How to switch story over from biofuels to alternative energy?

Question

In my story i have to talk about biofuels and alternative energy.. i already wrote about all the biofuels and about oil platforms and what are the largest oil platforms.

Now I need to switch over to alternative energy... how can I do that???? how should i start?

Answer 1

Electric cars are the way to go longterm.  

Here's how we can do that.

Solar Electric Grid Plan

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=a-so... Scientific American



Someone said solar was too expensive.  I guarantee you that any solar is cheaper than continuing to use oil.  

Why?

Becuase, the hidden costs of oil are over $800 billion per year.  That exceeds our defense budget by about 60%.  Subsidies to oil and gas companies alone is over $80 billion.  Military costs to protect oil shipments, over  $100 billion annually.  If all these costs were added to the price of gasoline, you would be paying about $12 a gallon.   Instead we pay it in taxes in other ways in the private sector.  

And the solar plants described below already can produce electricity at competitive prices with gas and coal fired plants.

How to have 65% solar grid by 2050 and nearly all solar by 2100. At a small fraction of what oil really cost. Then electric cars would be charged on clean energy too.

http://blogs.business2.com/greenwombat/

Green Wombat has several stories on the companies working on solar thermal power plants in California.

"Solar thermal power plants such as Ausra's generate electricity by driving steam turbines with sunshine. Ausra's solar concentrators boil water with focused sunlight, and produce electricity at prices directly competitive with gas- and coal-fired electric power."

"Solar thermal power plants can store energy during daylight hours and generate power when it's needed. Ausra's power plants collect the sun's energy as heat; Ausra is developing thermal energy storage systems which can store enough heat to run the power plant for up to 20 hours during dark or cloudy periods."

"Solar is one the most land-efficient sources of clean power we have, using a fraction of the area needed by hydro or wind projects of comparable output. All of America's needs for electric power – the entire US grid, night and day – can be generated with Ausra's current technology using a square parcel of land 92 miles on a side. For comparison, this is less than 1% of America's deserts, less land than currently in use in the U.S. for coal mines."

from http://www.ausra.com

Concentrating photovoltaic power plants are viable for this also. They both use parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight. One converts light to electricity, the other uses the heat of the sun.

Also, photovoltaic prices are coming down and efficiency is going up

And other clean energies can add to the grid as distributed energy, including roof top solar panels, wind, waves , geothermal,etc.

We already have about 100 nuclear plants running, so for now, at least, they are part of the mix.

Fuel cells, that run on natural gas, are commercially available for power plants. Heat from the fuel cells is also captured and used.

Much cleaner than burning the gas.

Manure and plant waste from farms is good source of power and eliminates methane that would add to greenhouse gases otherwise.

I was impressed with the following.

"Wild Rose Dairy in Webster Township, WI is home to an innovative renewable energy facility powered by cow manure and other organic waste. The farm is home to 900 dairy cows, and an on-site anaerobic digester creates methane-rich biogas from their waste, which is used to generate 750 kilowatts of electricity per hour—enough to power 600 local homes 24/7."

That's one home for every 1 1/2 cows.

and

"Environmental Power’s Huckabay Ridge is the largest renewable natural gas plant in North America, if not the world. Huckabay Ridge generates methane-rich biogas from manure

and other agricultural waste, conditions it to natural gas standards and distributes it through a commercial pipeline. The purified biogas, called RNG®, is generated by Environmental

Power’s subsidiary, Microgy, and is a branded, renewable, pipeline quality methane product."

Answer 2

Your work would include hydro, wind, photo voltaic. low-tech solar heating, geothermal, wave and tidal.

Within photo voltaic you might want to cover exotics like organics, newest technology that might cost as little as $2 per watt (that is not per kWh. We have had cross-continental car races using PV technology.

Within solar heating we have passive, flat plate, concentrating, stationary and tracking systems.



Part of the challenge of alternate energy systems can be storing power for use when the source is not available, mixing highly variable sources with very constant supplies like nuclear on a grid. discussions about battery technology to allow alternate energy to power vehicles or keep your computer working deep into the night when there is no wind.

Wind power is at its lowest average level in summer, when electrical demand may be peaking. Customers are not accustomed to planing to use power when it is available. How to resolve that?

Most current PV power is expensive... deploy now or wait for better?

Answer 3

Conclude your current section with a summary of what you stated, and then say that the problem with biofuels is that they still require a lot of input of non-renewable resources (soil, water, etc.), which makes alternative energy sources attractive because they can use renewable resources (air, sun, etc.).  Then start with the benefits of alternative energy sources, and end with the challenges.  Add a conclusion, and you're done!