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What Are the Different Types of Alternative Energy?

By Gail Dobson

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 22Mar2012 Word count: 2791 Viewed: 90 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Alternative energy is fast becoming a viable choice for powering our homes and businesses. However there are advantages and disadvantages to these different types of alternative energy.

Solar power is the most popular of all the different types of alternative energy, mainly because the technology makes conversion into electricity very simple. Installation consists of mounting solar panels either on the roof of a building, or on a suitable structure nearby. Any extra energy can be stored in batteries or re-sold back to the grid.

The disadvantages of solar power are few, however there are one or two. The cost of buying and installing panels is high, however this is coming down and will continue to get cheaper as manufacture becomes more widespread. The other disadvantage is that the sun doesn't shine at night and when the weather is overcast. If insufficient energy is produced during daylight hours, another source of energy may have to be used to compensate.

Another example of the different types of alternative energy is wind power. Wind power is free to produce, apart from the cost of manufacturing and installing the wind turbines. Power is generated by the rotation of the blades and converted by a generator. The process is pollution free and creates no harmful by-products. Wind generators can be installed individually or in large groups where they are known as wind farms. The advantage of wind farms are that they can be installed on land already being used for other purposes, such as agriculture, or even off-shore.

Of course there are disadvantages, one being that wind farms are quite noisy. Whereas one wind generator may be tolerable, a collection of these generators can make quite a loud noise. This can upset residential populations who are forced to live near them. Wind generators can also cause damage to wildlife, namely birds who are unfortunate enough to be flying through the blades.

The above are the main types of alternative energy that are being used at the moment. However there is also geothermal energy which can be a renewable energy source where it is available. Geothermal energy is heat generated deep in the earth and comes to the surface as steam. It does involve drilling to locate a viable source, but once set up, a geothermal power plant is reasonably self sufficient as long as the steam keeps flowing. The main arguments against geothermal power is that the potential for drilling in the wrong areas can release hazardous liquids or gasses.

Generating energy from the ocean is called ocean thermal energy conversion and it works by using the difference in temperatures between the surface of the ocean and the deeper waters. This process works best in tropical waters and at the moment is an expensive process, but one that has a huge capacity to produce renewable power in the future.

As you can see there are several choices when it comes to renewable energy. These industries are in their infancy right now, but if we look ahead through time, these different types of alternative energy will most likely have taken over from fossil fuels and electricity production as we know it today.

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