Question

The USA depends heavily on the burning of fossil fuels to provide the electricity we need many renewable resources are used to generate the electricity but this only accounts for 5.6% off all the electricity produced in the USA.

Explain how you think we should generate electricity in the future. Your opinion should include:

1. What methods you think we should use.

2. An exploration of how they work including the energy transformations that are occurring.

3. The advantages and disadvantages of using these methods

4.Why you have chosen the methods over other methods.

Thanks,

-J

Answer 1

USA should use renewable energy. It is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat.

2
The most widespread sources of energy include:

Wind: This takes advantage of wind motion to generate electricity. Wind motion is brought about by the heat from the sun, and rotation of the earth, mainly via the Coriolis Effect.

Solar: taps heat from the sun to produce energy for generation of electricity, heating, lighting homes and commercial buildings.

Hydropower: Utilizes moving water to produce electricity. Moving water creates high energy that can be harnessed and turned into power.

Biomass: Together with snow and rain, sunlight is essential for plant growth. Organic matter that constitutes plants is referred to as biomass, which can be utilized to generate electricity, chemicals or fuels to power vehicles.

Ocean: Takes advantage of rising and falling of tides to generate electricity

Geothermal: Leverages heat from underneath the earth to generate electricity.

Advantages of Renewable Energy

1. Renewable energy is eco-friendly-
It is a clean source of energy, meaning, it has low or zero carbon and greenhouse emission. Fossil fuels emit high levels of greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide, which are greatly responsible for global warming, climate change, and degradation of air quality.

2.It’s a renewable resource
Sources of energy like fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal) are considered limited resources and there is strong possibility that they will run out in the future.
Renewable energy can help developing countries from over-reliance on fossil fuels. Powerful winds, heat emanating from beneath the earth, sunshine and moving water can guarantee a huge and steady energy supply to a nation for many years.

3. Renewable energy is a reliable source of energy

4 Less maintenance of facilities
Once infrastructure for the harnessing of the renewable resource is laid down, there is low to zero maintenance required.

Disadvantages of Renewable Energy

1.The electricity generation capacity is still not large enough.
There are still challenges to generation of large quantities of power in renewable energy technology compared to traditional forms of energy generation like fossil fuel. Fossil fuel still produces large quantities of electricity today, by far. This, essentially, means that it can’t be solely relied upon to power the whole nation.

2. Low-efficiency levels

Renewable energy technologies are still significantly new to the market, meaning, they still lack the much-needed efficiency. This poses forecast problems and investors may shy away from investing their money for fear of not getting returns pretty quick.

3. Requires a huge upfront capital outlay.