Solar Power

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

This report will discuss a few sources of energy which has or is being used today in place of the fossil fuels. These alternatives to fossil fuels are reliable, renewable and do not pollute the environment, or change the landscape trying to remove the fossil fuels,

According to experts fossil fuels like oil and coal will be exhausted by the year 2050. North America depends on fossil fuels so we need to search for alternative energy sources which don't pollute the environment or harm it.

The first of three alternatives is wind power. Wind is harnessed by wind turbines which is converted into electricity, and because wind is clean and renewable modern wind turbines are being installed in many countries to supplement traditional sources of electrical power like burning coal. After the oil crisis of the 1970's, many countries launched programs to develop wind turbines. Many of these programs failed, but Denmark was successful in developing wind farms. Counties such as Canada and the United States have adopted this technology and with design improvements have helped increase the worlds wind energy generating capacity by nearly 150 percent since 1990. In 1997 the world market for wind energy reached one billon. The only disadvantages of wind mills is that they are not as efficient as other power generating technologies and that the turbines are massive.

The second form of power is well known to all of us and that is hydroelectric. The development of hydroelectric power requires storage lakes, dams, bypass canals, and the installation of large turbines and electric generating equipment. Worldwide hydroelectric power represented 19 percent of the total energy generated in 1998. In many countries hydroelectric power is the dominant source of electric power. Canada, the largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world, generating 340.3 billon kilowatt-hours in 1990, about 60 percent of our nations electric power. The United states increased its hydroelectric power generation from approx 16 billon KWH in 1920 to 305.6 billon KWH in 1999, this is only eight percent of the total consumption. The main disadvantage is that dams, building must be built to harness this power.

The third form of power is solar power. This is the energy from the sun that is converted into thermal or electrical energy.