Alternative Powers Sources

As our oil reserves are getting fewer and fewer and also the health of our planet is becoming increasingly more important, people are looking to turn to different alternative fuels supplies in order to reduce our carbon footprint and also reliance on fossil fuels.

More and more money is being spent on researching technology which will help alternative power sources become more viable for the future. As the technology improves and also peopleâ??s awareness grows bigger, these alternatives become more financially viable and also popular with people around the world.

• Hydro Electric
• Wind Farms
• Solar Power
• Hydrogen Power

A lot of the technology is very specific in where it is suitable though and can also take quite a large investment. But if you do have the space, are in the right location and also have the money to invest, then investing in alternative power solution is definitely worth it.

Hydro Electric Power

Not everyone has a large river on their property that they can dam up and make a hydro electric power station, so this is one which is best left to the worldâ??s governments who can afford such things. There is an environmental cost to making one of these as well as a very large amount of concrete has to be used and also a large area of water will become flooded. This leaves plants and wildlife forced from their habitat throwing the local environment out of balance. There are areas where this is an excellent choice though, and the Hoover Dam in the USA is a good example of this.

Wind Farms

Wind farms are also a great alternative way of producing power and are a lot cheaper than building a hydro electric dam. This is a very clean way of producing power although just like with making a dam, there is an impact on the environment. A wind farm is basically a big windmill, the wind pushes the blades around, and this in turn makes the motor go round generating electricity. To make these efficient though the blades of the windmill need to be quite large and this means the overall size of the wind turbine is quite big. As you will need to have lots of turbines in order to generate sufficient amounts of electricity, this can leave quite an eyesore on the landscape. Not only can it look very unattractive, but the sound of all of the blades turning round can make a lot of noise pollution as well. One answer is to put the turbines off the coast out at sea, although this is even more costly and still ends up spoiling someoneâ??s views!

Solar Power

Image by now picnic via flickr

A very efficient and relatively cheap alternative power source is solar power. The technology has been around for quite a while, over 50 years, but it is only with technology increasing that the solar panel has become a lot more efficient. For this to be a suitable power source though you do need to live in an area which has a lot of sunlight, there are also various different types of systems that you can install so you will need to speak to experts before investing in this technology and going out and buying yourself some cheap solar panels. You can pretty much hide the solar panels on the roof of your house, and there is no noise pollution either. Depending on the type of system that you invest in and the amount of energy you can produce, you can not only cater for all of your power needs but actually sell your surplus power to the utility companies and make money as well. You may even be lucky enough to get a grant to help subsidize the cost of installing a solar power system in your home or workplace.

Hydrogen Power

Hydrogen power is like the Holy Grail of the alternative power sources. It is almost within our grasp at present and some vehicle manufacturers have produced working hydrogen machines. The city of Basel in Switzerland has, for some number of years, had Hydrogen powered street sweeper cleaning the roads. Hydrogen is a clean and reliable power source with an abundance of availability. The one downside though is that the cost of the current technology makes it prohibitive. Technology changes at a very fast pace though, just look at computers 20 years ago, your average wrist watch today has more computing power! Soon the price of the technology will come down, and we will make a huge advancement towards removing our reliability from fossil fuels and making our planet much cleaner in the process.

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Max Johnson wrote this article for Avic International who offers wholesale solar panels from China. Max is a keen environmentalist who likes to share his ideas and views in the articles and blogs that he writes.