Feenix Gear, Renewable Energy

Alex Renaud here from Feenix Gear. Today I am bringing you a critical essay that talks about different types or renewable energy sources and how they could change the world we live in. Imagine if cars didn’t need petroleum to function, instead used electricity or natural gas. Now think about introducing wind energy to America. What would it do to our economy? Finally we will look into solar energy. Solar energy has been around for quite some time now but could it be that we have been using this method in an ineffective way? All of these are examples of renewable energy sources that with a little help from today’s corporation could make huge changes in the world we live in.

Our world has for thousands of years been the victim of being inhabited by the human race. I say victim because of how we have conducted our stay here on earth. Today, in the 21th century we a slowly starting to realize what type of environmental holes we are punching into our atmosphere, and just now are we trying to fix what problems we have already caused. The following are critical analysis of articles that talk about sustainable and renewable energy and how they can affect us. We will look into new ways of fuelling our vehicles. Is petroleum the best material to use or are there any other methods that are more sustainable and more cost effective? We will also look into wind power and how it can affect our economy, and how the ideas of one man can change the views of an entire nation. Finally we will look into solar energy, an already existing source of renewable energy but is it possible that we might be using it ineffectively? Our world is in need of change and so is our economy, could the switch to renewable energy be the first step to getting back on track?

In my critical reading of “Gassing up for less” the author discus’s many different options for fuelling up your vehicle. Today vehicles mostly fill up with petroleum but this is not the only option we have as drivers. Other fuelling alternatives include diesel, electric and natural gas. If you were in the market for buying a new car which would you buy? A petroleum fuelled car or would you explore into new possibilities. Take a Land Rover for example, it is what we refer to as a gas guzzler because it averages about 13 mpg. (Keep in mind that the price for petroleum is sitting at around $4 a gallon) Now compare that type of fuel consumption with the one of a Toyota Prius, the Prius averages about 46 mpg and is a petrol-electric hybrid. With that said which would you be me prompt to buy for your daily driver? Diesel fuel is another option to look at and with low-sulphur diesel now available in America and a new line of cars coming from Europe that can average up to 50 mpg, diesel might be your answer. Diesel cars are becoming more and more popular certainly overseas, where 60% of cars are run on diesel, but don’t forget that it costs 10 -20% more then petroleum. We now look into using such alternatives as natural gas. Natural gas can be used in two forms: liquid and gas, you might be asking yourself “why liquefy a gas instead of leaving it a vapour? Because it dramatically reduces the volume for storing it.” ( Economist, 2008A). The problem is that it is very expensive to make and many different measures need to be accounted for. Ie: the storing tanks must be kept at very low temperatures (-160 degrees) and must not let vapours escape. Sensibly people have decided to go with compressed natural gas (CNG). A CNG car gets about the same mpg as a petroleum car but emits 80% less smog-forming nitrogen oxides. CNG also has a very attractive price tag which sites about 40% less than petroleum. Finally there is a new Canadian company called “FuelMaker” that offers a home-fuelling station which can give you a 1000$ tax credit. With all of these new renewable fueling methods , it wont be long befor you start seeing more and more of these cars on the road. One disadvantage is that currently there is only one CNG car available in America, a Honda civic GX. This makes choosing your vehicle very easy. Now that you have been introduced to new fuelling methods which method will you choose when picking your new work commuter? Has the author of this article been able to convince you to become green friendly and go with an electric or low-sulphur diesel car or will you choose to fill up at home with CNG.

A second way to start making better energy decisions is to make the switch to wind power. In the article “Turbine time” we are introduced to a republican oilman who has a brand new vision for producing energy in America. Each year Americans spend over 700 billion dollars in oil, which is purchased from foreign countries. Mr T. Bones Pickens plans to make a few changes and is even willing spend $58 million of his own money to make his case. Does the fate of wind power rest all on one man’s shoulders? It was reported that America could build enough wind farms to provide 20% of the nation’s electricity by 2030. Is this really worth our time and money? We are talking about $1 trillion to build these farms and $200 billion to connect them, all to only save 20% of our $700 billion oil expense. What would you do? Before you make your decision think outside the box for a moment. Think about how many jobs it would create in order to build these farms and then to operate them afterwards. The economy would probably benefit from something like this, the author and Mr. Pickens seem to think so. Lets look at a small town called Sweetwater in Texas, “Ten years ago it was just one more struggling speck on the prairie…then the wind industry started to take hold… the economic impact on Nolan county which encompasses Sweetwater, will be a $315 million this year. Wind has brought more than 1 000 new jobs to town”(Economist, 2008C) One other thing to take into account is that currently natural gas generates 22% of the countries electricity, what if we could replace that by wind power. The natural gas could then be used as fuel for motor vehicles. Still think Mr. Pickens and our author should be alone on this venture. With wind farms we could create more jobs, generate more money and do all of this using sustainable energy sources. Why use up all of our planets natural resources to create electricity when we can just produce it ourselves and by doing so improve our economy. I believe that business owners if given the choice would rather know that their organization is helping our economy grow, by choosing sustainable energy sources. This is really a win win situation.

All Around the world every day we are blessed with magnificent sunsets, eclipses and many other fascinating sites due to the sun. In the article ‘’Tubular sunshine’’ the author talks about yet another fascination that our sun produces; solar power is what I am referring to. But in this article we look at the efficiency of our current solar technology and we introduce a better way of turning sunlight into electricity. Solar power is a very simple process and should be pretty cheap when talking about producing electricity. But is it really? And are we really as efficient as we can be? Today to outfit a household with solar power it would cost almost $40 000 for both parts and installation. Also with the current technology, you must place your solar panels facing the sun in specific ways in order to retrieve the maximum amount of electricity. So why haven’t more people made the switch to a solar alternative? Maybe it is because of the low efficiency levels and high cost associated to this technology. Fortunately a company out of California has launched a new type of solar panel. ‘‘Using different materials …the approach is to coat glass tubes in copper indium gallium selenide and encase them in another glass tube with sealed ends… forty of these tubes are assembled into a single panel… Using tubes instead of flat panels makes it possible to capture sunlight… from any direction.’’(Economist 2008B) This new technology makes solar energy more affordable and more efficient and the cost of installation should be about half of the traditional solar panels. So why wouldn’t companies change to solar energy? It is cheap, simple and sustainable. This could be a terrific way that organizations could produce their own electricity and cut down on cost, meaning more money to spend on other important aspect of a organization. Solar Power will create more opportunity in the future for business’s, helping them to lower overall costs.

After having taken you through different types of sustainable energy alternatives you can now see that our world is slowly trying to plug up the holes that we have punched in our atmosphere. ‘‘Gassing up for less’’ looked at all sorts of new alternative ways of fueling up our vehicles. It told us about petroleum, which today is what America uses the most but it also spoke about other sustainable sources like electricity and natural gas. These two types of energy could not only reduce cost but could also help us with becoming more environmentally friendly. Which means a more enjoyable world for our kids and our kids kids. The same thing can be said about creating new wind farms. Remember how many jobs it created in Sweetwater, Texas. Think of how many jobs that would create and how much our economy could benefit from something like that. Finally we spoke about solar energy and how we have created more efficient ways to produce solar power using glass tubes instead of flat panels. Imagine if every organization and every community decided they wanted to become more sustainable. Think of how much less we would pollute and how much money organizations could save. We are working to becoming more sustainable because we have noticed that changes must be made. Our world has been giving to us for thousands of years and we have just taken advantage. It is now time that we start making an effort in using renewable energy and make our world a better place.


Thank you to economist for providing these articles.