admin answers:

I have lived off-grid for about four years relying completely on solar electric power. I learned a lot about conservation as my system is very modest, but I wouldn’t exchange it for a monthly electric bill-I own my power not rent it from an electric company that can hike rates and pollute the air as much as they please.

I feel that utilizing solar energy has helped me look at my energy use in a new way. I have developed a new pattern language in my home and during my daily activities that have made me much less wasteful. Solar energy is expensive and so being efficient always trumphs adding solar modules to the home.

It feels great to use renewable energy from the sun!

Erik

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It’s one where all the people are dead.

People have no right to live. It’s bad for “the environment”.

The government has a right to total power. If it’s necessary to pass laws that stop agriculture or the production of energy, that’s fine – anything for the environment.

You have no right to a lifestyle because it uses natural resources.

Don’t laugh. This are exactly the belief underlying the environmental movement, and which big governments throughout the western world are actively implementing.

The point is, the distinction the question asks about, cannot be made except by a society based on the private ownership of the means of production. Capital is a market concept. There’s no use talking about government management of capital, because government has no way to calculate capital without using market methods. Government has no way to not consume capital – in fact, that’s all that government does. There is simply no evidence or scientific reason for the modern superstitious belief that government can further environmental sustainability. The belief that it can is merely confused, like the person who wrote the questions you are asking.

admin answers:

Register here https://www.coursera.org/ and here https://www.edx.org/ and try find course about green engineering.

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What kind of job would you like to do? There are a lot of different people working in alternative energy. It’s like saying you want to work with food–do you mean a farmer? A chef? A grocery store manager?

With alternative energy, you could be an investor who funds the technology, an engineer who designs new technologies, an advertising agent who markets the technologies, a lawyer who works for those companies, the guy working under the sun who physically installs them, etc. Etc. Etc.

What is your background now, and in what capacity do you want to work in alternative energy?

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The electric car was among the earliest automobiles — small electric vehicles predate the Otto cycle upon which Diesel (diesel engine) and Benz (gasoline engine) based the automobile. Between 1832 and 1839 (the exact year is uncertain), Scottish businessman Robert Anderson invented the first crude electric carriage. Professor Sibrandus Stratingh of Groningen, the Netherlands, designed the small-scale electric car, built by his assistant Christopher Becker in 1835.[4]

Practical and more successful electric road vehicles were invented by both American Thomas Davenport and Scotsmen Robert Davidson around 1842. Both inventors were the first to use non-rechargeable electric cells.

What advantages do EVs offer? EVs produce zero emissions at the point of use. An electric motor is 400% to 600% more efficient than an internal combus tion engine. An EV, per mile, uses one-half the fossil-fuel resources an ICE consumes. An EV produces only 5% to 10% of the emissions of an ICE per mile traveled. All of the EV’s emissions occur at a (oil- or coal-fueled) power plant, which runs 400% to 500% more efficiently than an ICE and scrubs its own exhaust. EVs can use electricity from anywhere including sustainable energy resources (wind and sun). EVs are simple, silent, and affordable to operate.

Zero-Emission or Emission-Elsewhere? It is a major step for an automobile to no longer emit exhaust gases. In fact, it is nearly inconceivable. That’s why consumers will love zero-emission vehicles. They may not be driving a solar-powered car, but they will be helping the sun to once more shine through clear skies.

In the literal sense, of course, the EV is the “emission-elsewhere” car. The electricity to power the car has to be generated somewhere. And, though some energy is available from sustainable energy sources like wind, solar, and water power, the bulk comes from coal- and oil-fueled power plants. Isn’t this just transplanting the problem somewhere else?

The answer is both yes and no. Yes, the pollution is transferred to another region. However, this matter has been scrutinized extensively by the U.S. Depart ment of Energy and several California agencies charged with air-quality manage ment. The bulleted list above reflects their findings.

EVs are very efficient. They have to be. A pound of battery has 1/100 of the energy of a pound of gasoline. On average, a 30 mpg ICE car uses only 5% to 10% of the energy of its fuel, whereas the EV converts 70% to 80% of the battery’s pack into propulsion, for the same mile.

Running costs

Electric car operating costs can be directly compared to the equivalent operating costs of a gasoline-powered vehicle. A litre of gasoline contains about 8.9 kW·h of energy.[39] To calculate the cost of the electrical equivalent of a liter of gasoline, multiply the utility cost per kW·h by 8.9. Because automotive internal combustion engines are only about 20% efficient, then at most 20% of the total energy in that liter of gasoline is ever put to use.

Also Check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_car

admin answers:

You can purchase from local company by supporting them
you can purchase value pack which mean instead of 24 pack, you can buy a 2L bottle instead in order to reduce waste.
Make sure you recycle all empty bottles and cans
make sure you purchase those ones that can be recycled.

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Hey Brian, interesting question, and one that gets to the heart of many renewable energy myths today. Your explanation might have a couple apples vs oranges. The sun produces much more power than 120,000 terawatts, or terawatts per year, but I’m not sure if TW/Y represents either of those. Total electrical energy use on our globe is about 15 terawatts continuously, or 132,000 TW hours each year. Since solar panels are about 12 to 14 % efficient today, it would take an area of 192 square miles to produce that much power. Problem is, you would need it to work 24/7, and most places on our globe are dark at night. Accomodating for night time, and twilight hours in the morning and evening when the panels would be operating below peak power, the number jumps to about 890 square miles, or about 39,000,000 acres. That sounds huge, but consider that Rhode Island takes up over 1500 square miles, and is one of the smallest states in the US, really that scenario is feasible. The fact is we are never going to do that. The cost, the enourmous demand for silicone, wiring, grids, and so on make it totally impractical. There is also the fact that Rhode Island is pretty cloudy.

Now enter the Germans, they have a fantastic plan to mine solar power from the Sahara Desert. It doesn’t involve solar panels, instead they are going to use solar thermal collectors that will heat oil to several hundred degrees, which will be circulated back into huge insulated tanks, then the hot oil will be used to boil water into steam ,which will turn a steam turbine. This idea has several advantages. First, since we can use both the light of the sun, and its resultant heat as opposed to a silicone panel, which uses only the incoming photons, the efficiency jumps to about 60%. Second, since oil does not boil until around 550 degrees, we can use the stored hot oil well into the night until it cools substantially. Now we have access to solar power at night. And the concentrators and oil(which gets continuously recycled each day) cost much less per unit power than any panel in production today. Since the efficiency is much higher, they will only need 30 to 40 square miles to power all of Europe. If you want to check it out, google, “North African Solar Project,” and read some of the resulting websites. If the system works as well as they plan, it will run most of Western Europe, and then we will probably have one in our desert southwest a few years later. This concentrator will not offset any wildlife, beyond a few scorpions and rattlesnakes living in the far out areas of the desert, and since they will be using sea water to boil into steam, the byproduct of the electrical production will be fresh water. That fresh water will be used for irrigation to farm small quantities of sunlight intensive farm stock in what is now a completely dry desert. Adding small amounts of plant life to the northwest corner of the desert where none exists now will not alter the climate, but does offer another opportunity for carbon to be converted to oxygen, reducing the CO2 content of the atmosphere slightly. There will be jobs there, installation, technicians, maintenance and operations, and as long as the sun shines in the desert, we won’t run out of fuel.

We’ve been powering our home for 11 years now on wind and solar power. I’ve learned many things during that time. One item is that there are two things in large supply in solar power, the sun, and missinformation. Lots of people have been posting interesting “facts” here about solar and wind power, having never laid a hand on a panel or wind turbine. Wind turbines do not kill as many birds each year as living room windows do, powering homes with solar panels does not require massive amounts of space, silicone panels do not need massive amounts of toxic chemicals to manufacture them, and people do not get cancer from spinning wind turbines. These are just a few of my favorites, there are many more. If you want to learn more about this technology, check out some sources below. Take care Brian, Rudydoo

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Several new studies, including a gigantic one released this year from the US Department of Energy, show the corn to ethanol process to have a significantly larger positive net energy yield than previously shown. These improvements were largely due to greater efficiency modifications and technological advancements at ethanol plants. In some cases, specific ethanol plants have an almost infinitely positive net energy yield due to groundbreaking technologies used to power the plant such as wind turbine technology.

This study published in january 2009 shows the net energy yield of corn to ethanol to be +50% to 80%:

http://www.americanfuels.info/search?q=net+energy+yield&x=0&y=0

Here are the latest numbers from the Dept. Of Energy, published in May 2009. Go to page 16 of the 20 page summary. In the conclusions section the US DOE concludes that the entire corn to ethanol process yields at least 34% more energy that it takes to make the numbers could be as high as 67% due to rising corn yields secondary to farming improvements and ethanol plant technology improvements. The DOE concludes that corn ethanol is “energy efficient and becoming more energy efficient as time goes on”. They study also concludes that only 17% of the energy used to make ethanol actually comes from fossil fuels:

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/pdfs/energy_balance_of_corn_ethanol.pdf

Lastly, some ethanol plants are producing ethanol and using virtually zero fossil fuels at all. Many are converting to wind power to generate the electricity for their plants. This makes sense for several reasons. First, wind and corn go hand in hand. The areas in the midwest that grow corn tend to be very windy in general. Secondly, the plants see this as a way to save huge amounts of money on energy costs. Thirdly, using wind turbines makes the net energy yield of producing ethanol even more hugely positive. Cornplus ethanol in Winnebago, Minnesota is one such plant that is producing ethanol from almost entirely renewable sources. Here are 2 links to read about it:

http://connectbiz.com/2005/11/keith-kor/

http://fairmontsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/500116.html?nav=5003

And here is one more study that shows corn ethanol yields 67% more energy than it takes to produce:

http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com/2008/04/biofuel-myths-vs-facts.html

Now, I want to hear arguments from people that dispute these facts. All 3 studies mentioned above have been published in 2009. Can you provide a newer more current study that shows differently? If you want to argue that the yield is negative please back it up with FACTS and DATA and provide LINKS, as I have done. Otherwise your argument has no weight. If you are going to argue against the net energy yield of ethanol back up your argument with facts, not just your false beliefs. Then again, I guess ignorance is bliss.

Chui, please see my link which addresses the issue you mentioned. We have thousands and thousands of miles of unused land in the US to plant corn and other crops.

Http://www.foodandfuelamerica.com/2007/10/maize-ing-fact-one-bushel-of-corn.html

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And where does one get the certificate? =D

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I’m not really sure about a course that you need to install solar panels on houses. I’m doing certificate II in electrotechnology and I know that there is also a certificate IV in electrotechnology where you learn about renewable energy so i searched Google for a TAFE in Perth that offers this sort of course and found this: http://psc.central.tafe.wa.edu.au/Search/List.aspx?Keyword=renewable%20energy&CourseNumber=&CourseType=&DeliveryLocation=&InternationalProduct=&Status=&StudyMode=&AccreditationWeeks=&MOUP=&MOUC=&ASCO=&ANZSIC=&ReviewDate=&searchBy=adv&currentlyThisSemester=&availableNextSemester=&courseNationalNumber=

I hope this helps! (I’m actually thinking of installing solar panels when I’m older too)

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First point, we are talking about nuclear power as it exists at present, fission reactors that use uranium as a fuel.

It is difficult to make very strong points in favour of nuclear power, though it has been fashionable to try in some countries lately. It is basically non-renewable and so the uranium fuel is a limited and valuable resource that may be best kept for other purposes. This is the main point against it, just not sustainable.

The most common plus point put up in recent years is that it is clean power with low or zero emissions. You can use this in your argument, as have many politicians, but be aware that it is semantic nonsense. I think Japan went from a very “dirty” country to a clean country by introducing nuclear power plants. “Emissions” is an avoidance word though. Nuclear power has pollution as do other systems, though in different ways. Its downside is that the by-products need continuous care for hundreds of years. The up-side is that if properly contained (if) then the volume is small. There has been a lot of hysteria about dangers and contamination, but these are not easy to justify. The effects of other systems are probably just as life threatening, each in their own ways. There is a lot of drum beating going on around the various energy debates, presumably because a lot of money is involved, and also because it catches public interest.

Cost. Nuclear power is promoted as an intermediate cost between fossil fuel power and alternate energy power. Before alternate energy systems, it was the alternate energy system itself, and the most expensive. Once again this is a point for your answer, but it is not all that clear cut for whole of life cycle. Costing must take into account the long term safekeeping of hazardous material, and cleanups after shutdown or rare accidents. This is borne by the public, or so do utilities hope to avoid it. They can declare themselves bankrupt if things look bad, but the problem is then left for the public to pay. Basically nuclear power is subsidised in most places it is used, but then so are other power industries in various ways.

Security of supply. This is the third point. Nuclear power provides significant percentages of power in some countries. It provides an existing system that continues to operate, presumably as long as nuclear fuel is available (about 80 years). It seems to make sense to keep it in operation rather than dismantle it too soon. Dismantling it may well divert funds from alternative systems, and increase the use of fossil fuels.

Another plus point is that it is seen as less disruptive to human life as the natural radiation is higher than having a lot of properly run nuclear plants would be. This is compared to the large quantity of toxic substances output from coal stations.

Another point (a reason, not a good thing) is that it is seen as a status symbol in some countries, a sort of coming of age or “we can do nuclear”. This makes it desireable.

The link below is from the International Atomic Energy Association, and lists the pros and various arguments..

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Barack Obama’s Plan

Reduce Carbon Emissions 80 Percent by 2050

Cap and Trade: Obama supports implementation of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by the amount scientists say is necessary: 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Obama’s cap-and-trade system will require all pollution credits to be auctioned. A 100 percent auction ensures that all polluters pay for every ton of emissions they release, rather than giving these emission rights away to coal and oil companies. Some of the revenue generated by auctioning allowances will be used to support the development of clean energy, to invest in energy efficiency improvements, and to address transition costs, including helping American workers affected by this economic transition.

Confront Deforestation and Promote Carbon Sequestration: Obama will develop domestic incentives that reward forest owners, farmers, and ranchers when they plant trees, restore grasslands, or undertake farming practices that capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Invest in a Clean Energy Future
Invest $150 Billion over 10 Years in Clean Energy: Obama will invest $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial-scale renewable energy, invest in low-emissions coal plants, and begin the transition to a new digital electricity grid. A principal focus of this fund will be devoted to ensuring that technologies that are developed in the U.S. Are rapidly commercialized in the U.S. And deployed around the globe.

Double Energy Research and Development Funding: Obama will double science and research funding for clean energy projects including those that make use of our biomass, solar and wind resources.

Invest in a Skilled Clean Technologies Workforce: Obama will use proceeds from the cap-and-trade auction program to invest in job training and transition programs to help workers and industries adapt to clean technology development and production. Obama will also create an energy-focused Green Jobs Corps to connect disconnected and disadvantaged youth with job skills for a high-growth industry.

Convert our Manufacturing Centers into Clean Technology Leaders: Obama will establish a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize and Americans learn the new skills they need to produce green products.

Clean Technologies Deployment Venture Capital Fund: Obama will create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund to fill a critical gap in U.S. Technology development. Obama will invest $10 billion per year into this fund for five years. The fund will partner with existing investment funds and our National Laboratories to ensure that promising technologies move beyond the lab and are commercialized in the U.S

Require 25 Percent of Renewable Electricity by 2025: Obama will establish a 25 percent federal Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) to require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. Is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources, like solar, wind and geothermal by 2025.

Develop and Deploy Clean Coal Technology: Obama will significantly increase the resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies. Obama will consider whatever policy tools are necessary, including standards that ban new traditional coal facilities, to ensure that we move quickly to commercialize and deploy low carbon coal technology.

Support Next Generation Biofuels

Deploy Cellulosic Ethanol: Obama will invest federal resources, including tax incentives, cash prizes and government contracts into developing the most promising technologies with the goal of getting the first two billion gallons of cellulosic ethanol into the system by 2013.

Expand Locally-Owned Biofuel Refineries: Less than 10 percent of new ethanol production today is from farmer-owned refineries. New ethanol refineries help jumpstart rural economies. Obama will create a number of incentives for local communities to invest in their biofuels refineries.

Establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard: Barack Obama will establish a National Low Carbon Fuel Standard to speed the introduction of low-carbon non-petroleum fuels. The standard requires fuels suppliers to reduce the carbon their fuel emits by ten percent by 2020.
Increase Renewable Fuel Standard: Obama will require 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be included in the fuel supply by 2022 and will increase that to at least 60 billion gallons of advanced biofuels like cellulosic ethanol by 2030.

Set America on Path to Oil Independence

Obama’s plan will reduce oil consumption by at least 35 percent, or 10 million barrels per day, by 2030. This will more than offset the equivalent of the oil we would import from OPEC nations in 2030.

Increase Fuel Economy Standards: Obama will double fuel economy standards within 18 years. His plan will provide retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers, so that they can build new fuel-efficient cars rather than overseas companies. Obama will also invest in advanced vehicle technology such as advanced lightweight materials and new engines.

Improve Energy Efficiency 50 Percent by 2030

Set National Building Efficiency Goals: Barack Obama will establish a goal of making all new buildings carbon neutral, or produce zero emissions, by 2030. He’ll also establish a national goal of improving new building efficiency by 50 percent and existing building efficiency by 25 percent over the next decade to help us meet the 2030 goal.

Establish a Grant Program for Early Adopters: Obama will create a competitive grant program to award those states and localities that take the first steps to implement new building codes that prioritize energy efficiency.

Invest in a Digital Smart Grid: Obama will pursue a major investment in our utility grid to enable a tremendous increase in renewable generation and accommodate modern energy requirements, such as reliability, smart metering, and distributed storage

Restore U.S. Leadership on Climate Change

Create New Forum of Largest Greenhouse Gas Emitters: Obama will create a Global Energy Forum — that includes all G-8 members plus Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa –the largest energy consuming nations from both the developed and developing world. The forum would focus exclusively on global energy and environmental issues.

Re-Engage with the U.N. Framework Convention on
Climate Change: The UNFCCC process is the main international forum dedicated to addressing the climate problem and an Obama administration will work constructively within it.

Barack Obama’s Record

Renewable Fuels: Obama has worked on numerous efforts in the Senate to increase access to and use of renewable fuels. Obama passed legislation with Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) to give gas stations a tax credit for installing E85 ethanol refueling pumps. The tax credit covers 30 percent of the costs of switching one or more traditional petroleum pumps to E85, which is an 85 percent ethanol/15 percent gasoline blend. Obama also sponsored an amendment that became law providing $40 million for commercialization of a combined flexible fuel vehicle/hybrid car within five years.

CAFE: Obama introduced a bold new plan that brought Republicans and Democrats, CAFE supporters and long-time opponents together in support of legislation that will gradually increase fuel economy standards and offer what the New York Times editorial page called “real as opposed to hypothetical results.”

For More Information about Barack’s Plan http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/

admin answers:

Try http://www.epa.gov/

admin answers:

Well man nuclear energy is actually pretty clean his teacher is apparently a environment nut there is nuclear waste but it is a very very small fraction of the waste of fossil fuels and other non renewable sources what happened in russia was stupidity they did not follow any saftey rules whatsoever the same will happen if we dont watch ours we have some but they only power like 2% of the nation and it will be perfectly fine one of my colleges suggested that the government would cease to give a crap about saftey for awhile which is true but nuclear facilities shouldnt be government controled but definatley supervised and have any organization take a tour and help make sure everything is safe and even if that happens there are 3 huge layers of protection if any nuclear event occured and it is very efficient the newer class of our aircraft carriers are nuclear no incidents have occured to date and it is better and cheaper than diesel and they only have to refuel once in their whole service which is expected to be about 40 years or more

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Define “environmentalists” and define “green”.

Based on everything else in the content, it appears you need to actually research the cost effectiveness of sustainable energy generation, realize that each variety of sustainable energy is suited for a given set of conditions that when combined form a whole as opposed to a single variety being a “one size fits all” solution, develop your risk assessment skills so that you can ascertain concepts like “the impacts of large scale air and water pollution are freakishly more damaging than all hydropower combined, in spite of the fact that hydropower is an imperfect although improving technology”, and realize that space is a resource as well. Then there’s the whole “you can only burn that stuff that takes millions of years to form at a much faster rate than it forms for so long” thing.

Aside from that, your counter argument sucks as well. If you’re going to discuss the faults of sustainable energy, you should at the very least hit on bird and bat strikes by wind turbines, migration impediments to both terrestrial and aquatic wildlife created by dams, maintenance issues associated with all new and developing technology, the inadequacy and ineffectiveness of bio-fuels, the extreme lack of adequate infrastructure, etc.

Also, your title attacks reliability while your text attacks efficiency and damage without any supporting details whatsoever.

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Engineers capable of developing new energy sources will not participate in a reality show, no matter how much you pay them.

There are plenty of viable sustainable energy technologies, they make energy that’s more expensive that fossil fuels.
Once we run out of fossils, their price will increase, and we will roll out alternative technologies.

Farmers already are paid to plant fruit trees via subsidies, and government is imposing quotas on agricultural output to keep farmers profitable.

You can’t export fruit from US, Latin american countries are willing to export it at much lower prices, and there are no takers.

Giving people free food keeps means they will stay on welfare forever, and so will their children. If you want to help the poor, you gotta give them work skills and culture of honest work.

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Sadly you lost interest in formal education at just the wrong time in your life. A bit more and you might have realized that there is no such thing as a free lunch, or free energy. [Well not in the way you are hoping for.] There is no big conspiracy to hide ‘Free Energy’. There are many corporate and government policies that prevent innovation though. There are alternative technologies and alternative energy sources. But nothing is free. Even sunlight and wind cost money to harvest. Hey even the hot air from politicians isn’t free!

Go back to college to get a science degree or diploma. Then you will be able to assess things for yourself. A good grounding in thermodynamics and physics will go a long way.

There are many things you can do that make a difference in life.
When I left university with aqn engineering degree, I took a job in a completely different field in a least developed county. In the 35 yrs since then, I have changed careers a couple of times, had a real and positive impact on millions of people and never returned to live in the developed world. Now I’m ready to retire and will devote myself to further learning in yet another country to see what else I can do.

Dream big, and do what you can. But if you start with real understanding you have a far better chance than if you believe everything you see and read.

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Seeing how you are still young, I would recommend going back to school and study engineering.
As an engineer, you can work on photovoltaic technology, wind turbines, etc
You will learn about inductors, capacitors, impedance, etc
You will about cycles, otto, diesel, rankine, etc
This is mainly what I learned as a mechanical engineer. But you seemed to be more inclined to be an electrical engineer.

Also, the reason why I suggest studying engineering is because, even if you did manage to learn all of this, no workplace will take you seriously (or will take the liability) if you can’t prove that you received some kind of training in a technical field.

For example, imagining burning out solar cells (lets say you somehow managed to do this). Do you know how expensive solar cells are? The company reduces their risks if you take some form of training. Even ITT Tech training would be better.

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In short, no it isn’t. It requires radioactive fuel rods that last for years but when they’re done they’re done. The reason some ppl push for nuclear energy is the lack of pollution. …or at least lack of pollution that contributes to global warming.

Just look up sources pertaining to the fuel rods and the dangers of how spent fuel rods are currently being treated.

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You can be one of those people that collect money to adopt animals and protect the rainforest and split the money 50/50… 1 half for yourself and the other to go to wherever you want.

Yeah… Sorry if that didn’t help ya’, but i’m not old enough to really know about that kinda’ stuff.

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If you can dig up enough unobtanium, you’ll be all set to change the world.

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Hey Samantha, your question touches on a common theme today, but to see how it will play out, take a quick look at retirement. A couple today might live comfotably on say $75,000 USD annual income, but they are concerned whether their savings will be able to replace their work income when they retire. It doesn’t matter how many calculators you visited online, the day they walk out the door from work for the last time, they simply retire on whatever they have. In short order they will get their house in order to function on the lot that is available to them. Energy is no different. Because we use 5.5 gazillion kilowatthours of electricity today does not mean we need that much tomorrow. As oil gets harder and harder to find and recover, the price goes up, which adds value to renewable sources, which makes them more commonplace, and they slowyly replace the fossil based energy anyway. This does not mean there is no advantage to preparing for the change now, but different people see the situation differently, just like retirement.

Brazil is a good case in point. Several years ago they operated the second largest offshore oil platform in the world, until it caught fire one day, fell over and sank into the ocean. That one well represented 50% of thier countries domestic oil production, nothing short of a catastrophe. Yet today, they have a growing economy and use more energy than they did back then. They run their vehicles on 90% ethanol, based on their rich sugan cane industry, and make so much fuel with it today that they have to ship their excess to the United States. In this change in energy that we are currently experiencing, there are as many opportunities as there are problems, but most people don’t see them because they don’t have to.

Here is what we have done: About 11 years ago we embarked on a project to convert our home to wind and solar power. Now our home makes 90% of its own electricity and our electric bills come in at about $5 per month. We have replaced both of our vehicles over time with more efficient ones and altered out driving habits slightly. Now we use less than 900 gallons of gas each year instead of the 1150 we used to. Our next vehicle will be a plug in hybrid of some kind, and we are already in the process of expanding the solar array to provide at least part of the additional electric power we’ll need to run that car when it arrives. Half of our hot water comes from our solar water heater, and our primary source of heat is now wood and passive solar. I talk to people all the time about energy and they ask, “What can we do about it?” The answer is, “Plenty.” But again, it comes down to perception and an individuals willingness to make changes. We can wait until retirement to see how it looks then, or get ready for it now. Collectively, we’ll probably end up someplace in the middle. As for the carrying capacity of the earth, what has probably gotten us into these situations in the first place is our population. We can always alter our lifestyle to accomodate more people, but that makes overall life here less convenient no matter how it’s done since we all end up with less in the end. As far as nuclear power being the answer, yes, Illinois does have 11 plants, and the second highest utility rates in North America. Nuclear is one of the answers, but the economics of it have never made sense historically regardless of what your postiion is on nuclear waste.

Renewable energy is up to the task, but most of us won’t be until we have to. For those of us getting ahead of the change, we would love to have you join us and help. I’ll list some websites below you might find interesting. Good luck Samantha, and take care, Rudydoo

admin answers:

Sounds to me like you are taking a biased course in UN Agenda 21 politics. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agenda_21
Clearly the answer you teacher is looking for is “your Carbon Footprint”. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_footprint
While this has much to do with UN politics as determined by the Copenhagen Climate Council, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Climate_Council#Unlocking_the_Climate_Code:_Innovation_in_Climate_and_Energy
it has nothing to do with the definition of “sustainability”:

“Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions.” — http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

Production of CO2 is actually part of the natural cycle of life. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_biological_carbon_cycle
CO2 production is also part of a much greater inorganic cycle that dwarfs the biological one. Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CO2_pump_hg.svg
The political notion that a carbon footprint has something to do with sustainability [1] is due to the pseudo scientific [2] notion that additional CO2 would be a major climate driver. Http://members.shaw.ca/sch25/FOS/Climate_Change_Science.html#Greenhouse
This is why the UN promotes afforestation to combat global warming [3] even though it is evident that trees cause global warming. [4] Given the track record of these pseudo scientists, [5] the misguided effort to make CO2 abatement the corner stone of government policy [6] should come as no surprise. [7]

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In design, sustainability means an object’s ability to last a log time using very little energy. If your chair had a motor assisted lever mechanism, it would be more sustainable if the motor was somehow recharged by the person sitting in the chair or operating a pump. If your lamp needed a Burt’s of energy every time you turned it on, it would not be very sustainable.

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G’day,

Please be advised that as an international student, you can only work for a maximum of 20hrs/week during study period, and full-time during holiday period. Therefore you should not depend on the part-time job that you can do while you are an international student in Australia.

Some of the jobs that may be able to earn you good income is admin or data entry jobs.

You can check the Department of Immigration website to confirm this information.

Hope this helps. Good luck for your study and welcome to Australia.

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It’s been thought of before- look in older National Geographic magazines.

The ocean is a rough place for any equipment and a very expensive place to work in.

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Many many careers can deal with renewable energy..

Try civil, mechanical, electrical or chemical engineering.

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Yup, Solar Electric Company Inc. Www.solarelectric.com.ph. This is for personal use–I do not know about selling back excess energy. Renewable energy is not very popular/common yet, I would assume namely due to the initial layout for the panels, etc.

There is also a Solarhart distributor here but I misplaced the business card.

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Peak oil is real, and so is global warming, but your teacher is a fool or you have misunderstood

It is already possible to convert coal to oil, at a price not much greater than the current market price of oil. The main problem, however, apart from cost, is that this means roughly twice as much CO2 per barrel of oil.

Your teacher seems completely unaware of what is being done to find alternative sources of energy, from nuclear to solar to wind to the best alternative altogether, conservation.

See “sustainable energy – without the hot air” Dvd C Mackay, physics professor, Cambridge. Google the title for a free download.

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Every time you open a refrigerator door, the cold air inside it falls out and is replaced by warm air. This is because hot air rises and cold air falls. So anything you can do to reduce the amount of free-flowing air inside your refrigerator will save you energy.

Also the air that comes in carries humidity, which the refrigerator has to expend energy to extract from the air. (That’s why you should never leave uncovered foods or liquids in the fridge. Not only will you ruin their taste but you add to the refrigerator’s workload.) So again, reducing the open airspace will help.

You can use empty upright milk jugs or pop bottles to take up the space. You could use styrofoam or packing peanuts too but you do want to maintain good airflow within the refrigerator, otherwise it won’t cool properly and some areas will get close to freezing while others stay warm. Since bottles have air spaces between them even in a fully packed fridge, this provides a good level of space-filling without impeding air flow.

Of course, you might want to think about how environmentally sustainable it is to keep a fridge for nothing but a keg of beer. Given the current concern over climate change and the fact that much of our electricity is generated from coal, anything we can do to cut our energy use is going to help. But I do congratulate you for using a relatively new fridge – they are much more efficient than even ten-year-old fridges, and there’s not much that is more wasteful than a 20+ year old fridge kept in the basement just to store beer. With your newer fridge and your attempts to restrict air escape, you really won’t be using that much power to keep your beer cool.

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It almost sounds as if you are not comfortabe with the term biomass/biomass energy. The “bio” portion of the word comes from biology. The “mass” portion refers to any object with mass or dimention. More often than not, biomass energy is used in conjunction with energy derived from living or dead vegetation from small plants to huge trees. In times past, fecal methane energy (poop power, or what causes the powerful smell of fecal matter) was certainly considered and discussed when biomass energy was mentioned; I’ve listed a couple of Wikipedia pages that better explain just what biomass energy is and is not. Also, a site that is sort of a clearing house and reporting group of biomass projects about the US. You will find additional links on each page/site. (By the way, entering fecal methane energy into the search engine gives a couple of good references too.)

If you’re speaking of chopping down trees and burning them in a fireplace, folks have been doing that for hundreds of years. It is often not considered the best “green” solution to household heating. For as many folks that have chopped or sawed down 60′-200′ trees for firewood through the history of all mankind, far more have gleaned an assortment of biomass materials for heating and cooking purposes. Dried animal dung/scat/poop has been gathered and burned on almost every continent of the world; it is still a routine practice in many areas of the world. Just as many people have gathered and burned fallen branches, dead trees, shrubs, and grasses for the purpose of cooking and heating. All of these fit the biomass energy definition.

Most of the gleaned items we’ve burned as fuel over the time of mankind have been waste or discarded products from some other element of our environment and ecosystem. I will guess that you are not living a nomadic life across the grass plains of the US where buffalo chips are littered across the ground. Rather, your environment and ecosystem is a some combination of “modern industrial society” and agrarian based food products. There is hardly a town in the industrial world that doesn’t have some type of a deep-fat frier. And, where there is a deep fat frier, there is a frier grease disposal need. Did you know that biodiesel can be made from this otherwise waste product? (Check out the fourth link below.) In fact, it is possible for individuals to convert their own vehicle diesel engines and manufacture their own biodiesel in the garage from frier fat?

Just what other biomass based products are readily available in your community, I don’t know. But, it seems as if most of the biomass energy being generated and used in the US today begins with some type of biomass that is the waste stream or by-product of another process, manufacturing plant, or agricultural production. The advantage of this type of biomass energy production is that it more completely or fully uses the materials and by-products of an existing process rather than discarding them unused.

Now, if you include fecal methane energy…where ever there are people or animals gathered, there is opportunity. Again, what the use of fecal methane energy does is more completely and fully use the waste or by-products of other processes. – In this case, it would be good to conjure up the concept of more completely and fully using the elsewise, underutilized, by-product energy of the process of fueling human or animal life.

One of the issues clouding the definition and the use of the term biodiesel is whether to include only plant, vegetation, and vegeartian masses. Or, does one also include things that are in whole or part ominivore or carnivore based?

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Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which are renewable (naturally replenished)Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, it derives directly from the sun, or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated from solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels and hydrogen derived from renewable resources.

Each of these sources has unique characteristics which influence how and where they are used.

Sustainable energy sources are most often regarded as including all renewable sources, such as biofuels, solar power, wind power, wave power, geothermal power and tidal power. It usually also includes technologies that improve energy efficiency

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[PDF] Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Certificate Trading: the …File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
1 Apr 2009 … The National Electricity Market works well. – The Tradeable Renewable Energy Certificate Scheme has worked well for low-cost RE: wind, …
Www.ceem.unsw.edu.au/content/userDocs/090331EEcertREC_Trading_Aust_Experience_APEC.pdf – Similar pages –

Energy use by sector – Sustainability VictoriaInformation about energy use by sector in Victoria.
Www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/1820-energy-use-by-sector-.asp – Cached – Similar pages –

Energy use in Victoria – Sustainability Victoria7 Nov 2008 … A key challenge for Victoria is the significant growth in the demand for energy. Our energy consumption has doubled since 1973. …
Www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/1819-energy-use-in-victoria.asp – Cached – Similar pages –

[PDF] Modeling Renewable Energy Certificate PricesFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
23 Apr 2007 … The Victorian Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (VRET) …. Works reasonably well in terms of project selection (picks the right sort of …
Www.amsi.org.au/images/electricity/pdfs/Wallace.pdf – Similar pages –
by S Wallace – 2007 – Cited by 1 – Related articles

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Ten Tips to Go Green

1) Turn down the thermostat. Lowering it by just one degree can reduce heating energy costs by about four percent.

2) Use ceiling fans in the summer AND winter. By reversing the direction of the blades, warm air is pushed down, helping to keep rooms warm in winter.

3) Conserve energy by purchasing major appliances with an Energy Star rating. Compared to a 1990 model, an Energy Star-qualified refrigerator would save enough electricity to light a home for more than four and a half months.

4) Repair leaky fixtures: one drop per second from a leaky faucet can waste as mush as 10 gallons of water each week.

5) Install low-flow showerheads, faucets, and toilets. Low-flow faucets reduce water consumption and the cost of heating water by as much as 50 percent; using a low-flow toilet can save Americans 2.1 trillion gallons of water and $11.3 million nationwide every day.

6) Choose carpeting, rugs, window treatments and other textiles made from natural fibers, such as cotton or wool, which are untreated and free of toxins, such as pesticides or chemical cleaners.

7) Ask for flooring products made from rapidly renewable resources, such as bamboo. Bamboo is one of the fasted growing plants in the world, requiring no replanting and little fertilization or pesticides.

8) Select solid woods harvested from sustainably-managed forests, when possible, for furniture or cabinetry, rather than pressed woods or composites that may contain formaldehyde or other chemicals that may be toxic and hazardous to your health.

9) Eliminate waste by choosing products that are biodegradable or recyclable. Consider the “lifecycle” of furnishings and accessories before purchasing: Are they made of materials that can be reused or recycled when the item eventually wears out or is no longer needed?

10) Recycle packing and shipping materials from any newly purchased items, and safely dispose of paint cans and other containers with contents that could potentially contaminate the ground or water supply

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Actual learning is a very personal activity performed by the individual…

There are three ways to educate one’s self: 1) go to school and following the instructions given by the teacher/professor 2) get a job in the industry and learn through a combination of the on-the-job instruction provided and personal experience 3) seek your own information. In the very real world in general, and in particular those career/job areas that are more technically oriented, the people who perform best and have the best longevity do all three on a continual basis.

Back to your very real problem of learning more about solar energy…The principles of solar energy, how the technology works, and how the technology generates electricity or powers things up are all based in physics. Of course, calculus was developed/invented/written to mathematically describe physics. And, in the past couple of hundred years, on a increasing rate, it is being discovered that many things in the physical world (the world of physics) are related to the chemical world (the world of chemistry); the converse is also true although, the division lines between physics and chemistry have not blended as well as the lines between psychology and sociology. Being able to communicate is also critical so, a little drafting and English/writing are probably called for. Depending upon what you want to do in the world of solar energy, you may even want some engineering which is ok because, physics, chemistry, calculus, being able to draw a bit, being able to write a memo, and draft a report are all things that are important in engineering too.

Solar energy, renewable energy, alternative energy, and even traditional energy all rest on the same, very fundamental concepts. Even if your search is more based in actual installation concepts, having a fundamental understanding of electricity will serve you well; how many times have vehicle mechanics struggled over the wiring in of a sound system or trailer lights because they lack an understanding of electricity, how to read a wiring diagram, or how to use electricity measurement equipment? If your search is more along the lines of being able to decide how many solar panels are required and/or at what angle then you will need both the skills and the language of mathematics. But, if as you indicate above, your interest lies more in honestly understanding the renewable energy technologies – These are all specialized applications of the basic principles and learning a bit about the basic principles are critical to understanding the specialized applications. You can think of it as being somewhat like learning how to drive different types of vehicles. The rules of the road are pretty much the same regardless of what vehicle you drive; all have some sort of steering, acceleration, and braking system that are operated pretty much similarly; as you start to divide yourself into automatic versus manual transmissions things start to change a bit although on many automatic cars you can “shift on the gas pedal” pedal; and so on. True, an automatic golf cart seems hardly similar to some of the older split axel semi’s but, there are still a number of similarities as they take off from a stop.

Check in to your local CC and/or Voc Tech to find out if there is a program in the pipeline. Also, discuss what your goals are and find out what they are able to provide you in terms of valuable background education, information, and certificates/degrees. If possible, try to get to talk to an actual instructor, program director, or department head; physics and/or engineering are good candidates. Mean while, turn to your local library, the school library if you are able, and the internet to read, read, and read all you can about solar and other alternative energies.

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Buying a renewable-energy credit allows an individual or business to financially support wind energy even if it is not available locally. The credits technically represent the environmental benefits of using renewable energy instead of traditionally produced power.

To understand how the complicated concept works, it’s helpful to realize that the various attributes associated with producing electricity can be separated into partsIn the case of wind power, there is the actual electricity generated — which is fed into a power grid where it is mixed with electricity that may have been generated by coal, natural

gas or even nuclear reactions — and there are the environmental benefits of the way the electricity is produced.

Unlike burning fossil fuels, wind generation does not produce dangerous particulates, sulfur dioxides, nitrogen oxides or carbon dioxide. Renewable-energy certificates represent the value of not dumping those pollutants into the atmosphere.

Separating the electricity from the environmental benefits allows people who are actually receiving the wind power — but who don’t want to pay the added costs of renewable energy — to pay the same rate they would pay for traditionally generated electricity. It also gives people who do not have direct access to wind-generated power the ability to purchase renewable-energy credits, which helps the wind company to stay competitive even without willing customers in the area of the wind farm.

One renewable-energy credit is created for each kilowatt-hour of energy generated from a wind farm. Those credits are often sold by the wind farm to a third-party broker, who then resells it to customers for a profit.

Businesses or residents who buy the same number of kilowatt-hours’ worth of renewable-energy credits that they use each month often say they are 100 percent wind-powered. The electricity they actually are using, however, probably comes from traditional sources, such as coal or natural gas.

What the critics are saying:

Renewable-energy credits are just a form of checkbook environmentalism, which allow people with money to soothe their consciences without making any real efforts to reduce environmental problems.

Many companies aren’t transparent about where the RECs are coming from and how much of the consumer’s money actually makes it back to the wind farm.

They allow the middle man to make a handsome profit without substantially benefiting the wind farms.

They advertise benefits that aren’t real in the short term — like eliminating carbon dioxide and adding new wind power to the grid.

What supporters are saying:

Renewable-energy credits provide important revenue for wind farms, which must compete with the heavily subsidized oil and gas industry.

They are a first step for the concerned public in the fight against greenhouse gases — they give the individual some power instead of waiting for the local utility to develop renewable energy.

Once you’ve taken all the energy-efficiency measures you can, it makes sense to buy credits to cover the electricity you have to use.

They are bringing the discussion about wind energy into the mainstream dialogue.

Some big names

buying RECs:

The University of Colorado purchased 11.2 million kilowatt-hours’ worth of RECs from Community Energy, which roughly equates to between 9 percent and 12 percent of the school’s energy use.

Vail Resorts, based in Broomfield, bought 152 million kilowatt-hours from Renewable Choice Energy, which officials say offsets 100 percent of the conventionally produced electricity they burn at all five of their mountain resorts in a year.

Whole Foods Market purchased 458 million kilowatt-hours to offset all the energy used in its stores, facilities, bake houses, distribution centers, regional offices and national headquarters in the United States and Canada.

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We could have used that solar powered spaceship $ toward creating jobs on earth for renewable energies.

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Hey Kevin, I think people are avoiding answering this because the question is too nebulous, I’ll explain. 25,000 kwh per year, or about 2000 per month is quite a larege number for a residence, are you running a business? Our home uses 300 – 350 per month, a bit below the average for a 2400 square foot single family dwelling. Trying to get answers on this with usage and average wind speed is like me asking you what kind of car should I get, I live about 12 km from work. Any car can get there, but do I need cargo space, winter driving capabilities, do I have kids? And so on. We use a 900 watt Southwest Windpower model H-40, it is probably a bit too small for our home, something on the order of 1500 watts would work better, but we over did the solar array at 1.4kw, and in the end we make about 90% of our electricity, the other part comes from the power company.

Wind turbine output is a function of the cube of the wind speed. If you double the wind speed, you can theoretically get 8 times the power out of the turbine. But then some turbines have ideal design wind speed higher than others, so a lighter wind turbine in heavy winds will actually degrade from its power curve on a good day. Our site has really good wind in the fall and winter, and really good sun in the spring and summer, so solar and wind complement each other here. This is basically true of most places, just getting the turbine might be disappointing in the end. Three bladed units work better in gusty shifting winds, but are less efficient in lighter winds than 2 bladed ones. When you say your average wind speed is 20 mph, is it 20 most the time, or 5 mph for 3 days, then 40 mph on day 4? This makes a big difference in turbine selection.

What I’m really getting at is this isn’t a question for hacks like me online. In the 12 years we have been using solar and wind power, and teaching renewable energy at our local schools, I’ve learned that there are three things in vast supply, sun, wind, and missinformation. There are better ways to get informed on this subject than here, I will list some sources below to start you out. My first suggestion is to get a subscription to Home Power Magazine. They are the only periodical that get into the nuts and bolts of this subject. Then when the first issue arrrives, look in the calendar section for an energy fair near you. We subscribed 13 years ago, and went to the fair in Wisconsin in June that same year. Here we are today. It would be so easy for someone like yourself to buy into a machine that does not work well for your site, but works very well for the installer to make money with, trust me on this.

Check out the sources below, try to make one of the energy fairs, and then you’ll be in a position to ask some really good questions. Good luck Kevin, and take care, Rudydoo

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Surging Green

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I have found one largest co. Which is in India, Name is Viyors Energy Ltd, pl. Search through google for contact and address, they are working worldwide for village and tribal energy development, pl. Contact Viyors Energy Ltd.,India.