Alternative Energy Research Paper

Alternative Energy

Carbon dioxide that is released each day will stay in the earth’s atmosphere for the next 100 years. Alternative Energy is a kind of replacement energy that does not emit carbon dioxide. This energy is developed primarily to stop the increasing of warmth on earth, which is also the main cause for “Global warming effect”. Alternative energy sources are renewable and also “ free” energy sources. Those energy sources include Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Geothermal Energy, Biomass Energy, and Hydroelectric Energy. The Global investment for renewable power increased from 17% to a record of $257 billion in 2011. The developing countries made up 35% of the total investment.. Alternative Energy helps the developing countries to set a foot in the door towards getting ahead in the economic development and also plays a major role in sustaining the Planet’s life support system.

The use of alternative energy started far before other energy sources were made but the first time when it became more popular and people became concerned about the topic was in the 1960’s. The first geothermal power plant was built in the U.S in 1962 and his till today the largest producing geothermal field in the world. The subject of clean energy sources got a lot of attention drawn to it after the oil spill in Santa Barbara in 1969 which showed the environmental consequences of energy exploitation. In 1970 the Geothermal Steam Act passed to allow the leasing of federal land for geothermal energy development to encourage the development of this energy source. In 1970 Dr. Eliott Berman created a new less expensive solar cell which became Cost effective for use on land and got really useful for needed electricity distant from power lines. In 1975 the Wind Energy Development advanced by the federal involvement to advance wind energy Technology. In the mid 1970’s till the mid 1980’s the U.S government had worked with the industry to enable large commercial wind turbines and advance the technology. This research was led by the NASA . This research was really successful which included 13 experimental wind turbines that were put into operation, which included five major wind turbine designs. The large wind turbines that were developed set multiple world records for power and diameter output. In 1977 U.S president Jimmy Carter drew with a famous speech attention to the imminent energy shortage and explains how the country needs to change its way of energy use.
This is part of his speech: ” Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power..”. In 1977 the Global Department of Energy launches a Solar Energy Research Institute, which was the first global facility that was dedicated to harnessing power from the sun. It got renamed in 1991 to the International Renewable Energy Laboratory. The World’s first Solar powered village was finished in 1978 in Tohono O’odham Reservation, Arizona. In 2003 President Bush exposes the hydrogen fuel initiative to promote Hydrogen fuel cell development. In 2009 the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act contains Billions of Dollars for Renewable Energy and Energy efficiency developments. This history of the renewable energy sources shows the increasing need and interest or this kind of energy.

The increase of the use of those energy sources in the past years and also the knowledge that the global energy need can be covered by alternative energy makes these energy sources really interesting for developing economies. The developing countries are also motivated to have built the majority of the new electrical capacity because the impact of the climate change will affect these countries the most. Renewable energy helps the developing countries to reduce the vulnerability to rising global energy prices, a competitive

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