Energy Resource Callenges

Energy Resource Callenges

  • Submitted By: agilmore73
  • Date Submitted: 04/27/2010 7:06 PM
  • Category: Science
  • Words: 507
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 442

I think one of the biggest challenges is just getting enough renewable energy to replace a good portion of energy generated by fossil fuels. Right now I think renewable energy accounts for only about 1-2% of the total energy produced. Sources like solar and wind power are good at adding capacity to the grid during peak usage, but they're not good base load power generators.

Also another problem is that they are more expensive to produce. The cost gap is closing, however, because the new technology is getting better and better, and also it's starting to cost a lot more to drill for oil and even mine coal. Of course, renewable would be a lot cheaper than fossil fuels if the true cost of obtaining coal and oil were calculated, like using our military to secure a steady supply of resources overseas.

Biomass, a renewable energy source, is biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms,[1] such as wood, waste, (hydrogen) gas, and alcohol fuels. Biomass is commonly plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce heat. (BEC) 2008
http://www.biomassenergycentre.org
Strik D.P.B.T.B., H.V.M. Hamelers, Snel J.F.H. and C.J.N. Buisman. 2008. Green electricity production with living plants and bacteria in a fuel cell. International Journal of Energy Research 32 (9), 870-876

Challenges for using alternative renewable energy resources include:

* producing enough wind and solar energy to make them financially efficient
* storing excess energy to use when needed
* producing biomass resources that don't pollute or take needed food products away from the hungry.
Managing non renewable energy:
• The emissions released from the use of coal. Coal use Releases carbons into the atmosphere.
• Finding and harvesting enough oil to supply the exuberate use in the United States. Our dependency on the oil is staggering, If we could replace this with the new biomass fuels would be great.
• Maintains and monitoring the natural gas lines to...

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