Elizabeth's+Energy+Content+Essay

 Elizabeth Monahan  Energy Content Essay  Solar power is believed to be the best form of green energy because once panels and farms are installed, it is free. Obviously, the sun’s energy is unlimited so this means that it will last us a long time. Also, solar power produces no pollutants so people who tend to learn to healthier environment would benefit the most from it. T he Southwestern part of the United States would be the best place to construct solar power plants. States such as California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma are located here. Unlike these states do not get heavy snow or rainfall which is very defective when it comes to harnessing the sun’s energy. Also, the Southwestern part of the US “receives more than 4,500 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) of solar ra­diation a year (A Solar Grand Plan).” “Btu is the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit which means that states such as Arizona or California are very good at getting direct sunlight (Wikipedia). “ This means that during the summer months in these locations, they might harness more energy than needed so it could be distributed around the United States. Solar panels can be scattered around the globe as needed if these was not enough room for solar plants. Since big cities are made out of concrete which easily harnesses the sun’s rays, they could just place solar panels at the top of their buildings to still get the noticeable effect of solar plants.  Wind power, just like most forms of green energy, is very expensive and currently in the economic state, it is hard to find funds to start these projects. Therefore, Congress eliminated tax credit for wind power and closed wind farms meaning that we will not see a lot of wind turbines sometime soon. Wind mills or turbines are also very noisy when it comes to solar power. Without wind speeds of 20 mph, there is not enough wind to harness for energy. Also, thunderstorms and lightning can destroy wind turbines which can be even more expensive to reconstruct. Wind farms tend to make people complain that it destroys the landscape. Finally they can be “possible damage to the environment from wind power includes tree removal, hill alteration to promote winds, and hazards to birds (Wind Pro/Cons).”  Biofules, such as ethanol, is fuel derived from plant materials to create green energy. They do very little for the environment with using a lot if not more energy than it takes to make typical fuel. Production, research, maintenance, transmission, distribution, and the waste disposal of equipment evolved in most clean energy processes take up a lot of the government funding and are certainly hazardous if not completed properly. “Although ethanol may help the U.S. reduce its reliance on foreign oil, it will probably not do much to slow global warming unless the production of the bio fuel becomes cleaner (Biofules Grassoline at the Pump).” Biofules also take up a percentage of our food source to make energy. Finally, our crops are needed for other uses other than just fuel.   The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 required a need for nuclear power to enhance their safety measures as well as performance which made it seem more desirable to use as a clean energy source. The U.S. Department of Energy established three major objectives which were “to improve the safety and reliability of plants, to lessen the possibility of significant damage during accidents, and to minimize the potential consequences of any accidents that do occur (Next Generation Nuclear Power).” Since radioactivity is a major waste product of Nuclear energy, this was a main concern especially when it comes to terrorist attacks. Nuclear energy is powerful and depending on where you place the facilities, it could create major damage to most of the United States if a terrorist attack were to occur. This kind of energy would create way too many problems if there was a natural disaster so further research would have to be done. For sever climate changes, research would also have to be done to ensure that the facility could withstand extreme heat or cooling problems.    Hydroelectric power creates energy by using the natural or manmade flow of water by the use of dams. The problem with hydroelectric power dams is that they are very expensive to build and during a drought they are deemed useless. Also, in a flood situation, these dams can break because they are not used to that much rain. To create these dams, flooding of valleys and scenic areas is needed so it might disturb wild life there. Hydroelectric power also “does not produce harmful elements, it does not cause pollution in water and in the air (Hydroelectric Energy Pros and Cons).”