Alternative Forms of Energy

Since blogging about our oil problem last week I’ve been thinking about what other sources of energy are available for us today. I’m not talking about all the things you hear about that someone is developing and touting as the salvation of us all. I fear that most of those will just disappear. However, there are other sources out there that we can use – maybe not for everything, but enough to reduce our oil consumption. Let’s take a look at a few of them.

Solar power has been around for a long time. One of the simplest forms is to use solar energy to heat water, either for a pool or your home. Here’s a company, Solar Panels Plus, that has a variety of products for the average home. The U.S. Department of Energy has a site dedicated to information on home solar water heaters. If you live in a warm, southern climate costs for a system like this are very low. Even if you life in a colder, northern climate the total cost savings of a solar water heater over time can make it an excellent investment.

Another form of solar power is electricity generated by photovoltaic cells. Again this is a technology that has been around for quite a while; however, there have been a number of advancements in the last few years which have resulted in lower costs and higher energy production. In some locations it is possible to generate all your electrical needs using solar panels placed on the roof of your home. You might even be able to sell excess energy back to your power company! Check out this article in Business Week. Don’t want to do that much? Check out this how-to guide on building an inexpensive solar power generator.

Maybe you don’t get a lot of sun where you live but the wind is always blowing. Well, install a home wind turbine to get your energy. The American Wind Energy Association has some excellent information to get you up and running. Not sure about wind generated power? The Dutch have used wind power to run pumps to keep their land dry for centuries. The earliest reference to a windmill dates back to the 12th century. Something that has been around that long has to be reliable.

There are other sources for energy production; however, most of these are beyond the average homeowner. Water has been used to generate energy for centuries. Hydroelectric power plants are located throughout the world. Geothermal energy is also available in many places around the globe. But let’s get back to what we can do at home. Here are a few Web sites with information on what we can do NOW:

• HomePower Magazine
• Northeast Sustainable Energy Association
• Comparing Alternative Energy Forms
• Solar Power International
• Windpower 2008
• Apollo Alliance

Biofuels: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

Just about everyone realizes that oil is not a renewable resource, at least not at the rate that we are consuming it. The industrialized nations are sucking oil back at incredible rates. One estimate by the International Energy Agency printed here in April 2004 shows a consumption of 75 million barrels a day. A more recent estimate extracted here from the CIA World Factbook in June 2007 shows a consumption of 82,234,918 barrels per day. There is also quite a bit of debate on how much oil is really left that we can get to. Check out this post here and this interesting analysis of production vs. consumption. No matter what, the world needs to go on an oil diet and find another way to generate power.

Worldwide many nations are using some form of biofuel already. Here in America the talk is all about ethanol from corn. However, corn is a negative return for energy; in other words, it takes more energy to make ethanol from corn that what you get out of it. Here’s a report from the Washington Post and another blog here which outline some of the problems. Wikipedia has an excellent article on biofuels which goes into much great detail that I have room for here.

There are many possible sources for biofuels: corn (a poor choice), sugar cane (used by Brazil), switchgrass (I saw a show on the History Channel that showed excellent returns from this source), and even algae (some tout this as the perfect solution). Personally, I don’t think we should use a source for biofuel that is also a food crop because there are too many people on this planet without enough to eat or without affordable food available to them.

Perhaps one of the best solutions for our fuel problem was patented in 1892 by Rudolf Diesel. The original diesel engine was designed to run on vegetable oil (peanut oil). Today you can purchase a kit to convert your diesel engine vehicle to run on vegetable oil. You may even be able to get your vegetable oil for free. Most restaurants that fry food have to pay to dispose of their used oil. They are usually more than glad to have someone take it away for free. Not sure, check out this article on using vegetable oil as fuel.

Next car I buy may just have a diesel engine. Now, where is the nearest hamburger stand?