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Geothermal Energy	View Forum
2 posts	Most Recent 8/7/2007 4:33:20 PM

This renewable energy source uses heat that is deep within the earth. This heat energy from molten rocks underground produces hot water and steam. The steam drives turbines that generate electrical energy. The hot water can be piped to homes. The use of geothermal energy is inexhaustible and will last as long as the Earth. The use of geothermal energy was pioneered in Italy in 1904.

Hydropower	View Forum
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Hydropower is a renewable power source that currently accounts for 20 percent of the world's total energy production. The oldest machines for capturing energy from water were waterwheels, which date from the time of Greece and Rome. Waterwheels have also been used to saw lumber, weave cloth, and grind grain. The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity happened in 1880 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Norway produces virtually all of its electricity from its abundant hydropower sources.

Wave Energy	View Forum
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Wave energy is a renewable energy that produces the generation of electricity through conversion of ocean current, swell, tidal, or wave action. Even the thermal gradient of the oceans surface is being converted to a usable form of energy. Wave power generation is not a widely employed technology, the world's first commercial wave farm, the Agu�adora Wave Park in Portugal, was established in 2006. In the United States, the Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative is funding the building of a commercial wave-power park at Reedsport, Oregon. There are multiple devices in various stages of development that convert the power of the waves into electricity.

Hydrogen	View Forum
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Hydrogen is a gas that can be combusted like other fuels, or it can be converted to electricity in fuel cells. It only forms water or steam as an exhaust product, with virtually no negative environmental impact. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe but it must first be produced from other sources like water in a process called electrolysis.

Solar Energy	View Forum
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Energy from the sun is our planet's greatest source of energy. Solar energy can be used in two ways, passively and actively. Passive solar energy is used mainly through the position and the design of buildings to best take advantage of the sun. Active solar energy requires the installation of special equipment. There are two types of active solar systems: photovoltaics (PV) and thermal.

Wind Energy	View Forum
1 posts	Most Recent 8/27/2007 1:42:03 PM

This renewable energy source has unlimited energy generating potential. It is the fastest growing segment of the renewable energy market in recent years. Wind turbines were first developed in 1891. Wind power does not produce air emissions, generate solid waste, or use water.

Waste to Energy	View Forum
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Waste-to-energy refers to any waste treatment that creates energy in the form of electricity or heat from a waste source that would have been disposed of in a landfill, otherwise known as municipal solid waste. Waste-to-energy is a renewable energy because its fuel source, garbage, is sustainable and is not depleted. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, waste-to-energy is a clean, reliable, renewable source of energy. Today, the U.S. burns 14 percent of its solid waste and there are 90 waste-to-energy plants in the United States.

Bio Based Energy	View Forum
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Bio-based energy is any energy produced from organic matter that is renewable including plants, aquatic plants, animal wastes, and municipal wastes. This matter is typically referred to as biomass. Biomass is processed through a variety of methods to produce energy. Examples of bio-based energy products are; biodiesel, ethanol, and methane.

Biodiesel	View Forum
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Biodiesel is is a petrol-diesel substitute, produced from vegetable oil. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. Biodiesel is biodegradable and nontoxic. Biodiesel is considered to be a renewable energy because it is produced from plants, a renewable resource.

Ethanol	View Forum
2 posts	Most Recent 8/27/2007 8:50:49 PM

Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops. Crops for this fuel include corn, barley, and wheat. Ethanol can also be produced from cellulosic biomass such as trees and grasses. It is considered renewable because it is made of plants.

Ethanol is most commonly used to increase octane and improve the emissions quality of gasoline. Ethanol can be mixed with gasoline; a common mixture is E10, which is 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline. Flex-fuel vehicles can run on E85 which is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline. New technology has been developed that can easily convert a conventional petrol-fuel engine to run on any mix of ethanol, even E100.

Biomass	View Forum
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Biomass can be used for fuels, power production, and products that would otherwise be made from fossil fuels. Wood is the largest biomass renewable energy resource today but other sources of biomass can also be used. Other sources include food crops, grassy and woody plants, and the organic component of municipal and industrial wastes. Even the fumes from landfills can be used as a biomass energy source. Next to hydropower, more electricity is generated from biomass than any other renewable energy resource in the United States. The 2005 Energy Act mandated that 250 million gallons of ethanol be produced from cellulose materials by 2012.

Fuel from Animals	View Forum
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Power plants have been designed to produce methane gas by digestion of animal waste. Animal waste includes livestock and poultry manure, dairy wastewater, feedlot runoff, silage juices from silos, and wasted feed. Animal waste reduces the need for commercial fertilizer; it adds organic matter to soil and improves the water holding capacity of the soil. The residue will be recycled. This is recycled by returning it to the farms where it can be used as a fertilizer. Fuel from animal waste is a renewable energy. The source of this energy is plentiful and constant; the waste product is utilized effectively and contributes to the continuous generation of an efficient energy source.

Fossil Fuels	View Forum
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There are three main types of this non-renewable energy source: coal, oil, and natural gas. These are called fossil fuels because they were formed millions of years ago. The energy originally came from the Sun and was stored as potential energy by photosynthesis in plants and tiny organisms such as algae and plankton. Bacteria and the pressure of the Earth on these remains converted the living organisms into coal, oil, and natural gas.

Oil	View Forum
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Oil or petroleum is a non-renewable fossil fuel formed from the decayed remains of plants and animals that lived millions of years ago. The word "petroleum" means "rock oil" or "oil from the earth".

Coal	View Forum
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Coal is a non-renewable fossil fuel. Coal is black or brownish-black sedimentary rock made mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons. It is the most abundant fossil fuel produced in the United States and is mined in 27 states. The energy in coal comes from the energy stored by plants that lived hundreds of millions of years ago. For millions of years a layer of dead plants was covered by layers of water and dirt, trapping the energy of the dead plants. The heat and pressure from the top layers turned the plant remains into coal.

Natural Gas	View Forum
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Natural gas is a combustible, gaseous mixture of simple hydrocarbon compounds, usually found in deep underground reservoirs formed by porous rock. Natural gas is a fossil fuel composed almost entirely of methane, but does contain small amounts of other gases, including ethane, propane, butane and pentane.

Nuclear Energy	View Forum
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Nuclear power plants use nuclear fission to produce energy. In nuclear fission, the nuclei of atoms are split, causing energy to be released. The element uranium is the main fuel used to undergo nuclear fission to produce energy. A nuclear power plant, like other electricity producing power plants, simply boils water to produce steam, which turns turbines which produce electricity. The main difference is that with nuclear fission the heat generated from the fission heats the water instead of the water being heated by using oil, gas or coal.

Energy Conservation	View Forum
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Renewable energy is important and conservation is another big part of the equation. There are many things that anyone can do to help - it all boils down to little things that add up to big savings on the utility bill and the environment.

Energy Policies	View Forum
1 posts	Most Recent 8/7/2007 11:46:49 AM

A new energy economy is being born and the era of cheap oil is drawing to a close. The world's oil producers are being required to drill deeper in ever more challenging parts of the world. With diminishing oil discoveries and greatly escalating world consumption of fossil fuels, the future is certain to include increased fuel prices, fuel shortages, and increased competition with developing countries.