Fuelling The Future With Alternative Energy

Fuelling The Future With Alternative Energy

The current dominant conventional fuels that are used include fossil fuels, petroleum, uranium, coal and propane. There has been growing concern about these conventional fuels, thus leading to the increasing demand for, and interest in alternative fuels.

People in general are becoming acutely aware of the degradation of the earth and that they have to make drastic changes in order to keep our world from being destroyed. The effects of conventional fuels such as fossils fuels are known to contribute to global warming, and the emission of harmful gasses into the air from petrol driven vehicles is having a severe effect on air pollution. Aside from this, the ever rising cost of fuel and concerns about the demand for fuel exceeded its supply, are mitigating factors for the need for alternative fuels.


The Pros of Alternative Fuels

Alternative fuels such as bio-diesel, bio-alcohol, fuel cells, hydrogen, non-fossil methane, non-fossil natural gas and vegetable oil are now well known and deemed to be greatly more desirable in the quest to preserve our planet. There are a number of benefits to using alternative fuels. Firstly, alternative fuel-powered vehicles will emit less harmful gasses into the air resulting in less pollution. Biodiesel is also completely renewable as its primary source is vegetable oil. So there is no need to throw out used oil as it can be collected and refined. Secondly, these fuels can also prolong the engine life of your vehicle and are generally cheaper than conventional fuels. Thirdly, they burn more efficiently and will therefore help you save money. In addition to this, using alternative fuels will also help countries to end their dependency on foreign oil. It’s common knowledge that this relationship between countries has led to war and unrest. By countries manufacturing their own alternatives fuels, we can hope for less of this violence and more independence.

The Cons of Alternative Fuels

Although alternative fuels are becoming more and more popular, they are not yet perfected. Alternative fuel vehicles are substantially more expensive than conventional fuel vehicles and at the moment it seems that only the more affluent members of our society can afford these ECO friendly cars. Alternative fuels are also not readily available and often finding a gas station to fill your alternative fuel car can be quite a feat. As this technology is new, there are also few places that can service these cars.

I don’t doubt that we are still in for many years of debate on the benefits and drawbacks of Alternative Fuels. The most important issue however, has to be conserving the world we live in. We know that the daily use of conventional fuel is contributing to destroying our planet and I’m sure that everyone would gladly consider an alternative to that.

By: Thanate Tan

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Solar Energy and the Environment

Solar Energy and the Environment
By Ian Pennington

What is the force behind the existence of life? Who controls the earth's climate? What is the factor that contributes to the greenery around us? Solar energy or the light and heat radiations from the sun is the driving power behind these life processes.

Using solar energy has proved to offer a lot of economic and environmental benefits which contribute to a healthy and secure future at the end of the day. Let us take a walk down the solar path and understand its nature.

Sun light is the best natural resource that is converted into electricity. Rather than using expensive natural gas, oil, coal or wood for meeting energy requirements, you can save on a huge amount of money and electricity by utilizing the renewable solar energy.

Solar energy is tapped by thermal devices or various technologies so as to conserve power and utilize it to serve a wide variety of purposes. Solar energy may be used for industrial production, material testing, smelting, to heat up water, cook food, distill and disinfect water for drinking purposes, and much more.

No other energy can be as environment-friendly as the Solar Energy. This natural resource does not pollute the air when being converted into electricity by solar panels or other thermal devices. Industrial or electric power plants which run on electricity produce carbon emissions that pose as a hazard for the environment and all the living beings.

If you are concerned about the serious effects of Global Warming, think again. Solar energy is the savior here as it does not produce greenhouse effect which is the major cause of global warming.

Solar energy is found in abundance. Needless to say, the sun shines bright every morning. It would be a wise decision if we decide to make use of the sunny days to tap this natural resource to fuel our residential, commercial, agricultural, horticultural (and many more) needs everyday.

All you need is to indulge in a one-time investment to install solar energy systems at home. Though it requires more space, these solar energy systems are fixed and need not be moved around. Moreover, you save on the maintenance costs. Just make sure that the solar energy system is working enough to gather all the solar energy to run your household.

A low cost option, the solar electricity concept delivers high quality lighting to brighten up your homes. Solar electricity can also run radio, television and other electrical gadgets. This option also reduces your need to use batteries to run flashlights and radios.

Certain batteries are not recyclable and poison the atmosphere when discarded. Moreover, the batteries do not come cheap. All in all, usage of solar energy avoids you from going overboard the monthly budget while keeping the environment healthy