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Wind turbine installations impact vast amounts of land, far more than traditional power plants.

Raptors, bats and other beautiful flying creatures continue to be sliced and diced by wind turbines.

Principal health issues are associated with noise – not just annoying audible noise, but inaudible, low-frequency “infrasound” that causes headache, dizziness, “deep nervous fatigue” and symptoms akin to seasickness. “Wind turbine syndrome” also includes irritability, depression, and concentration and sleep problems. Others include “shadow flicker” or “strobe effect” from whirling blades, which can trigger seizures in epileptics, “vibroacoustic” effects on the heart and lungs, and non-lethal harm to animals. Serious lung, heart, cancer and other problems have been documented from rare earth mining, smelting and manufacturing in China, under its less rigorous health, workplace and environmental regulations.

Fueling up with ethanol and vegetable oils  was common long before the development of the internal combustion engine. Vegetable and animal oil lamps have been used since the dawn of civilization. Increasingly efficient heaters and lamps meant that higher quality fuels were developed.  For example, small alcohol stoves (also called “spirit lamps”) were commonly used by travelers in the 17th century to warm food and themselves. One of Ben Franklin’s spirit lamps is on display in a Philadelphia exhibit.

Fueling up with ethanol and vegetable oils  was common long before the development of the internal combustion engine. Vegetable and animal oil lamps have been used since the dawn of civilization. Increasingly efficient heaters and lamps meant that higher quality fuels were developed.  For example, small alcohol stoves (also called “spirit lamps”) were commonly used by travelers in the 17th century to warm food and themselves. One of Ben Franklin’s spirit lamps is on display in a Philadelphia exhibit.

At the end of WWI, gasoline quality was declining, and Detroit dropped the standard compression ratio to 3.8 to one. According to Scientific American in 1919, there were to options. One, lower the compression ratio even further, sacrificing efficiency but allowing the continued use of low-grade petroleum.  Or two, use more ethanol in the fuel mix in order to conserve petroleum and allow the creation of more efficient, higher compression engines.  The choice was further skewed in the direction of ethanol when the US Geological Survey announced, in 1920, that oil was running out.[20]

Tremendous potential exists for clean energy in waves and tides. Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors (MS2) is leveraging decades of experience in designing and developing maritime systems into wave and tidal power systems. To do that, we have strategic relationships with key wave and tidal power technology providers. They will provide the technology to convert waves and tides into energy, and MS2 will provide the expertise to help make the systems work in harsh ocean environments and scalable for large-scale production. Wave power generates electricity using special buoys that use the rising and falling of ocean waves to generate electricity. MS2 is partnering with Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (OPT) and WaveBob LLC to develop their respective wave energy systems for use in future utility-scale power generation projects. MS2 provides its expertise in systems integration, lean manufacturing, and test and optimization analysis to enhance OPT's and Wavebob’s wave power generation technology to utility-scale. Tidal power generating systems use underwater turbines designed to capture the kinetic motion of ebbing and surging ocean tides to produce power. MS2 provides design and manufacturing support to Singapore-based Atlantic Resources Corporation (ARC), which is testing its tidal turbines at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, Scotland. MS2 is also exploring related technologies that can be adapted to shallow and low-rate tidal flows.

Biofuels have been around as long as cars have. At the start of the 20th century, Henry Ford planned to fuel his Model Ts with ethanol, and early diesel engines were shown to run on peanut oil.

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.

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.

Wind is simply air in motion. It is caused by the uneven heating of the Earth's surface by the sun. Because the Earth's surface is made of very different types of land and water, it absorbs the sun's heat at different rates. One example of this uneven heating can be found in the daily wind cycle.

The Daily Wind Cycle During the day, the air above the land heats up more quickly than the air over water. The warm air over the land expands and rises, and the heavier, cooler air rushes in to take its place, creating wind. At night, the winds are reversed because the air cools more rapidly over land than over water. In the same way, the atmospheric winds that circle the earth are created because the land near the Earth's equator is heated more by the sun than the land near the North and South Poles. Wind Energy for Electricity Generation Today, wind energy is mainly used to generate electricity. Wind is a renewable energy source because the wind will blow as long as the sun shines

Like old fashioned windmills, today’s wind machines (also called wind turbines) use blades to collect the wind’s kinetic energy. The wind flows over the blades creating lift, like the effect on airplane wings, which causes them to turn. The blades are connected to a drive shaft that turns an electric generator to produce electricity. With the new wind machines, there is still the problem of what to do when the wind isn't blowing. At those times, other types of power plants must be used to make electricity.

Method Cents/kW-h Limitations and Externalities WindCurrently supplies approximately 1.4% of the global electricity demand. Wind is considered to be about 30% reliable. 4.0 - 6.0 Cents/kW-h Wind is currently the only cost-effective alternative energy method, but has a number of problems. Wind farms are highly subject to lightning strikes, have high mechanical fatigue failure, are limited in size by hub stress, do not function well, if at all, under conditions of heavy rain, icing conditions or very cold climates, and are noisy and cannot be insulated for sound reduction due to their size and subsequent loss of wind velocity and power. GeothermalCurrently supplies approximately 0.23% of the global electricity demand. Geothermal is considered 90-95% reliable. 4.5 - 30 Cents/kW-h New low temperature conversion of heat to electricity is likely to make geothermal substantially more plausible (more shallow drilling possible) and less expensive. Generally, the bigger the plant, the less the cost and cost also depends upon the depth to be drilled and the temperature at the depth. The higher the temperature, the lower the cost per kwh. Cost may also be affect by where the drilling is to take place as concerns distance from the grid and another factor may be the permeability of the rock. HydroCurrently supplies around 19.9% of the global electricity demand. Hydro is considered to be 60% reliable. 5.1 - 11.3 Cents/kW-h Hydro is currently the only source of renewable energy making substantive contributions to global energy demand. Hydro plants, however, can (obviously) only be built in a limited number of places, and can significantly damage aquatic ecosystems. SolarCurrently supplies approximately 0.8% of the global electricity demand. 15 - 30 Cents/kW-h Solar power has been expensive, but soon is expected to drop to as low as 3.5 cents/kW-h. Once the silicon shortage is remedied through alternative materials, a solar energy revolution is expected.

Tide 2 - 5 Cents/kW-h Blue Energy's tidal fence, engineered and ready for implementation, would provide a land bridge (road) while also generating electricity. Environmental impact is low. Tides are highly predictable.

Method Cents/kW-h Limitations and Externalities GasCurrently supplies around 15% of the global electricity demand. 3.9 - 4.4 Cents/kW-h Gas-fired plants and generally quicker and less expensive to build than coal or nuclear, but a relatively high percentage of the cost/KWh is derived from the cost of the fuel. Due to the current (and projected future) upwards trend in gas prices, there is uncertainty around the cost / KWh over the lifetime of plants. Gas burns more cleanly than coal, but the gas itself (largely methane) is a potent greenhouse gas. Some energy conversions to calculate your cost of natural gas per kwh. 100 cubic feet (CCF)~ 1 Therm = 100,000 btu ~ 29.3 kwh. CoalCurrently supplies around 38% of the global electricity demand. 4.8 - 5.5 Cents/kW-h Increasingly difficult to build new coal plants in the developed world, due to environmental requirements governing the plants. Growing concern about coal fired plants in the developing world (China, for instance, imposes less environmental overhead, and has large supplies of high sulphur content coal). The supply of coal is plentiful, but the coal generation method is perceived to make a larger contribution to air pollution than the rest of the methods combined.

Tidal Energy is valuable to environmentalists because unlike fossil fuels the source of energy will not be depleted in the foreseeable future no matter how much energy is collected.

The major challenge to using wind as a source of power is that it is intermittent and does not always blow when electricity is needed. Wind cannot be stored (although wind-generated electricity can be stored, if batteries are used), and not all winds can be harnessed to meet the timing of electricity demands. Further, good wind sites are often located in remote locations far from areas of electric power demand (such as cities).

Although wind power plants have relatively little impact on the environment compared to fossil fuel power plants, there is some concern over the noise produced by the rotor blades, aesthetic (visual) impacts, and birds and bats having been killed (avian/bat mortality) by flying into the rotors. Most of these problems have been resolved or greatly reduced through technological development or by properly siting wind plants.

A Renewable Non-Polluting Resource Wind energy is a free, renewable resource, so no matter how much is used today, there will still be the same supply in the future. Wind energy is also a source of clean, non-polluting, electricity. Unlike conventional power plants, wind plants emit no air pollutants or greenhouse gases. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, in 1990, California's wind power plants offset the emission of more than 2.5 billion pounds of carbon dioxide, and 15 million pounds of other pollutants that would have otherwise been produced. It would take a forest of 90 million to 175 million trees to provide the same air quality.

Tides are caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, and the rotation of the Earth. Near shore, water levels can vary up to 40 feet due to tides. Dam of the Tidal Power Plant on the Estuary of the Rance River, Bretagne, France Source: Stock photography (copyrighted) Tidal power is more predictable than wind energy and solar power. A large enough tidal range — 10 feet — is needed to produce tidal energy economically.

The United States has no tidal plants and only a few sites where tidal energy could be produced economically. France, England, Canada, and Russia have much more potential to use this type of energy.

Tidal turbines are basically wind turbines in the water that can be located anywhere there is strong tidal flow. Because water is about 800 times denser than air, tidal turbines have to be much sturdier than wind turbines. Tidal turbines are heavier and more expensive to build but capture more energy.

Geothermal energy has been used for thousands of years in some countries for cooking and heating. It is simply power derived from the Earth's internal heat.This thermal energy is contained in the rock and fluids beneath Earth's crust. It can be found from shallow ground to several miles below the surface, and even farther down to the extremely hot molten rock called magma.These underground reservoirs of steam and hot water can be tapped to generate electricity or to heat and cool buildings directly.A geothermal heat pump system can take advantage of the constant temperature of the upper ten feet (three meters) of the Earth's surface to heat a home in the winter, while extracting heat from the building and transferring it back to the relatively cooler ground in the summer

There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash, and binary. Dry steam, the oldest geothermal technology, takes steam out of fractures in the ground and uses it to directly drive a turbine. Flash plants pull deep, high-pressure hot water into cooler, low-pressure water. The steam that results from this process is used to drive the turbine. In binary plants, the hot water is passed by a secondary fluid with a much lower boiling point than water. This causes the secondary fluid to turn to vapor, which then drives a turbine. Most geothermal power plants in the future will be binary plants.

It can be extracted without burning a fossil fuel such as coal, gas, or oil. Geothermal fields produce only about one-sixth of the carbon dioxide that a relatively clean natural-gas-fueled power plant produces.

Advantages: Geothermal energy cost is extremely low compared to many other energy sources. It has low pollution compared to fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source. Almost no environmental impact when using geothermal heat from nuclear decay. Geothermal heat pump systems can reduce your energy use storing heat from the summer/sun and makes use of it in the night and winter. Low maintenance systems.

Disadvantages: The most important disadvantage is absolutely the geological problem.  The heat source is mostly close to volcanic activity of some sort. Chemicals are byproducts of the production electricity with hot ground water. Some geothermal plants use a lot of water and it needs to go somewhere its after use. Some of the poluting chemicals in that water and steam are sulfur, mercury, hydrogen sulfide, arsenic, ammonia. Earth is a changing creature.  A drilled hole in the ground could supply thousands of homes heat and one earthquake could change that in a second.  It can also change gradually over time. Location, location, location.  That is certainly true of geothermal energy.  It cannot be transported over vast distances.  If used to heat up houses or for hot tap water it is only the quality of the pipe that delivers the water that determines how far it can go and if it will be of any use when it arrives. If the heat is used for electrical production it helps to have plants close so the energy loss is not too great. 

Corrosion is a big problem.  Composition of the chemicals can vary but it is always a problem.  It is among other the reason they need to heat up clean water to use and do not use it directly in to heating of houses.  In cases it has been used directly it causes pipes to corrode. In nuclear heating rock the rock cools down over few decades and hundreds of years are needed to get initial heating back.  Power stations of that sort are therefore not considered as profitable. Geothermal Heat pump systems do have high installation cost. Some areas run out of water or run low on ground water during seasonal dry spells. Less water means less heat and less energy to produce. Some drilling sites are too hot to handle.  Yea. Drillers have actually tried and tried some holes and they just can’t get the needed equipment in because the holes shoot it out like guns.   With workers running to stay alive while steel rains down on them. 

BC Hydro’s 2002 Green Energy Study for BC estimated the realistic energy potential for tidal current energy generation in BC to be 20 TWhrs/year. The estimated cost was 11 cents/kWhr for a large (800 MW) site, and 25 cents/kWhr for a small (43 MW) site. The best sites are in the Strait of Georgia and Johnstone Strait, which are both relatively close to the main centers of consumption.

Ethanol yields 25% more energy than the energy invested in its production, whereas biodiesel yields 93% more. Compared with ethanol, biodiesel releases just 1.0%, 8.3%, and 13% of the agricultural nitrogen, phosphorus, and pesticide pollutants, respectively, per net energy gain. Relative to the fossil fuels they displace, greenhouse gas emissions are reduced 12% by the production and combustion of ethanol and 41% by biodiesel. Biodiesel also releases less air pollutants per net energy gain than ethanol.

Advantages by Application Telecoms CHP Fuel Cell Generators Electric Vehicles - APU's and Range Extenders Fuel Cell Forklifts Marine Power Portable Power

By "biofuels" on this page, I mean fuels for vehicles, such as "biodiesel" and "bioethanol" - although you can also use the term "biofuel" to cover any kind of fuel made from living materials or their waste.

How it works Biofuels are made from two main sources: Growing crops such as corn, sugar cane, soya or rapeseed; or from palm oil Growing algae

Biofuels are made from two main sources: Growing crops such as corn, sugar cane, soya or rapeseed; or from palm oil Growing algae