From an economical and environmental standpoint, life on planet earth has a lot to gain by considering cleaner energy alternatives to coal. This fundamental information, as well as the modern trends that go along with them can come in handy for everyone from environmentalists, to homeowners, entrepreneurs, and/or those seeking ideas for investment opportunities.
Electrical Power
Most Americans are already accustomed to electricity and to be honest, most Americans couldn’t really imagine life without it. In an age where people have the full power of the internet at their fingertips, things tend to be taken for granted. Electricity is a great way to power our lives because we can always make more of it (hence it being an example of renewable energy) and it doesn’t leave any known negative impacts on our planet or ecosystems.
Having the ability to make more electricity means we can regulate prices easier, making it more affordable, and the machinery used to not extract, but CREATE it means more jobs for everyone from the engineering level, to manufacturing, testing, distributing and so on.
How Electrical Power Works
Now that we know that we CAN make electricity, the next step is knowing HOW. With the use of generators and batteries, we can make energy out of magnetism! Negatively charged electrons naturally want to move towards positive charged electrons. In the process, they emit energy which sparks and charges the battery. Knowing the laws of electricity allows us to design different batteries and manipulate it for our benefit.
Making The Most of Electricity With Energy Storage
Now that we know a little more about electricity, we can look into other methods of making it. These are, and will continue to be especially valuable methods for creating electricity in large supplies (for masses of people). To paint a better picture, energystorage.org divided the six main types of energy storage around the world.
- Solid State Batteries – a slew of chemically-based energy storage solutions
- Flow Batteries – slightly more advanced and user-friendly batteries in which the electricity is stored directly in the electrolyte solution. This is most known in lithium-ion batteries.
- Flow Batteries – slightly more advanced and user-friendly batteries in which the electricity is stored directly in the electrolyte solution. This is most known in lithium-ion batteries.
- Compressed Air Energy Storage – These utilize compressed air to create high units of energy.
- Thermal – Captures energy with hot and cold temperatures.
- Pumped Hydro-Power – Larger reserves of energy with the use of moving water, often with large turbines.
Solar Power
Not a bad idea harvesting energy from the single strongest source of energy (the sun). Other than its sheer power, what makes the sun such a great source of energy is its presence. When the day comes that we lose the sun, we’ll be gone anyway, so it’s as reliable, powerful, and consistent source of energy as we can get, here on earth.
How Solar Power Works
Of course, the idea is to capture energy from the sun and convert the radiation into usable electricity. This is achieved through solar panels and of course, the more the merrier. Solar panels by taking in photons from the sun (radiation) and knocking electrons lose from the captured atoms. The silicon panels are made with two layers that act as a battery (with a positive and negative charge), hence why the larger the panels and higher quantities can produce higher grades of power.
Wind Powder
Geographic locations pending, there’s a lot of wind out there. So it only makes sense to utilize this natural phenomenon to harness tons of clean, renewable energy. These, of course are more common in wide-open areas that are susceptible to higher volumes of wind.
How Wind Power Works
Heavy winds work to move turbines, creating kinetic energy. When connected to a line of generators, windmills can create large quantities of energy. Now there are quite a few types of wind turbines because they come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. They are mostly divided into horizontal axis and vertical axis, where the blades tend to range from two to four.
Wrapping Up
With so many new technologies becoming available, it’s becoming more and more clear that there is an increasing need for renewable energy. Recycling energy is the future! To leave a lighter carbon footprint and a more positive impact on the economy, we know electricity is the answer.
