Alternative Energy

Imagine a world with all the cars standing still. There will be no plane flying between countries, no ship transporting consumer goods over the oceans. Although fossil fuel contributes a great deal to the global warming, our life still depends on this non- renewable resource. Fortunately, other energy sources exist on this plant, which have less or no impact on our environment. Solar energy, geothermal energy and atomic energy are just several examples of the energy sources of the future.

Solar and wind energy could be crucial for the future, as they are unlimited as the sun exists. Wind energy is also a form of solar energy, since wind is caused by the uneven heating of the atmosphere by the sun (Congressional Digest, 2008). Another advantage of solar energy is that it produces no emission, which contributes to global warming. But as for all electricity- based energy, the problem lays in the storage. Energy produced by wind and solar cannot be stored for long time, therefore they are not effective for vehicles, which accounts for a great proportion for the air pollution. However, the seemed so perfect solar energy has also its stigma. According to Slaibi (2008), solar energy has a low energy density therefore it requires large energy collectors. Large areas are needed for the solar collectors and wind mills. Furthermore, producing either silicon or aluminum from their ores involves enormous amount of energy as well.

Geothermal energy is produced by using the hot temperature recovered from within the earth crust. As geothermal plants require no fuel to run, producing electricity from the heat of the earth causes no pollution to the environment. No new equipment for drilling for geothermal energy is needed, as it uses the same machines and same skills that were developed for the oil industry. Therefore developing geothermal energy could be a way of expansion for the several oil companies. Demirbas (2002) stated that nowadays, 27 countries are already using this...