Bioenergy

 

Bioenergy is energy from living materials such as plants, wood, and waste. It is the biodegradable fractions of products, wastes, and residues. Therefore, it is a renewable energy source. Plants are the most used source for bioenergy because they are the easiest to grow. Carbon dioxide gets removed during photosynthesis and the net emission of CO2 could be equal if we keep replenishing plants for bioenergy. Biofuels convert biomass into fuel for transportation, biopower burns biomass to generate electricity, and bioproducts are products made from converting biomass into chemicals. America is really trying to improve bioenergy and make it used more frequently all over the United States. It is the most used renewable energy technology in the U.S. by a huge amount.

In an article on energy.gov called "Energy Department Announces $7 Million to Develop Advanced Logistics for Bioenergy Feedstocks" it talked about how that money is going towards two projects to help reduce the costs of transporting biomass to biorefineries. Sometimes the places where they grow the biomass are so far away from the refineries and so they are transported on trucks(with bad gas mileage) on long distances to the refineries. With this project, we could reduce the costs of biomass so that if we make biofuels it would be a lot cheaper than gasoline. They are developing better technology for more efficient and lower-costing harvesting, collection, and transportation of biomass. I am really happy about this news because we are using so much biomass, but we should always look for ways to how to improve the process. They are also using two colleges for help on the project which I think is really cool because it gives them more experience for their future careers.
And the U.S. Department of Energy is not stopping with that project! They are donating $14 million for another biomass project. In another article by energy.gov it said they are using "landscape design approaches that maintain or enhance the environmental and socio-economic sustainability of cellulosic bioenergy through the improvement of feedstock production, logistics systems, and technology development." Their focus is making renewable energy more commercialized and reducing carbon emissions. An example would be using corn for fuel and water quality by improving agricultural residue. Energy is a business and I think is good news that they are using biomass in not only its energy form, but also making the landscape better as well. They are making our technology more efficient which will lower costs so that renewable energy can be more abundant and cheaper. Obviously the U.S. is moving towards biomass and it is no surprised why.

Nuclear Energy

Nuclear energy is America's third-largest source of electricity after coal and natural gas. Nuclear plants produce electricity by boiling water into steam which spins turbines. To create nuclear power we use uranium fuel which contains solid ceramic pellets, and the process is called fission. Nuclear energy is a renewable source and it produces no greenhouse gas emissions. The problem with nuclear energy is the radioactive waste it produces which takes years to finally decompose and the accidents that may occur.

In the article, "Before We Close More Nuclear Power Plants, We Need A National Conversation" (Fox News) it explained the problems with nuclear power in the U.S. More nuclear power plants are closing due to "sluggish demand for electricity, the onset of cheap natural gas, electricity markets that do not sufficiently value low- or zero-carbon electricity sources and an aging, constrained transmission system." There are also public concerns on disasters.  I feel like most of the U.S. does not care about clean energy and the world deteriorating. Everybody cares about natural gas too much and that is not renewable. Like I said in my other posts non-renewable sources should pay higher taxes, and more money should be going to renewable sources to create better carbon-free energy technology. If we shut down more nuclear power plants, we would be taking away thousands of jobs and the CO2 will increase dramatically.
In another article I read from US News was called "Despite New Plants, Nuclear Future Still Decades Away." We have just opened two brand-new nuclear energy plants! This is great news. We have not created a new power plant in 30 years and now we have two new ones! But it did cost 15 Billion which is a lot of money, but was totally worth every penny because it makes peoples energy bills go way down and it is clean electricity. There is a future in nuclear energy and the U.S. Department of Energy sees this. They are allotting 450 million to two new projects which will take about ten years to complete. The Environmental Protection Agency is now trying to make laws for stricter emissions limits for coal-fired power plants. It will make coal producers to install new technology which will make the price of coal go up by about 75%.
Even though there are many doubts about nuclear energy it will one day surpass coal as the biggest producer of electricity and the world will be a much cleaner place to live.

Wind Energy

Wind energy provides only 2% of the total electricity supply. The United States is trying to improve that because it is clean energy, but so many people are really against it including environmentalists. An article by Fox News called "It May be Lights Out for the Wind Energy Come the Midterms." In the article it talked about how wind energy makes peoples' taxes go up. It says a study shows that the states with the most wind farms have the highest electricity bills. The Production Tax Credit is a federal programs that gives out billions of dollars annually to renewable energy companies. To pay for the wind farm taxpayers have to pay taxes for it for ten or more years. The League of Conservation Voters has deep ties with the American Wind Energy Association and some of them are on their committee and together they are a powerhouse.
I did not know that Republicans cared so much about the environment, I thought mainly Democrats only did. But the article does make a good point that the Republicans are getting so much money from the wind energy companies, so they might not even care about the environment, only the money. It is more like a business to them. I really want the U.S. to push towards renewable energy, and wind is a great option in the Midwest, but we need to find better ways to make it cheaper because it is ridicules how we have to pay millions for it and taxpayers have to suffer from it when clean energy should be helping people.
Another article I read from Fox News was called "Bird Conservation Group Challenges Feds Over Wind Farm Eagle Deaths." The American Bird Conservancy has a lawsuit against Obama for giving wind energy companies land permits to kill bald and golden eagles and they are not getting prosecuted by the government. It is for Obama's plan for green energy, and he is giving them permits for thirty years. Wind turbines blades can go up to 170 mph making it like a deadly tornado. Wind Farms in 12 states together have killed about 250 eagles. The U.S government has only sued one company in Wyoming for killing eagles and other birds from their wind farms.
Wind energy reduces greenhouse gas emissions and in the U.S. provides clean energy to 15 million homes. In January of 2015 a law in Colorado will take effect protecting the birds and other wildlife from wind energy. It is the first law in the U.S. of that kind.
I did not realize wind energy is killing this many species. Bald eagles have just gotten off the endangered species list and I definitely do not want them on it again. I was totally for wind energy because it is clean and green, but I am totally rethinking it now. I knew there is always drawbacks to everything, but I did not know they were this bad. Maybe we could use other designs like bladeless wind turbines like the Dutch's Ewicon, so that no other animals get killed.

The World's Largest Solar Farm

The world's largest solar farm is now up and running! This is very exciting news, not only for the U.S., but the whole world. The Topaz Solar Farm in Carrisa Plains, California is a 550-megawatt plant producing enough electricity to power 180,000 homes. The total cost was 2.5 billion dollars. That may seem like a lot of money, but it was totally worth it. "It will displace 377,000 tons of CO2 annually—equivalent to taking 73,000 cars off the road. It will provide $192 million in compensation for approximately 400 construction jobs over a 3-year period; $52 million in economic output for local suppliers and $14 million in sales taxes during construction and up to $400,000 per year in new property tax revenues." These numbers are amazing! Even though it did cost a lot of money for it to get started, all the advantages it has now since it is running are incredible. The solar farm consists of 8 million modules covering 4,700 acres. The area where the panels are at is a desert-like climate, so there is limited productivity there. There are small amounts of vegetation and species there, but there are thousands of arid acres in this general area. The panels are rotated throughout the day, so that they are always in direct sunlight. It mainly just runs on the sun, and there is no water used in production. It will probably run for twenty or more years. On Right This Minute, the newscaster talked about how we needed to find a way to condense solar panels, but still making them efficient. These solar panels took up so most space, and still are not efficient. Another point he mentioned was that we are taking advantage of the blue skies of California by using solar panels there, but solar panels are less efficient in other states because there is not so much direct sunlight. On The Street, Dan Dicker mentioned that the United States should move to residential smaller scale solar panels. The reason for this is because he want all homes to use renewable energy then we can work on larger scale projects. I agree with him because our houses are so inefficient, and we need to find out ways to use solar panels in cities who do not get as much sun as California. On Mad Money, the CEO of  First Solar (the company who did the Topaz Solar Farm) was a guest on the show. He said how solar panels are moving towards the right direction. Solar energy grew by 7.9% globally and are now 20% efficient. By next year there will be 50 gigawatts more of solar energy. In the next five years solar will probably provide 5% of the world's electricity.
Solar energy is the future. It is clean and sustainable. It is abundant, good availability, lowers the cost of electricity, used for many different ways, is silent, and low maintenance. But there are many cons. The expense is ridicules, costing a couple billion dollars to make the technology. It is sometimes not effective because the sun is not always shining brightly, and it takes up a lot of space. People also say that transmission lines are ugly, but if people want electricity, they have to be there. Of course I am pro solar energy and I am satisfied with the progress we have made, but there is always more that we can do.




 

The U.S. Endorses Hydropower

Hydropower is using water to make electricity. They get the power from the kinetic energy at it moves downstream. The water goes to a turbine then a generator and convert it into electricity. That electricity runs on the grid to homes, and other buildings. Hydropower is 100% renewable because it is from water which is great for the environment because it releases no emissions. On the top of the dam is the reservoir where the water gets flowed down to the bottom level. The outflow of the water has lots of animal and marine life like vultures and herons. One of the coolest things about some of the hydropower dams are the fish elevators. They have them so that the fish that went down the dam can go back up to the reservoir. When I went to Conowingo Dam in Maryland they had a building that was next to the waterfall and it had a glass wall so that you could see the fish swim past you. It was so cool! It was hundreds of fish swimming in the elevator at once.

 The problem with the United States is that we have so much water, and not enough hydro-electric dams. We are not using the natural resources we have. For example, the Mississippi River. But there is good news. The U.S. Department of Energy is finally realizing all the pros of using hydropower. There are 80,000 non-powered dams in the U.S. alone. We have so many, but we are not even using them. This is ridiculous! The U.S. could be using so much more renewable energy. If we powered them we could get 12,100 megawatts. It would be 1.5 millions megawatts annually. The Department of Energy is now giving out billions dollars of loans to get that technology working again. This project is part of Obama's Climate Action Plan to cut GHGs and pollution.

Even though hydroelectric dams have many positives like clean, renewable energy and low maintenance costs, there are always drawbacks to everything. The dams take up a lot of space, destroy some of the environment to build them like trees which increases the C02, they flood, and there are high initial costs. I feel like the pros outweigh the cons, and I  think the U.S. is moving towards the right direction.

$3 Gas Prices: Is it Good or Bad?

On a recent post, I have discussed why electric cars are the way to go, but with the recent price drops of gasoline, most Americans would say what is the point? The average price of gasoline is only $3! It is the lowest in four years. Oil prices have dropped by 30% in the last four months! Most Americans are loving these prices because this is the time of the year where we visit our families for the holidays. The main reasons for this drastic price drop is because America is producing more oil and demand is down. In the past ten years, oil was so a huge demand for the United States. We even fought wars for it, but now less people need it. This is because more people are moving towards alternate fuels like natural gas, solar, and geothermal. But America is still trying to produce domestic oil instead of getting it from other countries like Saudi Arabia, who is the biggest producer of oil.They still believe oil is going to be the future, even though a lot of people are realizing the damaging effects it has for the environment which is why demand is down.

Many people think these prices will last, but I totally disagree. These low prices will probably be over before we know it which is a good thing because they are completely unsustainable. This price of oil does not include the cost of the pollution it causes. There should be a tax in oil and all energies that helps with the pollution they cause. We as the United States should be trying to help reduce pollution, and these gas prices show people that gasoline is what the energy we should be using the most when it should not be. These prices are ruining the natural gas business because nobody is going to want it if oil is cheaper. Americans do not really care about the environment, most of them have SUVs. Another reason why these prices are a bad thing is because less people will invest in the production of oil which will affect the supply. The less producers of oil, the more the oil business will become like a dictatorship, probably causing more wars like it did in the Mid East and Ukraine. Instead of the United States investing so much money into oil, I think they should be investing in renewable energy. Renewable energy should be the future. It is cheap and helps the environment and I hope in the next few years the United States can realize that.

Pennsylvania Crowns A New Governor

I cannot believe it! Last Tuesday, Pennsylvania got a new governor named Tom Wolf. Yay! Tom Wolf campaigned on the promise that he was going to raise taxes on the natural gas industry. Tom Corbett, who ran for a second term, was best friends with the frackers in this state and he got most of his money for his campaign from them. He received  $1 million from an Ohio drilling company and  250,000 from a Texas drilling company. Harrisburg is in a debt of $1.2 billion, but Corbett opposed a new tax on natural gas. This new tax money could be going to the School District of Philadelphia which he does not care about at all, but that is a totally different story. The natural gas industry needs to contribute their fair share to the government, it is no fair that so many other industries get higher taxes, wbut the frackers' taxes never go up.
Pennsylvania is moving towards natural gas which I approve of because it is cleaner and better for the environment, but it does has some cons as well. Natural gas in Pennsylvania can bring so many jobs that were taken away when a lot of the coal mines were shut down. It allows us to use our resources and make a profit. Natural gas is widely used, easily transported, and cleaner for the environment than coals because it releases less pollutants like carbon dioxide. It burns pretty efficiently, there is no waste, can be used in cars, and can be used for power generation and heat. You may think that what I said what amazing and that natural gas is the future, but I still think we should learn into other alternatives, especially renewable energy like solar.
Natural gas releases carbon dioxide when burned, is mostly methane which is a huge green house gas, needs extensive pipelines to travel to different states, and it has to be stored under high pressure.  My biggest issue with natural gas is the water pollution. When people frack the natural gas, chemicals always leads usually going into the water supply. This makes people in their homes afraid of using their water. It is totally ridicules that you have to make sure that your water is clean and that you can use it everyday. Other big issues with fracking are it might create earthquakes, it uses so much water in the process, and last but not least, some scientists believe that in the next one hundred years the pollution of natural gas is going to exceed the pollution of coal.
It is going to be interesting to see what Wolf does with the natural gas industry. Is he going to heavily tax them like he said during his campaign, or is he going to give in and take some of the benefits they throw at him? Only time will tell, but I hope he weighs his options and thinks about the future of Pennsylvania.

Electric Cars?

With electric cars like the Tesla Model S and the Nissan Leaf are there actually benefits of getting an electric car? To most scientists, the answer is yes. The difference between the amount of green house gas emissions (GHGs) is enormous. If you took a 100-mile trip with a car with a great gas mileage, you would be putting a whopping 87 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air. And just think, that is only one car. If you get an all electric car, and take a 100-mile trip you would only be putting 54 pounds of CO2. Helping the environment can be helpful for us in the long term, but most Americans only care about how much money they have in their wallet right now. Well most of them will be very surprised about the money they could save by getting an electric car. If you did that 100-mile trip on a gasoline-powered car you would spend $13.36. If you did that same trip with an electric car you would only be spending $3.74! People spend more than that on their lunch everyday. Not only do you save money on a day-to-day basis on electricity, you save money the first day you drive it off the lot. In the state of Pennsylvania you could get a $2000 rebate when you buy an electric car. Not only are you saving the planet, but you're saving money doing it.
Even though a lot of scientists are for electric cars, there are always haters. Some say most electric cars run on batteries that are powered by a plant that burns fossil fuels, and thus there are not many benefits of electric cars. The Union of Concerned Scientists say that most people with electric cars get their electricity from coal, so their cars are not any cleaner than gas-powered cars. Those scientists need to get their facts straight because I think most electric cars do get charged from a grid. "60 percent of Americans live in regions where E.V.s charged with grid electricity are responsible for fewer heat-trapping global warming emissions per mile than even the most efficient hybrids." Even though people may differ on their opinions of electric cars, either way electricity should be more efficient and only from renewable sources. We should be looking more into the techniques we use today like wind, solar, geothermal, and water but also new ideas people are coming up with. With all the new technologies, I have confidence that we are going to make the electric car more efficient and even better for the environment. Who knows, maybe by 2020 not only will most Americans be driving electric cars, but the whole world.