Renewable Energy Sources In The United States

The U.S obtains more than 84% of its energy from fossil fuels including oil, coal and natural gas. This is because people rely on it to heat their homes, power industries, run vehicles, manufacturing, and provision of electricity. It is apparent that the country’s transportation industry highly depends on conventional petroleum oil, which is responsible for global warming, thus threatening economic opulence and national security. Apart from that, increasing consumption of fossil fuels have elevated health problems in the state, destroyed wild places, and polluted the environment. After conducting Environmental Impact Assessment, projections showed that the world energy consumption would increase by more than 56% between 2010 and 2040. However, fossil fuels will cater for more than 80% of the total energy used in 2040. Sadly, it will be a trajectory to alter the world’s climate, as well as, weaken the global security environment. Importantly, the rate at which the US relies on fossil fuels needs to reduce since it has adverse effects on the planet’s supplies. The society needs to realize that fossil fuels are nonrenewable, thus taking millions of years to form (Huebner, 2003). Notably, the country can reduce dependency on fossil fuels by practicing energy conservation and efficiency,

The time has come, we’re running out of fossil fuels and we need an alternative. That is where renewable energy comes in; The best part about it is that it is renewable so it will always be available to us, and we can acquire this energy through solar, water, and wind power. There is a lot of controversy as to whether we should rely on renewable energy, because some say it is not cost effective. However renewable energy can pay for itself, is available nearly everywhere through various methods of obtaining it, provides numerous amount of jobs and economical benefits, and it will not harm our environment.

Renewables are better environmentally than any other power source under specific circumstances. The two most touted renewable energy sources are wind power and solar power. The specific circumstances in which they are better are when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. Unfortunately, neither the wind nor the sun can be guaranteed to function for any specific date or time. The sun can only be guaranteed not to shine for approximately twelve hours a day and wind has no guarantees at all. Also, technology is not advanced enough to adequately harness the power provided by the sun and wind when they are available. It would take five hundred times the amount of land to build a solar plant with the same output as a nuclear plant (Oliver Hospers 24-25).

In order to comprehend why we need to shift to alternative energy sources, we must first review the history of fossil fuels and how it transitioned the world during an important era of history. Fossil fuels played an extremely significant role in the era of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution began in the eighteenth century. Fossil fuels were the ultimate ideal source of energy during the Industrial Revolution. Coal was especially used the most during the revolution. It burned “cleaner” and hotter than what wood did. The Industrial Revolution without a doubt expanded the use of coal. During the revolution, coal was used for steamships and with the escalating business of transporting goods across the country, it played a major

In the 1960’s and 1970’s a movement regarding the physical environment began, this movement focused on a few environmental issues and disasters caused directly or indirectly by pollution. As the years progressed, this movement grew into a multifaceted activist movement gaining more attention in the US, more often referred as “Environmentalism” or “Environmental Activism”. As the human race realized the physical environment is fragile and thus must be protected, scientists started to look for more efficient and ecologically safe energy sources. The introduction of renewable energy brought to light all of these issues, giving a viable alternative for the nation’s energy future, implementing resources that are naturally replenished and also, eco-friendly.

The switch to clean energy in the United States and around the world is a difficult necessity that must be met within the subsequent five to six decades. The prolonged use of damaging fossil fuels and other unsustainable forms of energy are greatly damaging the planet. These sources of non-renewable energy are bound to run out in the following century. Millions of square kilometers of Arctic ice has melted so far, the sea level is rising, and the CO2 levels present in the atmosphere are drastically increasing (Chang). The transition to renewable energy must be met; however, this is not a process possible to achieve overnight. This change will require an extensive amount of resources and time but will reap many benefits to the users of this growing technology.

With fossil fuels powering 85% of energy in the United States and the ignorance towards the negative impacts of burning them, dependency on these harmful resources have skyrocketed and will continue to. In 2006, around 7% of America’s gross domestic product was spent on fossil fuels which is greater than what was spent on education and the military (1). The fight to teach the public to be less dependent on fossil fuels begins with decreasing usage. Decreasing energy consumption can be as simple as turning technology off when not in use, ensuring the home is efficient, and changing light bulbs to fluorescent ones. These simple changes can be taught to everyone not just save them money, but also to make sure that future generations reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the future. In addition individuals in a community can also band together to encourage local lawmakers to make areas more people friendly and use less cars (2).

Energy could be defined as that raw material or resource that man needs to achieve the desired production, energy consumption being one of the great measures of the progress and welfare of a society.

Energy has been a huge problem in the past decade in the United States, primarily because of global warming and climate change. Clinton said, “I won’t let anyone take us backward, deny our economy the benefits of harnessing a clean energy future, or force our children to endure the catastrophe that would result from unchecked climate change.” Hillary Clinton has proposed two main national goals to fight climate change, create jobs, protect the health of American families, and make the United States of America the world’s clean energy superpower. The first goal that Secretary Clinton proposes is to have more than 500 million solar panels installed by the end of her first term- this will create good-paying jobs. This will also cut energy waste in homes, schools, and hospitals by a third, as well as reduce American oil consumption by a third- energy will be secured by reducing the amount of oil consumed in the United States and around the world. Her second goal is to provide enough clean renewable energy to power every single home in the United States within ten years of taking office.

Soon, planet Earth will run out of the resource that once was thought to be reliable. Earth is in great danger of self destructing if there is no backup plan. This is where renewable resources come in. Renewable resources are abundant and do not damage the environment, so they are a sustainable method to produce energy. The options for renewable energy are solar, wind, hydro, biomass, and geothermal.

Wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass provide so much benefit for our climate, health and our economy. As many reliable energy’s rise on demand and expense like oil, coal, natural gas and nonrenewable fossil fuel that draw on limited resources which will eventually diminish. Looking at all the power plants and the millions of cars that exist in the streets today and many more technologies and industries that are polluting the air it is safe to say we may be going the wrong way into saving the world our kids will grow into. People and many utilities need to focus on the positive outcome of renewable energy. Like the good it brings on stable energy price, improvements on public health as well as the prevention of global warming discharge, jobs and other economic benefits.

Energy has developed and shaped the world in many ways. It contains many problems that we have to live with. The United States choices are looking to change different things. For instance, their main goals are to change national and the global environment, and the national defense. The U.S. has developed into alternative energy sources to decrease pollution and make it easier to develop and transport goods. For example, their goal is to increase food production, decrease dependence on fossil fuels, protect lives and the environment, and provide science-based solutions to developing markets across the globe” (Kullman 1). Fossil fuels have been part of production for a long time. Fossil Fuels are mined or pumped from geological reservoirs where they have been stored for long periods of time (Fossil Fuels). Many countries have relied on fossil fuels for a long period of

Will solar energy and other renewable, alternative energy sources, replace the current main source of electrical energy production oil and coal? What alternative energy sources show the most potential for producing electrical energy in the future? How will this transition take place and when will it take place? What are the educated projections for the time in which crude oil will no longer be vital to producing electricity and how will renewable energy sources lead to a world of sustainability? The answers to these questions and others will be presented in this paper.

Renewable energy resources are our future energy sources and great strides are being made by using these energy applications to improve the environmental impact towards protecting Earth. Hossain, K.A. writes in The Journal of Fundamental Renewable Energy and Applications that there are basically three sources of energy: fossil fuel, nuclear fuel, and renewable fuel sources (Hossain). Fossil fuels are being used up, nuclear fuel must be created, but renewable fuel can be regenerated. Renewable energy includes select natural resources, recyclable materials, alternative fuels, bio refineries, solid biomass, and innovative clean energy (Maczulak). Sources of renewable energy are being used to convert wind, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, biomass, and solar energy into electricity that can be used to power our world. Renewable energy is constantly being replenished (Hossain). “Renewable energy is available in plenty and by far most the cleanest sources of energy available on this planet” (Hossain). Progress is being made in each of the areas of renewable energy to improve it and make it usable and accessible to the general public.

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