Sierra Club Green Home » Blog Archive Fuel Cells: Environmental Benefits » Si... - 0 views
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The use of fuel cells can significantly diminish our dependency on foreign oil. Since fuel cells make energy electrochemically and do not burn fuel like conventional combustion systems, they are much more efficient. Admittedly, some fuel cells need fossil fuels to start their functions; most residential systems run partially off of natural gas. If just 20% of the cars in America used fuel cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels per day. This is $44 billion per year that could remain in the country!
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The use of fuel cells can significantly diminish our dependency on foreign oil. Since fuel cells make energy electrochemically and do not burn fuel like conventional combustion systems, they are much more efficient. Admittedly, some fuel cells need fossil fuels to start their functions; most residential systems run partially off of natural gas. If just 20% of the cars in America used fuel cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels per day. This is $44 billion per year that could remain in the country!
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The use of fuel cells can significantly diminish our dependency on foreign oil. Since fuel cells make energy electrochemically and do not burn fuel like conventional combustion systems, they are much more efficient. Admittedly, some fuel cells need fossil fuels to start their functions; most residential systems run partially off of natural gas. If just 20% of the cars in America used fuel cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels per day. This is $44 billion per year that could remain in the country!
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" The environmental impact of fuel cells depends on the type of cell and the fuel being used. Fuel cells can run on a variety of sources, from natural gas to hydrogen to ethanol to biogas. Those that run on hydrogen can sometimes produce a by-product of water or heat, though hydrogen fuel cells are considered more difficult to work with because of transportation and storage. More user friendly fuel cells which use natural gas with emissions that are much lower than those produced by conventional engines or energy sources and can reduce your carbon footprint by around 40%. Additionally, there are only negligible levels of NOx, SOx, Volatile organic compounds and particulates, which is a drastic improvement over traditional means of grid power production. Besides the decreased CO2 emissions and high efficiency rates, fuel cells offer plenty of positive environmental impacts that should be considered by investors and consumers as solutions for cleaner energy are being further researched. 1. Fuel Conservation The use of fuel cells can significantly diminish our dependency on foreign oil. Since fuel cells make energy electrochemically and do not burn fuel like conventional combustion systems, they are much more efficient. Admittedly, some fuel cells need fossil fuels to start their functions; most residential systems run partially off of natural gas. If just 20% of the cars in America used fuel cells, we could cut oil imports by 1.5 million barrels per day. This is $44 billion per year that could remain in the country! 2. Combined Heat and Power The greatest benefit from high powered, well designed fuel cells is the heat and power produced. This means that a property can reduce additional investments to heat their indoor areas or water. In this case, less is more. Since the heat can be redirected to heat water, the environmental benefit from this is the ability to heat the hot water supply without a need for a separate system as is the case with home solar."
Ancient Egyptians built places to live that allowed stored energy from the sun during t... - 0 views
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Ancient Egyptians built places to live that allowed stored energy from the sun during the day, and a heat release during the night. This kind of architecture heated homes at night while keeping the temperature low during the day. Egyptians also used the sun as part of their mummification process, using the sun to dry dead bodies. The Egyptians used a form of passive solar power. 3rd Century B.C., Greek soldiers with the help of Archimedes, focused light on a Roman fleet by using mirrors,
HELCO seeking additional geothermal energy | Hawaii 24/7 | Hawaii247.com | Hawaii's New... - 0 views
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"The company is seeking to add up to 50 megawatts (MW) of geothermal energy from geothermal resource developers at prices not tied to the cost of oil to help lower electricity costs for customers. The added power must also blend operationally with other resources, including renewable energy from wind, solar, biomass and hydro. "Moving forward on geothermal is important to Hawaii Island because we want to increase our use of renewable energy and bring down costs to our customers,"
Wind Power - What is Wind Power and How Does It Work? - 0 views
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wind power as a better way to generate electricity than plants fueled by coal, hydro (water) or nuclear power.
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"Wind power is actually a form of solar power, because wind is caused by heat from the sun. Solar radiation heats every part of the Earth's surface, but not evenly or at the same speed. Different surfaces-sand, water, stone and various types of soil-absorb, retain, reflect and release heat at different rates, and the Earth generally gets warmer during daylight hours and cooler at night. As a result, the air above the Earth's surface also warms and cools at different rates. Hot air rises, reducing the atmospheric pressure near the Earth's surface, which draws in cooler air to replace it. That movement of air is what we call wind."
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what is wind power
What is tidal energy - How tidal works? - Tidal energy - 0 views
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tidal energy uses tidal strength of water and back and forth movement in seas, rivers or oceans. Tidal power exploits kinetic energy of water that power water turbines with its movement between the wings which rotate the turbine to produce electricity.
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For producing significant amount of energy out of tidal water turbines, range of tides should be high and substantial amount of water should be there for pushing water through the turbine.
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It is significantly important to spot the appropriate place which provide suitable and sustainable conditions to produce tidal energy, there are plenty of places around the globe which provide good conditions for installing water turbines and then produce electricity use tidal power of oceans in the location.
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Energy - Ocean and Wave - 0 views
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More than 70% of Earth's surface is covered by oceans which contain two types of energy: mechanical energy from waves and tides and Thermal energy from solar radiations falling on the ocean surface making them the world's largest solar collectors
Photovoltaic Cells create electricity from sunlight - PV cells provide free energy | da... - 0 views
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When sunlight strikes a solar cell, electrons are knocked loose. They move toward the treated front surface. An electron imbalance is created between the front and the back. When a connector, like a wire, joins the two surfaces a current of electricity occurs between the negative and positive sides
Future Uses of Solar Energy - 0 views
Wave Energy: an Overview (Oxfordshire Climate Exchange) - 1 views
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Waves are generated by winds blowing over the ocean surface. Wave energy is effectively a stored and concentrated form of solar energy since the winds that produce them are caused by pressure differences in the atmosphere caused by the sun's differential heating of the earth's surface. Waves can efficiently transport energy for thousands of miles and retain their energy long after the winds that first created them have died down, which makes waves one of the most concentrated and consistent sources of renewable energy.
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Globally, the potential use of wave power is, unsurprisingly, limited to areas of the world where there are waves. On a global scale, this is dictated by global wind patterns, with the result that waves are more prevalent in the mid-latitudes (40-60(N/S), than nearer the equator where the lack of ocean wind is referred to as the 'doldrums'. Interestingly, this potential for wave power contrasts with that of solar power, which is more effective in lower latitudes
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MIT's artificial leaf is ten times more efficient than the real thing (Wired UK) - 0 views
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The device is an advanced solar cell, no bigger than a typical playing card, which is left floating in a pool of water. Then, much like a natural leaf, it uses sunlight to split the water into its two core components, oxygen and hydrogen, which are stored in a fuel cell to be used when producing electricity.
Energy and kids - 1 views
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"Photovoltaic cells, like batteries, generate direct current (DC) which is generally used for small loads (electronic equipment). When DC from photovoltaic cells is used for commercial applications or sold to electric utilities using the electric grid, it must be converted to alternating current (AC) using inverters, solid state devices that convert DC power to AC. "
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