Homemade Solar Cell

Renewable energy is not something that can be called part of our future any longer. It has to be geared more in our present. Not only for the popular reasons of a favorably green energy choice, but because at some point it may be our most viable energy choice. Our government is responsible for doing the best that it can by the people of it’s nation, however, we are responsible as a nation for doing our part as individuals. In this time, green is not the only reason we should get renewable energy now.

This is a situation that no longer needs to sit on a back burner. We have been working toward it with a goal however, that goal has not been firm enough to force our own hand to get the job done. No nation should wait until they are presented with a major energy crisis, before trying to find an alternative means to the problem. Choices give you power. We have five types of renewable energy that we can benefit from including solar power, hydropower, wind power, biomass power and geothermal power.

With the help of federal funding from our government through the Office of the EERE, several projects were granted over two million dollars in 2009. These businesses, industries, and universities are doing their part and worked on their own renewable energy projects. It will be a long time in coming, but one day we may have all of our electricity coming from renewable energy.

Hydropower can be counted for over seventy percent of our total renewable energy. The process itself is really simple. Water is directed or flows through piping which is called penstock. The penstock then turn a generator which produces electricity. The Hoover dam is an example of hydropower turned into hydroelectricity. It was build in 1936, and is the largest electric generating system in the world.

There are two ways in which we harness energy from the sun. It can be used for both electricity and heat. In order to harness solar energy for electricity, we convert solar radiation by using photovoltaic cells to absorb it, or the actual sunlight is directed toward mirrors or lenses, this is known as a high temperature collector. For solar thermal energy to heat water, panels are used in temperatures of low collectors, which will generally heat a swimming pool, and medium collectors, which can be used to heat homes and buildings.

Wind power is another great benefit and another simple process. The motion of the wind is converted into mechanical energy by a wind turbine, which generates electricity. Wind power is being used regularly now in California and Texas. It also has the benefits of giving off no greenhouse gases while producing energy.

Geothermal power is much different that solar thermal power. It has to do with trapping heat that is underground, and building energy from the trapped heat. The heat being tapped into is actually coming from the core of the earth. It can be closer to the surface in some areas, which makes it easier to harness. It is harnessed by the trapped heat naturally creating steam, and then the steam being used to turn a steam turbine.

Biomass power is an interesting form of energy. We find out that the plants have been using their cells to store the sun’s energy for us all along. By burning these plants, we can create energy. There are power plants operating on biomass fuels with turbines that heat water to generate electricity.

It seems that we have a plate full of options, and a lot of avenues to explore each of these options. Time seems to be of the essence, and the problem. Have we waited too long already, the time has arrived to get renewable energy now.

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