The Top 3 Alternative Energy Sources   by Derek Marsh

As each year pass, more and more people come into the world. Sometimes it seems as if the worlds natural sources are no longer enough to accommodate each and everyone. Scientists have a solution for this possible impending problem they came up with alternative energy sources.

1. Hydrogen

Slowly but surely, the hydrogen powered car is becoming popular nowadays. Even celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio promote the use of this earth-friendly contraption. Hydrogens energy is perpetual in motion because it is an energy carrier. Its pretty much like a battery.

Most electricity comes from fossil fuels that are found in plants. But if you get hydrogen using fossil fuels and stack up on the energy source, then you are utilizing renewable energy, making hydrogen from water via electrolysis. Picture this the wind is blowing and 4 units of its energy amounts to 1 unit of hydrogen energy.

Of course, these problems result from treating hydrogen as an alternate energy source:

its very seasonal

there is a lot of moisture and it requires to be stored before it dries up from the surrounding gases

limited supply of hydrogen

hydrogen energy is not enough to accumulate the need of normal products

stripping of biomass has a side effect to the soil

But there is actually a good reason to why people turn to hydrogen energy. It prevents global warming that is resulted from fossil fuels. Natural gas energy releases nitrogen oxides and that is harmful to the atmosphere.

2. Solar

We dont have to look too far in giving an example of a contraption that uses solar energy. A solar calculator just needs light in order for it to function.

As for a bigger example of how solar energy is utilized, we look at the forms of solar energy that has become a source of alternate energy. Biomass is the fuels derived from wood and dry crop wastes. As we all know, the main component of the photosynthesis process is the sun. Because of this, biomass remains to be the largest form of alternate energy available in the US.

Then theres wind power that is also the cheapest source of solar energy. The variety on the pressure between areas that is created by solar energy results to wind effects. Turbines then generate electricity in mountainous regions such as Southern Wyoming. Here the average wind speed is 21 miles per hour.

Solar energy is similar to nuclear energy as recent studies show. Example is the power tower wherein a collection of solar energy forms this large field of mirrors that convert it to heat when it reaches a high temperature. This is an efficient generation of electricity.

Realistically, the sun doesnt shine the whole day. It also has to set. So the solution to the question of What do you do when the sun goes down? is the construction of an auxiliary system that stores energy when the sun is nowhere to be seen. Heres where nature comes into play. The ocean is a natural reserve of solar power and thru thermal energy can be the auxiliary system after the sun has set.

Example, in Wyoming, their auxiliary system holds back water at a hydroelectric plant and generates energy whenever the wind blows. Ran by turbines, this is a solar-powered energy that continues to work even at night time.

3. Nuclear

For commercially produced energy, businessmen turn to nuclear power. It is released from nucleus. This is the reaction thru the solar fusion where atomic particles are fused together. It is also derived from fission wherein binding forces break and form an atoms nucleus.

French physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered nuclear energy in 1896. He found photographic plates in uranium compounds that behave like that of X-ray when exposed under sunlight.

Nuclear power comes from the combination of thorium, plutonium or uranium or the combination of hydrogen into helium. Nowadays, the basic energy fact is that atoms of uranium produce fission of 10 million times the energy produced by the combustion of atom from carbon. Nuclear power plants use uranium that has been enriched. What comes to mind is the plant owned by Mr. Smithers in The Simpsons.

Nuclear power generates about 34% of US electricity. Expansion of nuclear power naturally affects the politicking of a country. Studies show that developed nations are high in nuclear energy as opposed to those of the developing nations whose nuclear energy is close to non-existent.

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