the benefits of renewable energy

8/6/2019 The Benefits of Renewable Energy

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The benefits of renewable energy extend to stimulating the economy and creating job opportunities. The moneythat is invested in renewable energy is typically spent on materials and staff that build and maintain equipmentinstead of importing energy. The money spent on renewable energy stays in the United States for the most part,often within the same state or county.Renewable energy that is made and developed in the United States is being sold to overseas countries. This meansthat the United States trade deficit is being improved. When the oil supply was interrupted in the 1970s the U.S.

became more dependent on supplies from foreign nations. This has an impact on energy nationwide. The benefitsof renewable energy will help to alleviate many issues related to this dependence.The use of fossil fuels makes the U.S. vulnerable to political instabilities, trade disputes, embargoes and a variety ofother impacts. The fact that we rely on other countries for our energy has not done us any favors in recent years.

As a nation we stand to benefit greatly from making the change to using renewable fuels to supply our energyneeds. But what are the benefits of renewable energy to ordinary people like you and I?There are many benefits of renewable energy to the ordinary citizen and business owner. Homeowners will reaprewards from using renewable energy and energy-efficient appliances by saving money in the long run andreducing environmental impacts. It also renders us able to fuel our homes independently in many cases. Usingrenewable fuels makes us less dependent.Small business owners will also reap the benefits of renewable energy. They will save money on utilities. Even

providers of electricity can benefit from selling clean power. There are also many job opportunities for

professionals who can invent ways of using renewable energy easily and efficiently in our homes and businesses.The more products that are available the cheaper they will become.Many states now offer tax incentives to those who are using or planning to install clean energy systems for lighting,heating and the running of appliances. The government wants to make it easier for consumers to make the switchto clean energy. This means that tax credits will enable you to reap the benefits of renewable energy.

A variety of tax incentives are available for individuals and businesses who want to go green. The benefits ofrenewable energy installations range from tax waivers, credits, deductions and change in tax status. So not onlywill you save money in utilities youll save on taxes too.The advantages of non-renewable energy are found in two areas: cost and availability. Most of the energy-consuming products that run off of non-renewable energy sources have very little real competition from similar orcomparable products that utilize renewable sources. For example, it is difficult to find a car or truck that runs off ofrechargeable battery power, solar power, or electricity. If you did find one, it would be less efficient (wouldn't go as

fast, be as practical, etc.) and cost a LOT more. The disadvantages, of course, are that they are non-renewable,meaning that when they're gone, they're gone. You can't replace natural gas, oil, or coal. Also, mining for thesesources at such an intense rate can have devastating environmental effects.Renewable energy, on the other hand, provides for cleaner, environmentally friendlier power sources. Once fullydeveloped, they have the potential to be much more cost efficient (consider solar power; it's not like the sun is amarket-based commodity that can be over or under produced to obtain a better selling price). However, until thistype of power source is fully integrated into the market, products utilizing it will remain more expensive, less readilyavailable, and more of a unique alternative rather than viable competitor.

The advantage of renewable energy is that we will never run out. The disadvantage is we have to work hard to havesolar powered cars and homes. The is no advantage of non-renewable energy. The disadvantage of non-renewableenergy is that we will never get that energy back and that we have to use some of our most endangered resources

to create more non-renewable energy.enewable energy sources:

y SolarAdvantages:

y Infinite energy resourceDisadvantages:

y Expensive manufacturing and implementing of solar panels

y Wind


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Advantages:y Infinite energy resource

Disadvantages:y Expensive manufacturing and implementing of windmills and windfarms

y Tidal

Advantages:y A very large amount of energy could be generated in this wayy A barrage could be used in various ways: as a bridge or as a barrage against flooding

Disadvantages:y Construction of barrage could be expensivey Wildlife could be affected

y GeothermalAdvantages:

y Infinite energy resourceDisadvantages:

y Could be used just in volcanic regions

y Setting up could be expensive

y BiomassAdvantages:

y Infinite energy resource, if replacedDisadvantages:

y Pollution with greenhouse gasses, when it's burnt

y WoodAdvantages:

y An available cheap source of energyDisadvantages:

y Pollution with greenhouse gasses, when it's burnty If the process of replantation of trees is interrupted, could become an non-renewable energy sourcey The non-renewable energy resource refer to different types of fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum

products, and natural gas. There are two major disadvantages of non-renewable energy resources. All thereserves of these fuels will be depleted sooner or later and we will run out of their supplies. This willhappen for petroleum products and natural gas much faster than for coal. Other major problem with thesefuel is the pollution created by their use.

y The major advantages of non-renewable energy sources are low cost and ease of use. But both theseadvantage may be diluted over a period as prices of such fuel rise withe depleting resources, and as bettertechnologies are developed for use of renewable energy sources.

y Renewable energy sources, as the name signifies, can be renewed or regenerated, therefor we will not runout of their supplies with use. This is their biggest advantage over non-renewable energy sources.

Renewable energy sources includes a very wide range of sources including, running water (as in rivers),wind power, tidal power, solar power, bio-fuels and geo-thermal heat. THere is also the nuclear power,which is really a non-renewable source of energy, but because of vast reserves of nuclear materialavailable may be treated as renewable source of energy.

y The major advantage most of the renewable energy is the high cost of equipment required for using them.Also use of bio-fuels is not as convenient as the fossil fuel. Also the current supplies of bio-fuels is limited.It is expected with further development and research, availability and quality of bio fuels will increase and

prices will reduce. Similarly technologies are being developed to make use of other renewable energysources more economical and convenient.


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y Nuclear energy poses special problems of sfety in operation of nuclear power plants as well as disposal ofnuclear waste.

The earth has a limited amount of water. That water keeps going around and around and around and around and(well, you get the idea) in what we call the "WaterCycle".This cycle is made up of a few main parts:

y evaporation (and transpiration)y condensationy precipitationy collection

Evaporation:

y Evaporation is when the sun heats up water in rivers or lakes or the ocean and turns it into vapor orsteam. The water vapor or steam leaves the river, lake or ocean and goes into the air.

Condensation:

y Water vapor in the air gets cold and changes back into liquid, forming clouds. This is called condensation.y Precipitation:y Precipitation occurs when so much water has condensed that the air cannot hold it anymore. The clouds

get heavy and water falls back to the earth in the form of rain, hail, sleet or snow.y Collection:y When water falls back to earth as precipitation, it may fall back in the oceans, lakes or rivers or it may end

up on land. When it ends up on land, it will either soak into the earth and become part of the groundwater that plants and animals use to drink or it may run over the soil and collect in the oceans, lakes orrivers where the cycle starts

y Earth's WaterCycley Wateris always on the move. Rain falling where you live may have been water in the ocean just days

before. And the water you see in a river or stream may have been snow on a high mountaintop.y Water can be in the atmosphere, on the land, in the ocean, and even underground. It is recycled over and

over through the water cycle. In the cycle, water changes state between liquid, solid (ice), and gas (watervapor).

y Most water vapor gets into the atmosphere by a process calledevaporation. This process turns the waterthat is at the top of the ocean, rivers, and lakes into water vapor in the atmosphere using energy from theSun. Water vapor can also form from snow and ice through the process of sublimation and can evaporatefrom plants by a process calledtranspiration.

y The water vapor rises in the atmosphere and cools, forming tiny water droplets by a process calledcondensation. Those water droplets make up clouds. If those tiny water droplets combine with each otherthey grow larger and eventually become too heavy to stay in the air. Then they fall to the ground as rain,snow, and other types ofprecipitation.

y Most of the precipitation that falls becomes a part of the ocean or part ofrivers, lakes, and streams thateventually lead to the ocean. Some of the snow andice that falls as precipitation stays at the Earth surface

in glaciers and other types of ice. Some of the precipitation seeps into the ground and becomes a part ofthe groundwater.

y Water stays in certain places longer than others. A drop of water may spend over 3,000 years in the oceanbefore moving on to another part of the water cycle while a drop of water spends an average of just eightdays in the atmosphere before falling back to Earth.

Wash clothes only when you have a full load.


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Turn the faucet off when brushing teeth or shaving.

Avoid flushing the toilet unnecessarily.

Dispose of tissues and other waste in the trash caninstead of the toilet.5(a) Soil - Mixture of minerals, organic material, living organisms, air, and water.

SoilConservation PracticesContour Farming - Tilling at right angles to the slope of the land. Each ridge acts as a small damStrip Farming - Alternating strips of closely sown crops to slow water flow.Terracing - Level areas constructed at right angles to the slope to retain water - good for very steep land.Waterways - Depressions in sloping land where water collects and flows off the land.Windbreaks - Planting of trees or other plants that protect bare soil from full force of the wind.Wetlands restoration - Wetlands are marsh-like areas of shallow water that usually lie between cropland and lakesor streams.

Farm ponds are formed by building a dam across an existing gully or low-lying area. Ponds help prevent soilerosion and protect water quality by collecting and storing run-off water.

Diverting acres means taking land completely out of crop production, usually for many consecutive years. Duringthat time, cover crops such as dense-rooted grasses and trees are planted. This land receives the benefits ofreduced wind and water erosion, increased organic matter, improved soil structure, better moisture retention andimproved water infiltration.

Conservation tillage is any crop-farming system that leaves about one third of the soil covered after planting. Sometypes of conservation tillage you may hear about are no-till, strip-till, ridge-till and mulch-till. In all of these systems,some of the residue from the previous years crop is left on the field. This leaves more organic matter on the field tobuild new soil, while helping to hold current soil in place rather than blowing or washing away. Conservation tillagealso helps soils maintain moisture, and helps minimize the loss of nutrients and crop-protection products thatfarmers apply to fields.

Crop rotation is performed when crops grown in a field are changed from year to year. Some crops, like corn, leavea lot of plant residue behind, so the next years crop can be planted with very little disturbance to the soil. Croprotation is a common practice on sloping soils because of its

Pasture and hayland areoften grown onsoils that are toosteep for row cropproduction.The heavy plantcover andtiny,dense root systemsof grass oralfalfa slow waterflow across the land and helpkeep soil in place, just the waynative prairie grasses kept soilfrom eroding. Pastures and hayland protect waterquality because the dense plantsand roots filterrunoff water. They also provide a good habitat forwildlife, and, as their plants recycle and roots die,organic matter enriches the soil

Planned grazing systems are used by cattleand sheep farmersto keep their pastureshealthy andprevent themfrom becomingerodable. Large pastures aredivided into sectionsor paddockswith fencing, andanimals are

moved from onesection to thenext in a planned rotation as plant

Fertilizing with manure may be one of the oldest ways farmers have helped to save and improve the soil. When livestock manure is applied to fields, it makes the

soil more fertile by naturally adding nitrogen, making it unnecessary to add chemical fertilizers.

Conservation buffers are small areas or strips of land planted in permanent vegetation, which is usually a type ofgrass and/or legume like alfalfa. Trees and shrubs also are sometimes used. Some common types of conservationbuffers are:


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Field borders Permanent vegetation planted in strips at the edge of fields.Filter strips Strips of grass or other vegetation used to slow run-off from a field. Often, filter strips serve as fieldborders.Grassed waterways Strips of grass planted in areas of fields where water naturally runs through or off fields orwhere water is concentrated, such as lower, field-draining areas of the land.Riparian buffers Planting of trees, shrubs and grasses on the edge of streams. Riparian means at a stream

edge. The purpose of planting buffers is to slow water run-off from fields, and to trap sediment, nutrients,pesticides and other pollutants before they reach a lake or stream. They provide good habitat for wildlife. They alsocan help to stabilize stream banks, reduce the risk of gully erosion, and preventdownstream flooding

Point source pollution refers to contaminants that enter a waterway through a discrete conveyance, such as apipe

orditch. Examples of sources in this category include discharges from a sewage treatmentplant, a factory, or a city

storm drain. The U.S. Clean Water Act(CWA) defines point source forregulatoryenforcement purposes.[8]The CWA

definition of point source was amended in 1987 to include municipalstorm sewersystems, as well as industrial

stormwater, such as from construction sites.[9]

[edit]Nonpoint source pollution

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution refers to diffuse contamination that does not originate from a single discretesource. NPS pollution is often the cumulative effect of small amounts of contaminants gathered from a large area.The leaching out ofnitrogen compounds from agricultural land which has been fertilized is a typical example.Nutrientrunoffin stormwaterfrom "sheet flow" over an agricultural fieldor a forestare also cited as examples ofNPS pollution.

Contaminated storm water washed off ofparking lots, roads andhighways, calledurban runoff, is sometimes

included under the category ofNPS pollution. However, this runoff is typically channeled into storm drain systemsand discharged through pipes to local surface waters, and is a point source. However where such water is notchanneled and drains directly to ground it is a non-point source.

Water pollution occurs when a body of water is adversely affected due to the addition of large amounts of materialsto the water. The sources of water pollution are categorized as being a point source or a non-source point of

pollution.Point sources of pollution occur when the polluting substance is emitted directly into the waterway. Apipe spewing toxic chemicals directly into a river is an example. A non-point source occurs when there is runoff ofpollutants into a waterway, for instance when fertilizer from a field is carried into a stream by surface runoff.

Types of WaterPollution

Toxic Substance -- A toxic substance is a chemical pollutant that is not a naturally occurring substance in aquaticecosystems. The greatest contributors to toxic pollution are herbicides, pesticides and industrial compounds.

Organic Substance -- Organic pollution occurs when an excess of organic matter, such as manure or sewage, enters the waWhen organic matter increases in a pond, the number of decomposers will increase. These decomposers grow rapidly and ua great deal of oxygen during their growth. This leads to a depletion of oxygen as the decomposition process occurs. A lackoxygen can kill aquatic organisms. As the aquatic organisms die, they are broken down by decomposers which leads to furtdepletion of the oxygen levels.


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A type of organic pollution can occur when inorganic pollutants such as nitrogen and phosphates accumulate inaquatic ecosystems. High levels of these nutrients cause an overgrowth of plants and algae. As the plants andalgae die, they become organic material in the water. The enormous decay of this plant matter, in turn, lowers theoxygen level. The process of rapid plant growth followed by increased activity by decomposers and a depletion ofthe oxygen level is called eutrophication.

ThermalPollution -- Thermal pollution can occur when water is used as a coolant near a power or industrial plantand then is returned to the aquatic environment at a higher temperature than it was originally. Thermal pollutioncan lead to a decrease in the dissolved oxygen level in the water while also increasing the biological demand ofaquatic organisms for oxygen.

EcologicalPollution -- Ecological pollution takes place when chemical pollution, organic pollution or thermalpollution are caused by nature rather than by human activity. An example of ecological pollution would be anincreased rate of siltation of a waterway after a landslide which would increase the amount of sediments in runoffwater. Another example would be when a large animal, such as a deer, drowns in a flood and a large amount oforganic material is added to the water as a result. Major geological events such as a volcano eruption might also besources of ecological pollution.

Specific Sources of WaterPollutionFarming:

y Farms often use large amounts of herbicides and pesticides, both of which are toxic pollutants. Thesesubstances are particularly dangerous to life in rivers, streams and lakes, where toxic substances canbuild up over a period of time.

y Farms also frequently use large amounts of chemical fertilizers that are washed into the waterways anddamage the water supply and the life within it. Fertilizers can increase the amounts of nitrates and

phosphates in the water, which can lead to the process of eutrophication.

y

Allowing livestock to graze near water sources often results in organic waste products being washed intothe waterways. This sudden introduction of organic material increaces the amount of nitrogen in the water,and can also lead to eutrophication.

y Four hundred million tons of soil are carried by the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico each year. Agreat deal of this siltation is due to runoff from the exposed soil of agricultural fields. Excessive amountsof sediment in waterways can block sunlight, preventing aquatic plants from photosynthesizing, and cansuffocate fish by clogging their gills.

Business:

y Clearing of land can lead to erosion of soil into the river.

y Waste and sewage generated by industry can get into the water supply, introducing large organicpollutants into the ecosystem.

y Many industrial and power plants use rivers, streams and lakes to despose of waste heat. The resulting hotwater can cause thermal pollution. Thermal pollution can have a disasterous effect on life in an aquatic


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ecosystem as temperature increaces decreace the amount of oxygen in the water, thereby reducing thenumber of animals that can survive there.

y Water can become contaminated with toxic or radioactive materials from industry, mine sites andabandoned hazardous waste sites.

y Acid precipitation is caused when the burning of fossil fuels emits sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere. Thesulfur dioxide reacts with the water in the atmosphere, creating rainfall which contains sulfuric acid. Asacid precipitation falls into lakes, streams and ponds it can lower the overall pH of the waterway, killingvital plant life, thereby affecting the whole food chain. It can also leach heavy metals from the soil into thewater, killing fish and other aquatic organisms. Because of this, air pollution is potentially one of the mostthreatening forms of pollution to aquatic ecosystems.

Homes:

y Sewage generated by houses or runoff from septic tanks into nearby waterways, introduce organicpollutants that can cause eutrophication.

y Fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides used for lawn care can runoff and contaminate the waterway. As withagriculteral fertilizers, home fertilizers can lead to the eutrophication of lakes and rivers.

y Improper disposal of hazardous chemicals down the drain itroduce toxic materials into to the ecosystem,contaminating the water supplies in a way that can harm aquatic organisms.

y Leaks of oil and antifreeze from a car on a driveway can be washed off by the rain into nearby waterways,polluting it.

Air pollution

Premature death Aggravated asthma Respiratory-related emergency room visits and hospital admissions Acute respiratory symptoms Chronic bronchitis Decreased lung function (shortness of breath) People with existing heart and lung disease, as well as the elderly and children, are particularly at risk

Premature death Aggravated asthma Respiratory-related emergency room visits and hospital admissions

Acute respiratory symptoms Chronic bronchitis Decreased lung function (shortness of breath) People with existing heart and lung disease, as well as the elderly and children, are particularly at risk


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the benefits of renewable energy

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