Energy Resource Challenges

CheckPoint – Energy Resource Challenges

The video presents several forms of renewable energy.   Wind power, solar energy, and biomass fermentation are all discuss.   The video fails to mention hydroelectric power, which is a very clean form of renewable energy. Wind power is generate through wind turbines.   The turbines spin and create electricity when the wind is forceful enough to move the wind collectors, which resemble airplane propellers.

Solar energy collected through solar panels and solar concentrators.   The solar concentrators focus the sun’s rays and turn an engine to create electricity.   This form of energy is so efficient, the man in the video is able to power his home and sell electricity back to the electric company.
Biomass fermentation is use for produce fuel-grade ethanol.   Seemingly, any type of plant material containing the correct sugars can be subject to a conversion process to create ethanol.

One of the challenges in using these alternative energy sources is the lack of urgency to do so in the U.S.   Low gas prices have kept Americans in their gasoline-powered cars for decades.   Just proving that renewable energy is viable remains a struggle.

A major challenge in managing nonrenewable energy sources is mitigating the damage done to the environment.   Burning coal and any other fossil fuel releases CO2 into the air, contributing to global warming.   Acid deposition is a direct result of coal burning.   The potential for an oil spill is always presents, when oil spill’s ecosystems are being ruin for generations.   Perhaps one issue challenging future generations’ is that there is a finite amount of nonrenewable energy resources.   The Earth is unable to reproduce quickly enough to keep up with demand, and soon there will no longer be able to depend on oil because there will be none.