Renewable+Resources

Renewable Resources
===Please post in this space ways to generate electricity or transportation methods based on renewable resources of energy. Include a) diagram or brief explanation of HOW the technology works and b) benefits and challenges of this energy resource.===

a) Tidal energy is produced through the use of tidal energy generators. These large underwater turbines are placed in areas with high tidal movements, and are designed to capture the kinetic motion of the ebbing and surging of ocean tides in order to produce electricity. Tidal power has great potential for future power and electricity generation because of the massive size of the oceans. b) The benefit of this technology is that the oceans are larger than the amount of land, so there are more opportunities to harvest the tide's motion. A challenge of this is building the turbines and placing them in the ocean.

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 * __Wind Power
 * **__ Pros __** || **__ Cons __** ||
 * Doesn’t produce any waste that can be of any harm to the environment ||  The electricity available is not guaranteed to be constant because there wind speed changes  ||
 * As a renewable resource there is no worries about running out of the wind. ||  There is a high cost for putting enough turbines to sustain towns if need be.  ||

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 * __Geothermal
 * ** Pros ** || ** Cons ** ||
 * Can run continuously for long periods of time || Can cause natural disasters such as earth quakes ||
 * Require minimal amounts of land for the station site || Emit low levels of carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, and sulphur  ||

Hydroelectricity Hydroelectricity uses hydropower to generate electricity It does this by using the gravitational force of falling or flowing water to generate electricity. The advantage of this is that it is renewable, and access to water resource is easy. However, the disadvantage is the cost in building the dam. Solar Energy Uses the radiant and light from the sun to generate electricity by means of heat engines.  Its advantage is that energy from the sun is not limited. Its disadvantage is that it takes a lot of land and it is costly.

Felicia Luo: Renewable resources are resources such as sunlight, wind, and geothermal heat. === Solar energy use  ===  Geothermal energy  The geothermal energy from the core of the Earth is closer to the surface in some areas than in others. Where hot underground steam or water can be tapped and brought to the surface it may be used to generate electricity. Such geothermal power sources exist in certain geologically unstable parts of the world such as Chile, Iceland, New Zealand, United States, the Philippines and Italy.  Wind Energy At the end of 2008, wind power produced some 1.3% of global electricity consumption.
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif';">Renewable Energy **
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Generate electricity using photovoltaic solar cells.
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Generate electricity using concentrated solar power.
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Generate electricity by heating trapped air which rotates turbines in a Solar updraft tower.
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-font-kerning: 0pt;">Generate electricity in geosynchronous orbit using solar power satellites.

BIOFUEL

Any solid, gas or liquid fuel that is derived from biomass How to develop energy that can be used as liquid fuel for transportation?

> > Advantage: > Reduce greenhouse gas emission > Save driver's money > > Disadvantage: > More habitats will be lost as the land is used to produce biofuels > less food production, leading to inflation
 * Grow plants – burn plants such as oil palm, jatropha, soybean and algae with a diesel engine
 * Grow sugar crops or starch – turn them into ethanol through the process of yeast fermentation.
 * Woods – conver into biofuels such as methanol, ethanol and woodgas.