Renewables Archive

Renewable energy is changing the way we produce and consume energy. It is an increasingly popular and sustainable solution to the challenges of climate change, energy security, and economic growth. Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal are clean, abundant, and cost-effective.

The argument focuses on the energy consumed by the tractors and the farm equipment, the trucks that transport the ethanol to market, and the fertilizer that is made from fossil fuels, as well as the amount of energy required to extract the sugar from corn starch (or cellulosic biomass) and convert it to ethanol.

The amount of energy that enters the earth’s atmosphere every year through solar radiation is greater than the total energy locked within all of the oil and coal that can be found on earth.

A CSP dish or tower looks like a modern glass sculpture and contributes aesthetically to the landscape. CSP technology has more than one form. Troughs, dishes, and towers are the different forms available today. CSP systems can achieve 30 percent efficiency, or about twice the efficiency of standard photovoltaic cells (2 x .75 = 1.5 kilowatt-hours per square yard per day).

Fully 75% of the U.S. population lives in major urban areas which are generally void of all forests. Yes, there are trees, but the role of forests in the survival and advancement of humans, as well as their potential for future advancements, goes largely unmentioned in this nation.

Wind engineers are doing a brilliant job developing solutions that have vastly improved the performance of wind turbines and the generators connected directly to the turbines; as well as in understanding the behavior and availability of wind resources. But it is time for Engineers to turn their creative efforts toward solving the problem of wind energy’s intermittency.

You do not need advanced math skills to follow and perform the arithmetic examples shown below. Anyone who can balance a checkbook or calculate the total square feet of floor space in his or her home, and understand why an area measuring 10 yards by 10 yards equals 100 square yards, can perform the following arithmetic examples and prove that American energy independence could be achieved with solar energy alone.

The Biofuels Feedstock Development Program (BFDP) at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), has assembled a team of scientists ranging from economists and energy analysts to plant physiologists and geneticists to lay the groundwork for this new source of renewable energy. Included are researchers at universities, other national laboratories, and agricultural research stations around the nation.

As more and more corn grain is diverted to make ethanol, some groups have become concerned about food shortages. Dr. Bruce Dale, Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station (MAES) chemical engineering and materials science researcher, has used life cycle analysis tools, which include agricultural data and computer modeling, to study the sustainability of producing biofuels – fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel that are made from renewable resources.