begins to rot. Since there is very little available oxygen, the plant material breaks down to form, among other things, methane that is absorbed by the water.

This is all normal so far, as this would occur with any permanent flooding. But a Hydroelectricity dam is usually both a power supply and an urban water source and so the water levels in the dam tend to rise and fall a great deal. In dry times the water level will drop to its lowest levels which will expose land around the edges of the water and possibly at the bottom of the dam itself.

This exposed land is ideal for growing plants and so it blooms with new life. As most dams are shallow, the amount of land exposed at the edges as the water drops can be very large. The shallower the dam, the more land is exposed annually.

After a time the rains return and the dam fills up again. The new vegetation is then also covered with water and so rots anaerobically and so more methane enters the water of the dam.

This continues year after year, resulting in a slow but steady increase in the amount of methane absorbed in the water of the dam. This is a problem because methane is not very soluble in water. When the water passes through the dam’s turbines it escapes the water and enters the atmosphere.

Methane is a dangerous greenhouse gas. It is approximately 21 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than Carbon Dioxide. This means that electricity from a Hydroelectric plant can be up to three times more polluting per energy unit than the same power from a coal or oil fired plant. This figure depends on the climate and geography the Hydro plant is located in, as these factors determining the amount of vegetation added to the dam each year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has recognized this issue and now includes methane from Hydroelectricity in national emissions totals.

Hydroelectricity may be a renewable power source but it is not an environmentally friendly one. When looking at whether a new Hydro plant is warranted, methane emissions must be taken into account. A cleaner and greener solution is to build solar and wind energy stations as once constructed these have no emissions associated with them at all.
For more information on electricity generation and its issues, visit the Fossil Fuels section of Roger Vanderlely’s website. There you can also find out about getting a good deal on cheap solar panels to become more energy independent and do your bit for the environment.

This article is brought to you by George Zalcman. George Zalcman has always had a passion for green technologies, and believes that we should all get on the boat before natural resources become limited. George Zalcman is part of an air to water technology hoping that this will eventually bring an end to the water crisis as well.