HOW DOES ALTERNATIVE ENERGY WORK?

Question

HOW DOES ALTERNATIVE ENERGY WORK?

Answer 1

Well,  traditional energy sources are oil, coal, natural gas, and the oldest of alll, water power (today in the form of hydroelectric dams). "Alternative energy" just means a way of producing energy other than the traditional ways.  How does it work? It depends on th etechnology. Here's a few examples:

>Wind power:  A windmill turns the shaft of a generator, producing electricity.

>solar arrays--the "photovoltaic cell" in an array, when struck by sunlight, produces an electron flow--resulting inan electric current (the physics is a bit more complicated, but that's the idea).

>"Biofuels" like ethanol are produced by processing plants (corn being the most commonly used right now) and the ethanol is burned in a modified engine much like anordinary car engine.

The three above are the most common types--and the technologies are already in use on a limited basis. There are other types of alternative enrgy, as well-tidal, geothermal, hydrogen (used as an "on-board" fuel like gasoline is now), even fusion. Most are still in the research phase and aren't developed to the point they are really practical (yet).

You could consider nuclear energy as an alternative energy as well, though we don't usually think of it that way.