subject: Taking A Look And Evaluating Alternative Energy Options [print this page] Taking A Look And Evaluating Alternative Energy Options
Alternative Evaluations
Free lunch? There's no such thing.There are pros and cons to every energy source. Making the decision on how to best provide the energy society needs is a difficult problem.Many people think that weaning society off from petroleum consumption will make the current energy crisis go away. Even though alternative energy sources are being developed, the problems don't go away, they simply change.
When alternative energy sources are evaluated, the following are important factors to consider.
Non-Combustion vs. Combustion
The majority of the current energy sources produce energy through different combustion processes (in other words burning) that requires oxygen, a burn chamber, and an exhaust system.From the beginning, man has burned wood for warmth. The process was very simple; Make a pile of wood, light it on fire, hang out nearby.Modern processes of cumbustion are designed to be much more efficient (today's wood-burning stoves are about one hundred times more efficient than open fires, for example). But no matter how efficient the processes are, they are notorious to cause pollution.
Non-combustion processes, like nuclear and solar power, don't give off the same pollutants, but they do have their own types of problems.Photovoltaic (PV) panels, for example, need a lot of energy for production, and most of this power comes from electrical energy produced from mainly coal combustion.The on-site implementation of solar is pollution free, but the production process requires a lot of pollution.Wind and hydo-power are examples of other non-combustion sources that require a large amount of energy to manufacture the equipment needed to make the system work.
Issues with raw materials
Whether it's solar or a wood stove, every energy production plant requires raw materials.Raw materials are free in the case of solar.Uranium rods are the raw materials needed by nuclear power plants. These rods need to be meticulously refined and manufactured.The total cost of an energy process has increasingly less to do with the raw fuels.The most influential piece to the a cost/analysis equation is usually the expensive capital equipment needed.
The degree of energy refinement
In a rather crude method, wood stoves provide heat.Photovoltaic solar panels produce high-grade electricity.Another high-grade electricity provider is wind power.With the example of the wood stove, heat is the desired end product, and heat is very crude yet very effective.Electricity is very refined and convenient.The refinement of energy takes energy, and every energy-consuming process needs a certain level of energy refinement.Everyone would be best off if it were possible to adopt policies that promote less refined energy.
The amount of current technology
It takes quite a bit of time for new technologies to make it to the market. It takes even more time for those same technologies to become accepted and used.People tend not to completely discard whatever current system they have due to a radical new technology is developed.They will wait for their current system to fail or is no longer economical to use before they will purchase a new system.
Environmental and pollution impacts
A residue of some kind is left on our planet by every energy producing or consuming process.Alternative energy schemes are not all pollution reducing wonders.For instance, wood stove that burn wood inefficiently can be one of the most polluting energy sources.Different types of problems are caused by different types of pollution.
Financial aspects
The fact is that most people are concerned with cost exclusively and are only interested in decreasing their net costs for energy consumption.It is because of this that the government steps in with rebates, taxes, and other forms of subsidies to make these options seem more desirable.If the government didn't mandate these economic changes, fossil fuels would never yield to alternatives.
Politics
Politics plays a huge role in the which alternatives get the most play because the government is going to lead the way into the alternative energy future.Green politics is becoming an influential and increasingly powerful part of government operations.
