The Energy Crisis And Solar Power

By Eric Donnell


It's shocking exactly how much it costs to fill a car's tank today. Raised fuel expense is having an influence on nearly every aspect of life. Food item costs and other physical product costs are inflated due to increases in transportation and shipping. For those people that drive, a lot of Americans, disposable earnings are decreased. It is hard to discover a silver lining in all of that.

However, there's one positive side-effect. Quite similar to the oil crunch in the 1980s, the substantial cost of fuel has turned the Public's eyes back toward renewable power and sustainable energy. In plain speak, the discomfort of fuel pricing has exceeded the complacency. There is now a greater interest in fossil fuel alternatives.

Alternative energy is most often defined as the capability to generate energy in the present without compromising that ability of our children and grandchildren to produce power. It generally describes using natural sources of energy which replenish themselves. Unlike oil, that is certain to finally be consumed entirely, other sources, like sunlight, wind, rain, and tides will last for as long as our world will.

Solar power involves harnessing sunlight to either produce electrical power or heat water. The effectiveness of solar power can vary subject to weather conditions and location. Having said that, that issue can be overcome by contributing to the national electric utility grid from areas with appropriate qualities. Pertaining to individual home owners, the primary drawback to solar power certainly is the up front, installation costs that can be high, although the long-term savings and tax breaks can certainly cancel out the upfront expenditure of money during the life of the a solar panel system.

Considering the recent introduction of electrical passenger cars and automobiles with gas backup generators, solar powered energy now offers the actual possibility to replace virtually all gasoline use in non-commercial motor vehicles. The current generation of these passenger cars will run 80 to 100 miles per charge. The normal American drives under forty miles every day with work commuting.

Employing wind turbines to produce electrical energy is really a further development of a 1000 year old technology that uses windmills to pump water. It has different but similar topographical limitations to solar panels. Having said that, windmill farms in mountain traverses can create power for the nation's power grid much like desert solar farms.

As far as water goes, technologies have advanced since the hydro-electric dam. Which is still an exceedingly valid technology that has been around for decades. Presently, research is under way to utilize the tidal activity in the ocean to generate electrical power with a buoy system.

The clear theme here is that renewable energy technology has been in use for countless years. All the same, only the current pain of high gas costs have inspired consumers to move away from the much more convenient fossil fuels. Practically all progress comes with some distress.




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