Alternative sources of energy.docx

7/26/2019 Alternative sources of energy.docx

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Table of contents

Intr oductio n... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... .... ... .... ... .... .... ... . ..Predictions for our futu re generations.................................................... ..

Alternative sources of e nergy Choose wisely..................................... ..

Unusual alternative energy you can choose fro m.................................

Interesti ng facts about a lternative power sources.................................

Be the change you want t o see in the world!..........................................Tips a nd tricks e veryone can use to reduce energy costs.....................

Easy DYI s ola r wate r heate r......................................................................

Conclu sio n... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .... ... ..

Introduction


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We have to admit that weve come to a point where tomorrow is an

unpredictable issue. We never know what the next day might bring due to

these r apid and endless c hanges t hat are o ccurring all over t he p lanet. Yes, on

one h and we h ave m anaged to build skyscrapers, rebuild organs, invent the

most sophisticated systems ever known, walk on the m oon, and much more

but on the other hand we have never stopped to

the coi n and the d amages weve cau sed to achieve al l those innovations.

Its quite an unsecure world out there and who knows what our children

might face over t he years. Will there be enough food, air, or r esources t o

survive? We do not know. But what we do know is that everything we are

doing today is i nuencing and affecting their future. Every tree w e are cu tting

down means less fresh air for them in the future, every b ite o f food we t hrow

away as gar bage m eans l ess for t hem in the years to come, and every fossil

fuel we b urn today m eans po llution that also affects t hem.

What are we supposed to do in this case? There ar e p lenty of things w e cando, we just need to think and care m ore abo ut the p lanet we ar e l iving on.

Predictions f or our future g enerations

The Food and Agriculture Organization of t he United Nations is p redicting

that by 2025, 1.8 billion people will be living in countries or r egions w ith

absolute w ater s carcity.


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Regarding the resources o f oil, if the global production remains at the cu rrent

rate it will only be enough for t he next 46. 2 years, while the resources of

natural gas w ill only cover t he n ext 58 years.

When it comes to coal, this has the largest r eserv es left o ut o f al l t he fossil

fuels, but as C hina a nd other d eveloping countries con tinue t o increase t heir

appetite for coal, demand could nally outstrip supply. As it is, we have

enough coal to m eet 188 years of global production.

Considering that the w orlds en ergy consumption is p redicted to rise by 37%

during the next two d ecades, amid rising global population and demand from

Asian m arkets, our worst enemy rem ains, nevertheless, pollution.

In the U.S., air pollution causes as m any as 50, 000 deaths p er year and costs asmuch as $4 0 b illion a year i n health care a nd lost productivity. Lakes, streams,

and estuaries ar e d ying because of acid rain, 35 percent of Europe's forests ar e

showing signs of air pollution damage, and crop losses i n the U.S. caused by

harmful emissions ar e est imated to be 5 -10 percent of total production--more

than $5 billion a y ear.

Other p laces l ike Milan, Shenyang, Tehran, Seoul, and Rio de J aneiro reported

the worst l evels of sulfur d ioxide--a pollutant d irectly harmful to humans.

Paris and Madrid also made the top 10 in the list, produced by a U.N.

monitoring network.


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Around the world, the notion that 'pollution is t he price o f p rogress' has

become antiquated. Faced with ever mounting costs to human health and

economic losses in agriculture and forestry, countries everywhere are

discovering that pollution prevention is a sou nd investment.

Alternative sou rces of energy Choose w isely

The main reasons to move towards al ternative energy sources in your ho me

are:


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They are sustainable. From sun to wind to bioenergy, the U.S. renewableenergy base i s v irtually intact. And because t hese al ternative energy sources

are n aturally replenished day after d ay, they are a source o f virtually endless

energy. They are en vironmentally-friendly. We r ely on earth to provide t he ai r, water,

and food we need for l ife. Using alternative energy reduces t he amount of

digging, drilling, and mining we d o, thereby reducing stress on the p lanet. Their u se provides a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Traditional

fossil-fuel based energy sources rel ease ca rbon dioxide i n the a ir, resulting in

whats kn own as t he g reenhouse effect, which many believe i s r esponsible for

climate change. Since re newable energies d ont result in CO2 emissions, they

offer a v iable sol ution to this p roblem. Their l ow degree of em ission leads t o cleaner ai r. All of the chemical by-

products an d substances t hat ar e released in the air by the processing and burning of fossil fuels ultimat

provides an important step towards a less polluted planet. They increase our en ergy security. The use of al ternative energy sources

renders u s l ess re liant on the import of fossil fuels, which in turn makes u s

less vu lnerable to the u ps and downs of the m arket and the inuences of an

ever-changing political landscape. They reduce t he n eed for oil drilling. N ew drilling prospects st ill exist, but


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many involve further desp oiling of some of the n atural wilderness ar eas w e

have l eft. They provide nancial stability for t he consumer. A homeowner with an

alternative energy system in place i s n o longer v ulnerable to uctuations inthe gas and oil markets d riven by the ever -changing dynamics of supply and

demand. There are often subsidies av ailable. Increasingly, governments worldwide

are putting into place signicant nancial incentives for individual

homeowners to switch to alternative energy systems. Often this can help

offset the i nitial installation costs o f an alternative sy stem. They have the potential to turn into viable new industries. Many of the

companies r esponsible for t he d evelopment of alternative energy sources ar e

some o f the m ore f ore t hinking and cutting-edge organizations in the w orld.

Plus, all of the m anufacturing, installation, retrotting, and so on involved in

the u se of these s ystems c arries t he p otential to create m any new jobs. They can save you money. In the en d, using alternative energy sources c an

save yo u money. Although you typically have t o make an initial investment,

these types o f systems u sually pay for t hemselves o ver t ime, given that their

primary energy source ( i.e. sun or w ind) is essen tially free.

These reasons might convince you all to choose an alternative source of

energy but s till, if you think for a second, wind and solar p ower ar e quite

expensive w hen it comes to building or bu ying such a d evice. These ar e s til l

more expensive than oil and coal and may not be the best solution for al l

places o r u ses.

That is becau se w e h ave p robably stuck t o these ideas w ithout thinking about

the abu ndance of other alternative sou rces of power. You can nd cheap and


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efficient energy by investigating lesser-known sources, ones t hat may seem a

little u nusual, even ridiculous.

For this reason, we w ill reveal some of the m ost bizarre bu t cheap and efficient

sources of alternative power ava ilable a ll over t he w orld.

Unusual alternative en ergy you can choose f rom

Mankinds quest for energy has mainly centered on wood, coal, and oilthough these fuels ar e slowly giving way to nuclear, wind, and geothermal

power sou rces. Even newer f uels have sparked alternatives, however, and

what today seems odd and impractical may someday be ordinary.

Body Heat


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Stretching the imagination when it comes t o energy could get us closer t o

generating energy the w ay nature d oes: freely and efficiently.

In London, Mayor Boris Johnson

announced that excess heat from the

subway tunnels and an electric

substation would be funneled into

British homes.

Metro stations, airports, and railway

systems i nvest millions of d ollars t o cool the h eat generated from all of thesemachines and establish ways

to dispose it ultimately

resulting in wastage of so

much energy. Fancy all of that

wasted heat actually being

directed towards r esidential orcorporate buildings or even

better, being converted into a

an alternative en ergy source i s f ascinating!

Sugar

Traditionally, putting sugar i nto a gas t ank is a prank that c an ruin a cars

engine. But someday, it could be a g reat way to fuel a v ehicle.

We sho uld not dismiss ideas, we should let people p ursue ideas of unusual

things, Diego del Castillo Negrete, a senior r esearch scientist in the Fusion

Energy Division at the O ak Ridge N ational Laboratory said.


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Researchers an d chemists at V irginia Tech are developing a way to convert

sugar i nto hydrogen, which can be used in a fuel cell, providing a cheaper,

cleaner, p ollutant-free, an d odorless drive. T he scientists combine plant

sugars, water, and 13 powerful enzymes in a reactor, converting the

concoction into hydrogen and trace am ounts of carbon dioxide.

The hydrogen could be captured and pumped through a fuel cell to produce

energy. Their p rocess delivers three times m ore hydrogen than traditional

methods, which translates i nto cost savings.

Unfortunately, it might be another d ecade before con sumers can actuallydump sugar i nto their gas t anks. What seems m ore r ealistic in the sho rt term

is u sing the same technology to create long-lasting sugar-based batteries f or

laptops, cell phones, and other el ectronics.

Cars powered by sugar

In the 1980s, Brazil tried to develop a new fuel for cars from

sugar. They fermented the sugar cane to produce ethanol ( just

like grapes are fermented to produce wine) and managed to get

three quarters of all t heir n ew cars using ethanol i nstead of

regular p etrol m ade from oil. Even now, petrol s old in Brazil

contains 26% ethanol.

Solar Wind


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One hundred billion times more power than humanity currently needs is

available right now, out in space. It comes t hrough solar w ind, a stream of

energized, charged particles owing outward from the sun. Brooks H arrop, a

physicist at Washington State University in Pullman and Dirk Schulze-

Makuch of Washington State Universitys School of Earth and Environmental

Sciences, think they can capture t hese particles w ith a satellite th at orb its t he

sun at the sam e d istance t hat the Earth does.

Their so-called Dyson-Harrop satellite would have a long copper w ire

charged by onboard batteries i n order to produce a m agnetic eld perfect for

snagging the el ectrons i n the sol ar w ind. The en ergy from the el ectrons w ould

be beamed from the satellite via an

spectrum would not be affected by the p lanets at mosphere.

This D yson-Harrop satellite h as a f ew technical problems t hat researchers ar e

currently trying to x. It has n o protection from space d ebris, and some o f the

power c ould be lost as i ts beam ed through Earths at mosphere. Plus, nding

a w ay to aim the l aser beam across millions of miles of space i s no small task.


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What s eems more real istic is to use this satellite to power n earby space

missions.

Solar po wer is al ready recognized as on e o f

the cleanest energy sources currently

available; h owever, s olar panels still h ave

several econ omic and practical limitations.

Fortunately, scientists are already working on another m ethod of d rawing

power from the sun: solar wind . Not exactly a w ind as w e kn ow it, solar windis more o f a constant ow of accelerated particles, which can be used to

generate en ergy using a sai l made of copper. The eart h does n ot receive this

ow directly, thanks to our atmosphere, so the p ower generator w ould need to

be placed in space. This might be difficult,

biggest issue of this technology w

earth. The b est idea so f ar ha s been to send it with a l aser beam.

Feces and Urine

Most people think that feces and urine should be disposed of immediately.

But feces c ontain methane, a colorless, odorless gas t hat could be u sed in the

same way as natural gas.

At least two solutions - - one i n Cambridge, Massachusetts, called Park Spark

and one in San Francisco r un by Norcal Waste -- is focused on converting dog

poo into methane.

In both of the sol utions, dog walkers ar e p rovided biodegradable b ags, which
http://phys.org/news205411403.htmlhttp://phys.org/news205411403.html


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after t heyre lled, are placed into a large container ca lled a digester. Inside,

microorganisms process the poo, giving off methane as a by-product. The

methane can be u sed to p ower lights.

In Pennsylvania, a dairy farm is looking to cow manure for energy. Six

hundred cows that produce 18,000 gallons of manure daily are helping the

farm save $60,000 a year. The waste is u sed to produce el ectricity, bedding,

fertilizer, and heating fuel. And Hewlett-Packard recently released a study

explaining how a d airy farmer could make m oney by leasing land to Internet

server companies, who could power computers with the methane.

Human waste is just as go od. In Bristol, Australia a V W Beetle car is p owered

by methane captured from a raw sewage treatment plant. Engineers f

Wessex Water estimate that the waste from 70 homes can generate enough gas

to make t he car run for 10,000 miles.

And lets not forget urine. At the Heriot-Watt University's School of

Engineering and Physical Sciences i n Edinburgh, scientists are l ooking for a

way to make t he w orld's rst urine-powered fuel cells. It could be a v iable w ay

for as tronauts or m ilitary personnel, for instance, to produce p ower on the g o.

Urea i s an accessible, non-toxic, organic chem ical compound rich in nitrogen.

So yes, humans a re constantly carrying around a chem ical compound that can

produce e lectricity.

Power from poultry poo? It's true! A company called Fibrowatt built the world's

first power station, which generates electricity using

poultry poo as a fuel. The ."#megawatt power station,

which is in $uffol% , generates enough electricity for

&, homes


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People

The next time youre standing in a crowded subway in the m iddle of summer,

dont sweat it. The heat your bod y produces can warm an entire building,

complete w ith offices, apartments, and shops. At least thats w hat's hap pening

in Stockholm and Paris. Jernhuset, a state-owned property administration

company is putting together a plan to capture body heat from train

commuters t raveling through Stockholms C entral Station. The h eat will warm

water running through pipes, which will then be pumped through the

buildings ventilation system.Paris H abitat, owner of a low-income housing project in Paris, will also use

body heat to warm 17 apartments in a building, which is

metro station near Pompidou Center. On a m ore morbid and less sweaty note,

a crematorium in the United Kingdom is using gasses released from the

cremation process to heat a crematorium. The en ergy in cremated bodies is

already being captured as i t passes t hrough lters t o remove the m ercury in

the d eceased s llings. Instead of letting the e nergy escape, pipes are u sed to

pump it through the bu ilding.

(umans will be able to power their cell phones, i#pods, ortele)ision with their own body heat. This is generatedthrough the difference in temperature between thehuman body and the surroundings through which around

milli)olts can be produced.

*erman scientists ha)e been able to find a mechanismthat allows body heat to be con)erted into electricity withthe help of circuitry.


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Vibrations/dance cl ubs

Go out and party; it may help the environment. Club Watt in Rotterdam,

Netherlands is using oor vibrations from people walking and dancing to

power i ts l ight show. The vibrations are cap tured by piezoelectric m aterials

that produce an electric charge w hen put under stress.

The U .S. Army is al so looking at piezoelectric t echnology for e nergy. They put

the material in soldiers boots in order t o charge radios an d other p ortable

devices. Although this is an interesting renewable en ergy w ith great potential,

its n ot cheap . Club Watt s pent $257, 000 on this rst gen eration 270-square-

foot oor, more m oney t han it can recoup. But the oor will be r eprogrammed

to improve o utput in the future. Your dance m oves r eally can be el ectric.

So perhaps you dont want to use animals as f uel, and you think that biglasers are s ome k ind of sci- fantasy. Well, good news: it turns ou t that merely

moving around will be enough to create energy. Harnessing it is another

matter. As t hings s tand, our ever yday life i s gen erally one b ig waste o f energy.

But by walking or jumping over s pecial plates, you can u se t he w asted energy

to generate electricity. C urrently, this technology is too expensive to be


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considered as a real solution but thinking about the amount of ener gy

wasted in clubs or crowded streets m akes it a really interesting so lution.

Sludge

California municipalities alone

produce 700,000 metric tons of

dried sludge annually, which has

the p otential to generate 1 0 million kilowatt-hours of el ectricity per d ay.

The University of Nevada, Reno, is d rying sludge to make it burnable for a

gasication process, which turns i t into electricity. A team of research ers at the

university built the processing machine as a way of p roducing low-cost and

energy efficient technology. The machine turns gooey sludge into powder by

using relatively low temperatures in a uidized bed of sand and salts to

produce the biomass fuel.

The waste-to-energy technology is designed to be on-site which means

companies can save o n trucking costs, disposal fees, and electricity. Although

research is still ongoing, es timates show that a full-scale system can

potentially generate 25 ,000 kilowatt-hours p er d ay to help power reclamation

facilities.

Best out of waste, at i ts b est here! Sludge, the gooey, disgusting semi-liquid

which co ntains highly toxic chemicals can be t reated, dried, and put through a

gasication process t o turn it into biomass f uel or el ectricity. At least all of our

holy and non-holy rivers w ill be f ree o f this d isgusting waste.

Trees are electric. It has been always been %nown thattrees can produce electricity through biomass and
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/bionic-bra-victorias-circuit-862875.htmlhttp://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/bionic-bra-victorias-circuit-862875.html


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burning wood, but the new fact is that trees can produceelectricity e)en without being cut.+IT scientists disco)ered in that there is a slight p(imbalance between a tree and its surrounding soil, andthis imbalance is able to cause a generation of a smallamount of electricity.

The potential for this application is still minor andlimited to local uses of electricity to operate sensors andsmall electric de)ices.

J ellysh

Jellysh that glow in the dark contai

fuel cell. Their gl ow is p roduced by a green uorescent protein, referred to as

GFP. A team at The Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg,

Sweden, placed a d rop of GFP onto aluminum electrodes and then exposed it

to ultraviolet light. The protein

released electrons, w hich travel a

circuit to produce electr icity.

The same p roteins have been used to

make a biological f uel cell, w hich

produces electricity without an

external l ight sou rce. Instead of an external l ight sou rce, a mixture ofchemicals such as magnesium and luciferase enzymes, which are found in

reies, were u sed to produce el ectricity from the d evice.

These fuel cells can be u sed in small, Nano devices such as t hose t hat can be

implanted in a p erson to diagnose or t reat disease.


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Exploding Lakes

There are three known "explodinglakes," in the world, so called because

they con tain huge res ervoirs of methane

and carbon dioxide trapped in the

depths by differences in water

temperature an d density.

If temperatures should change and the lake turns, these gases would

immediately zz to the surface like a shaken bottle of sod a, killing the

millions of peo ple an d animals l iving nearby. In fact, such an event happened

on August 15, 1984, when Cameroon's Lake Nyos unleashed a huge cloud of

concentrated carbon dioxide, instantly suffocating hundreds o f p eople and

animals.

In Rwanda, Lake Kivu is such a p lace. But the government has bu ilt a p ower

plant that sucks up the noxious gases from the lake to power t hree large

generators, which produce 3. 6 m egawatts of electricity. The g overnment hopes

that in the n ext couple o f years, the p lant will produce eno ugh power for one-

third of the co untry.

Bacteria

Billions o f bact eria live out i n the wild, and like any living organism, they

have a survival s trategy for when there is a limited food supply. E. coli


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bacteria store fuel in the fom of

same fatty acid is n eeded for t he p roduction of biodiesel fuel. So, research ers

are l ooking to genetically modify E. coli

microorganisms to overproduce those

polyester-like ac ids.

The scientists removed enzymes from

the bacteria to boost fatty acid

production, and then dehydrated the

fatty acid to get rid of the oxygen, which turned it into a type of diesel fuel.

The same bact eria that can make u s sick can also help save p eople m oney an d

the en vironment, by providing fuel for t ransportation.

Biodiesel production has b een a reality for quite a while now. It is a fuel

obtained through the combination of veget able oil and alcohol. However, it

requires extensive cultivable lands, an d a lot of energy is involved in

production. To counter t hese problems, scientists are already working onalternative methods o f transforming seed oil into biodiesel, such as v ia the

natural a ctivity of b acteria . However, even if these reached full efficiency,

external energy would still need to b e exp ended in order to obtain oil from the

seeds. Another n ew option is t herefore to use insects to produce o il, which

could be cheap er. Bugs may w ell fuel the future.

Food Leftovers

Biogas is a fuel (mainly methane) obtained from organic m atter, after ba cteria

and natural conditions h ave degraded it over t ime. A lot of leftover f ood and

waste such as f ruit skins or c offee can be u sed to obtain biogas, and there
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bacteria-transformed-into-biofuel-refinerieshttp://hwma.net/Food%20Waste/Digester%20Detailshttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bacteria-transformed-into-biofuel-refinerieshttp://hwma.net/Food%20Waste/Digester%20Details


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are already a number of sm all industries col lecting and using the trash

produced in big cities t o generate el ectricity, a l ot like i n Back to the F uture.

The p rocess of gen erating energy from organic matter is called Anaerobic

Digestion . Anaerobic d igestion is slowly becoming a more ordinary method

of energy production for bo th businesses and households alike. It involves

harnessing the gases that ar e produced as a result o f biodegradation.

Anaerobic d igestion can be used on both large and small scales even for

everyday household food waste, creating a u seful form of waste management

for homeowners.

-eing a great source of sugar, watermelon has beendisco)ered to ha)e good energy content that can bereadily distilled into alcohol. Alcohol in turn can be usedto power automobiles and other machinery e uipment.

A study conducted in the /$ has shown that around 0 1

of the watermelon fruits a)ailable are fermentable and


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could be easily fermented to ethanol. The potential forethanol in watermelons has been shown to be gallonsper acre from fruit that otherwise would go to waste.

-eing a great source of sugar, watermelon has beendisco)ered to ha)e good energy content that can bereadily distilled into alcohol. Alcohol in turn can be usedto power automobiles and other machinery e uipment.

A study conducted in the /$ has shown that around 0 1of the watermelon fruits a)ailable are fermentable andcould be easily fermented to ethanol. The potential for

ethanol in watermelons has been shown to be gallonsper acre from fruit that otherwise would go to waste.

Sound waves

Every day we feel the energy that sound waves can generate: we feel a big

truck p assing by, or t he an noying woofer of our neighbors. Since s ound waves

can make al most any material in the eart h vibrate, some sci entists ar e t rying to

transform these waves into electricity by using wires and electrodes. The

amount of ener gy that can be obtained with sound waves is not exactly

enormous, but current r esearch is exploring the possibilities of u sing it t o

charge sm all devices, such as cel lphones o r c locks.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8500161/Mobile-phones-could-be-charged-by-the-power-of-speech.htmlhttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/8500161/Mobile-phones-could-be-charged-by-the-power-of-speech.html


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Electric e els

An electric eel i s a sh capable ofgenerating a 400 V electric

discharge. This m echanism is u sed

by the sh to defend itself from

predators and to hunt small sh

but its main purpose is that of a

radar syst em, a replacement for i ts n early blind eyes. This sh has f ascinatedus s ince t he ver y moment someone r ealized its awesome el ectric p ower, so the

next step was obv ious: nd a w ay to use it. A Japanese aq uarium has al ready

used an eel to light u p a Christmas tree, so maybe the future electrical

generator in our homes w ill be a sm all pond full of eels.

Cows

Cows, and cattle in general, are

responsible for a lot of the gases

that cause global warming.

Their bu rps, which mostly emit

methane gas, can also be

harvested and used as a sou rce

of power . A lot of people have

been trying to collect it,

ridiculous t o see a cow with a giant balloon attached to its b utt b ut i f its

attached in the ri ght way, it could well kill two birds w ith one stone: provide

useful energy, and at the same t ime solve t he gas p roblem.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/12/72285http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/12/72285http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/12/72285http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/12/72285http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/12/72285


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Human waste

Not only bugs and cattle

produce usable wastes

humans can claim this abi lity

too. It might seem rather

disgusting, but our ow n pee

and poop can be used to

obtain energy. Some companies claim to have found the best source: used

diapers, since t here a re just too many of those i n the w orld. Pee, on the o ther

hand, due to its saline properties, can be easily hydrolyzed to obtain

hydrogen. Overall, pee is b etter t han simple water f or t his p rocess. Finally,

considering the h igh obesity levels in some countries and the g rowing market

for l iposuction, even our ow n fat can be u sed as a replacement for oi l in the

production of biodiesel.

Breathing


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Dance oors

The sustainable d ance oor converts k inetic en ergy into electricity. Movement,such as p eople w alking or dancing, generates k inetic en ergy. The el ectricity is

used to power t he LED lights i n the oor i tself. Excess el ectricity can also be

fed back into the grid and sold, much in the same way excess energy from a

solar pan el might be, or could be used to power other systems within the

same bu ilding.

The technology used in the sustainable dance oor cou ld potentially be

applied to other si tuations an d locations, such as a bus st op or t rain station for

example, to m ake t he m ost of kinetic energy generated by movement.

Walking, dancing, jumping all these result into wasted energy.Piezoelectricity, meaning electricity resulting from pressure is generated

through people w alking, dancing, or jumping on piezoelectric oor pa ds. A

few initiatives across the world include the use of p iezoelectric oor p ads

being used at crowded train stations Green Gym groups meet at

least once a week and do between 1 and 4 hours p ractical conservation or

gardening work.


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All participants a re Volunteers. Over two-thirds h ave never t aken part in

environmental conservation work before. Examples of the types of work

undertaken include coppicing , clearing scrubland, p ath building, t ree-

planting or digging on an allotment), and nightclubs.

The Worlds First Sustainable Dance Club, Club W ATT is in the Netherlands

where these piezoelectric oor p ads generate electricity for t he entire club.

Talking about closer home, what are t he res t of the w orlds t rain stations an d

the cr owded footpaths waiting for?

Diapers & Adult diapers

Dumping of diapers in landlls only causes underground water pollution,

spreads d iseases, and gives off that God-awful smell. What if we can stop this

dumping and use it productively? Feces contain methane, which can be u sed

as nat ural gas. Around 40 thousand children are born every day ar ound the

world the amount of energy we could generate from so many d iapers would

be a win-win situation towards waste management and energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coppicing


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Imagine the largest w ater bo dies o n our p lanet, the oceans, used for fuel.

Oceans and seas are the largest untapped energy resource an d the US Navy is

all set to change it. In a rec ent report from the U S Navy, experts h ave found a

way to extract carbon dioxide an d hydrogen gas from seawater and then by

using a catalytic co nvertor, transform it into a fuel by a gas-to-liquids p rocess.

Lets suppose that t hey share this

technology and then take into

account al l t he sources of sea water

around the world. An added

thought here is that if the US Navy

has found a way to extract carbon

dioxide from sea w ater d oes t his m ean that the increasing destructive eff ects

of excess car bon dioxide i n sea w ater w ill be co ntrolled, forever? P hew, thats

got to be a relief!

Conscated Alcohol

How about we turn

conscated illegal alcohol

into fuel r ather than letting

policemen drink or sel l it? Conscated alcohol, smuggled alcohol every

drop of this t oxic substance w hich either goes t o waste o r into the s tomachs or

pockets of our l aw enforcers can be transformed into biogas an d used to fuel

transport vehicles su ch as b uses o r even police v ehicles, for al l we care!

Coffee Grounds


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Today it has become important to know about alternative energy, how it

works, and its d ifferent forms, so that

one can stay on the top of the

presidential campaign policies an d the

environmental legislations an d how it

affects ou r ho use an d family. This type

of energy is formed from sources that

are neither harm ful to the en vironment nor d eplete the natural resources of

the ea rth. So, this t ype o f energy excludes ever ything such as coal and petrol

that pollutes and harms the env ironment.

Many people t hink that utilizing alternative so urces f or en ergy is a f airly new

concept, which scientists cam e u p with after t he w orld nally started waking

up to the d angers of global warming.

However, this is a misconception as mankind has been using alternative

sources of energy since i t rst learned to light a re w ith two stones!

Ancient c ivilizations t ook advantage of al ternative sources o f ene rgy in the

form of wind, sun, water, and even geothermal heat. Here ar e 10 of the m ost

interesting facts f rom the history of al ternative energy sources, which were

the st epping-stone t o inventing todays al ternative en ergy technology:

You can nd out about the intrigues of the bi g oil companies in the world that

are s truggling to intensify the d rilling processes to earn more m oney despite

the d amages t hey a re cau sing.

The U.S. rotary rig count from Baker Hughes was dow n 48 at 1,310 for the

week of Febru ary 20, 2015. It i s 461 rigs (26.0%) lower t han last year . The


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The U.S. rotary rig count from Baker Hughes was dow n 48 at 1,310 for the

week o f February 20, 2015.

Renewable en ergy is a t ype o f alternative energy, which makes u se o f natural

resources l ike t ides, wind, sunlight, and geothermal heat, which are n aturally

relled by nature and can never come to an end. About 13% of energy comes

from renewable sources of energy. When countries started thinking about

alternative sources of en ergy, they could never h ave realized that there w ould

be such a large number to draw from.

Hydro power: this energy is formed through ow of water in dams. Tidal

energy: it also works u pon the same model as dams.

Wave en ergy: this is very m uch si milar to hydro en ergy and tidal energy.


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Alternative sources of energy.docx

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