What is the most accessible and use able alternative energy?

Question

I need someone who acually knows what there talking aboout here so please cite your source and if your source is yourself please cite your credintials. What is an alternative fuel source that we acually can use thats not too expensive will acually work and is readily avilable?

Answer 1

One of our research associate's brother is an enviornmental consultant. We asked him to help answer your question:

First, he points out that the best alternative energy source is conservation: to use less energy.

Americans represent 4% of the world’s population but use 25% if the world’s energy.  Each of us need to learn how to use it more efficiently.   Using less energy has the added benefits of saving us money and reducing our dependence on foreign sources of oil and gas.  Here are other options:



2 )  Wind Energy

Wind is currently the best alternative source of new energy.  A number of utilities in the US have completed long term power supply forecasts and were surprised to find that a kilowatt hour or wind power will be cheaper than a new coal plant on a long term basis.   This was because with wind, the fuel cost is zero and there will be no carbon cost in the future as there will be with coal.  The new windmills are running up to 50% capacity and are available over 95% of the time.

Power cost in the US with the current fleet of plants in the US is as follows: coal is the cheapest, then nuclear, wind, hydro electric, bio fuels, natural gas, oil and solar is the most expensive.

3)     Solar

Solar currently is the most expensive power on a bulk basis.  Solar is cost effective in remote locations where the cost of running power lines is high.  For example, solar battery street lights are cheaper in many locations due to the cost of running wires along the highway.

4)     Bio fuels

There is a lot of development going on in bio fuels.  These differ from fossil fuels in that the fuel is grown and harvested rather than taken from the ground (coal, oil natural gas).  The current boom in Ethanol started as it was added to gasoline in order to reduce the air pollution from cars.  Ethanol replaced a toxic additive MTBE which was previously used.  MTBE is a carcinogen and leaks out of tanks into the ground water.   Ethanol is far safer to use and has been a real benefit for the farmers in the US. There are problems with many bio fuels however.  It takes about 5 gallons of water to make one gallon of Ethanol and a typical 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant will use 500 gallons per minute of water.  In a year,  the plant will use 500 million gallons of water - it would empty a lake one mile in diameter that is 25 feet deep.  

Corn-based ethanol also takes a lot of fertilizer in the process.  In the future, the new cellulose/ grass based ethanols will be far better for the environment.   Because of the limitations, ethanol will only supply a portion (up to 20%) of the fuel supply for the US.

A number of large US utilities, have stated that they are not going to build any new coal plants and that they will get new energy supplies from wind, hydro and renewables.  

Our resource is an electrical enginer and consultant in the energy industry who has been a plant manager at two large coal power plants and was director of environmental affairs for a large utility.  

If you are interested in alternative powertrains, fuels, and articles, auto reviews, previews, photos, videos and quality ratings, please visit JDPower.com.

Answer 2

bio diesel for diesel engines. we do not have a practical alternative for gasoline. maybe some day, but not yet. we need oil for the short term till technology is developed to replace it.. redesign of engines is needed to use alternatives.

current engines will not run on any thing else.

Answer 3

Natural gas is produced from gas wells or through crude oil production. Natural gas is considered an alternative fuel due to its clean burning qualities and domestic availability. It can be stored and transported in a compressed gas state or liquid form.

Natural gas is readily available through an extensive nation wide infrastructure. Natural gas vehicles burn much cleaner than gas or diesel vehicles. A 90% reduction of carbon monoxide can be obtained when using natural gas over gasoline or diesel. The majority of natural gas used by the United States is produced domestically. Some experts believe large deposits of natural gas are available off the east coast of Florida. If these deposits could be safely harvested it could increase the domestic supply of natural gas which could reduce the cost to the consumer. When natural gas is produced from reservoirs, contaminants must be removed to meet standards to move the gas through the pipeline infrastructure. Water and sulfur must be monitored and removed as needed. The extensive pipeline infrastructure gives every continental state access to natural gas allowing natural gas vehicles to be easily refueled at most residence or commercial locations.

As of 2005 there are over 130,000 natural gas vehicles in the U.S. using both gas and liquid forms of natural gas. Vehicles can be 100% natural gas powered or use a combination of natural gas and gasoline or diesel fuel. Separate fuel tanks would be needed in vehicles that use a combination of fuels. The user can switch from natural gas to gasoline or diesel when needed. Better performance and lower emissions can be obtained from using natural gas over gasoline or diesel. One out of five transit buses in the U.S. are fueled with natural gas. These vehicles have fuel tanks that can withstand high impact, making them equivalent to conventional gasoline and diesel fuel tanks. The cost to operate a natural gas vehicle can be less than the cost of operating gasoline or diesel vehicles. The cost to purchase a natural gas vehicle or retrofit a conventional vehicle is higher. Retrofitting could cost up to $4,000.00.

Experts have found that natural gas can be used to make hydrogen used in fuel cells. Fuel cells hold a bright future for alternate fuel source vehicles. One of the greatest benefits of natural gas alone is the reduction of 90% of the carbon monoxide produced over gas or diesel vehicles.

Answer 4

If there were something available, cheap, and clean (which seems to be what you are asking for) we would already be using it.

Unfortunately, we end up needing to choose the "best" two of these three options.    And most commonly, we choose "available and cheap" which means fossil fuels.

Solar is very very available and clean but not cheap.   Most parts of the world have enough solar to generate a lot of energy.   But it costs a small fortune right now, and doesn't pay for itself without significant government subsidies.

Wind is also clean.   But it's not universally applicable - you can only put windmills where there is a lot of wind.  You can't put a windmill on everyones home the way you can with solar.   So it's really not as available as other sources.   It's also expensive, but not as expensive as solar

Biomass is a bit tricky.   It's clean - sort of.  We typically still burn it.   But its carbon neutral so its not as much of an issue.   Also, price is fluctating.    We'd need to grow a bunch of biomass, and the more biomass we use, the more expensive biomass gets.   Wood waste prices have at least tripled in the last year or two - due in part to all the biomass projects that are going up.     And biomass takes up a lot of space, so you'll need a lot of room to use biomass.  This limits its usefulness.

I'm not as familiar with transportation fuels.    I believe that corn is still heavily subsidized, and then ethanol production is subsidized on top of  that, so I don't know the true economics of ethanol.   I am a bit suspicious about whether we can realistically make enough ethanol to replace gasoline without a significant reduction in gasoline usage overall.

I hope this helps.

Answer 5

Hydroelectric Power.

This is virtually an ever present source of electricity. The natural flow of water is very powerful. However some people argue it is destructive to the environment especially fish species. I feel there is better ways to build dams to circumvent that problem. Hydro Power is one of the cheapest forms of energy available, upfront costs are huge, but it doesn't have nearly the negative conotation as nuclear power, which I think should be the power of the future, but I'm sure lots of people would argue with that.

Answer 6

in my personal option i would say the that bio mass is the best. it is made from waste that we are already producing but also it is green and a good source until we get hydrogen of fission down. also it is all renewable because we can grow it or are just throwing it away