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Posts Tagged ‘alternative fuels’

Today climate change is acknowledged by all except the most doubtful skeptics.  Warmer temperatures in areas where its supposed to be cool, scorching summers, and bone chilling winters have become a pattern that we no longer can simply ignore.

What The War About?

The demand for cheap energy is causing people to become desperate and many are turning to bio-fuel like it’s the cure for all energy shortages. So what is bio-fuel? It is any gaseous, solid, or liquid material derived from biological materials.  Bio-fuel’s raw materials are usually agricultural crops that  undergo fermentation and certain other processes in order to produce bio-fuel. Crops made into bio-fuel can not be eaten, thus begins the conflict.

The Problem

Those countries with the highest number of vehicles running their roads like the United States, England and most of the European nations want more and more fuel. Because bio-fuel is made from corn, sugarcane, palm oil, vegetable oil, etc, most often from crops grown in Third World Countries, competition has grown between food and bio-fuels.

In Mexico, there is now a “tortilla crisis”. Corn, which is the basic ingredient of tortilla, is now being sold at five times the price it once sold for. The reason for the increased prices? The demand of corn for making bio-fuel.  Why sell corn for a dollar when you can now get five dollars because the demand is much higher.

Who Suffers?

Highly developed countries will have to import produce from the third world countries to fuel their increasing demand for bio-energy.  Third world countries are usually tropical ones located near the equator.  Longer growing season produce higher yields of corn and  other crops needed to manufacture bio-fuel. However, for these countries corn is also used for food. So is sugar cane. For the first world too produce enough bio-fuel,  people in poorer countries must work longer and harder to be able to afford the higher prices or go without the most basic of all necessities: food.

A Compromise

So what should we do? We must solve the problems of the environment and pollution caused by using fossil fuels, but in doing so we are creating another equally important problem.  If the farm laborers can’t afford food, who will till the land to supply the crops for bio-fuel?

Sustainable energy is supposed to improve life, not make it harder. The solution may be that develped countries will need to find a way to help underdeveloped counties plant new crops. These crops must not be those intended for use by local consumers. Stringent rules governing pricing and distribution will be necessary to keep those crops used for food sources separate from those planted for energy.

Sustainable power means the world working hand in hand to create a better way of life for all. A successful solution to the competing demands for food and bio-fuel crops will require hard work, dedication and compromise.

The use of solar power for home use has become a popular alternative in the United States and other parts of the world. The main advantage of solar power use is that it has very little cost to run and none of the noise and waste pollution attendant to existing power generation facilities. But one of the main obstacles is the high installation cost of solar electric panels.

Currently, the cost for the installation of solar power panels in a home is not yet affordable to the average homeowner. But the current technological advances are making the cost of the materials lower and more efficient and it will only take a few more years when the average home would have solar panels for heating and lighting standard.  It may sound like out of a science fiction story but it will become reality soon enough.  And it will then be one of the cheapest new alternative fuels we have available.

This goal is easily achievable because of the realization that after installation of the solar panel, the cost of generating electricity is practically nil. This is the best part of the deal, because one would need not worry about monthly bills and conserve energy goals would be necessarily eliminated as the source for energy is nearly limitless. Also, the absence of any lost power due to expenses and administrative costs for distribution would be eliminated as the solar power generated is directly consumed by the home and the power stored would be in batteries for the home.Once you recover your setup costs, the solar power you get each month thereafter pays you back, try to get that will a fossil fuel. This is why we need more alternative fuel sources.  

And the long-term costs are also eliminated. Unlike fossil fuel power generation, chemical emissions and the harmful extraction of this resource has pretty much altered the atmospheric landscape of our planet. In solar power, there is no chemical waste produced and no harmful by product is introduced to the environment. With this, the over-all costs of power production and consumption would be eliminated and replaced by clean, renewable and environmentally sound power source for all. And best of all, the costs of solar power is recovered in a few years as it pays for itself, then you have free power for life.