Thinking About Sensible Approaches To Creating Clean Energy

Written by Anne Harvester Tuesday, 26 April 2011 05:45

The need to develop and efficiently use new and reliable sources of power has become one of the most important considerations facing the first world. The slow and gradual improvement of our power generation approaches has been steady over centuries of development. The ultimate goal to this pursuit of clean energy is a power source which does not produce harmful waste.

The need to develop and efficiently use new and reliable sources of power has become one of the most important considerations facing the first world. The slow and gradual improvement of our power generation approaches has been steady over centuries of development. The ultimate goal to this pursuit of clean energy is a power source which does not produce harmful waste.

For all the technological advances in this field of study, the most responsible power generation approaches, at least in terms of environmental issues, is still animal driven machinery. This is still the way things are done in much of the world, with teams of draft animals pulling plows, loads, and turning wheels which drive machines. If nothing else, it is usually possible to power things with human effort.

That is all very well and good, but it really doesn't help a person in New York make their supper. The sheer size of an ox driven power station sufficient to supply even a small apartment building with electricity would be utterly untenable.

For the most part, we still rely on coal burning stations. This is one of the most obvious sources of pollution in the developed world. It is estimated that thousands of people die each year in the United States alone from respiratory problems associated with the mercury laden waste generated by these power plants.

A more environmentally responsible approach to the generation of electricity has been found in hydroelectric stations. While they do not directly pollute the atmosphere, the need to build dams, redirect water flows, and create reservoirs can have tremendous negative impact on indigenous water life. In addition, the long range consequences of restructuring the natural watercourses can be severe.

A third, more modern option involves the use of nuclear generating stations. Unfortunately, many people oppose nuclear power on paranoid and uneducated grounds. They think that the plant will blow up and ruin everything. They only know the name Chernobyl and not the name Darlington. Nuclear stations hardly ever fail. The actual problem with this sort of generation is that we don't know what to do with all the highly dangerous radioactive waste.

Wind turbines and photovoltaic fields are absolutely the two front runners as far as new ways to generate power without harming the environment goes. Tidal power is also something that many people are starting to investigate, but this cannot be done if the country is land locked.

Trying to build sufficient wind and solar generating centers is not as easy at it might sound. Even though these are environmentally friendly, or as much as they can be, there will always be negative consequences from human development. Migrating birds might be affected by a wind farm, and little indigenous lizards might find themselves out of their food if a photovoltaic array is built. There are always consequences. Luckily, we seem to be at a stage in our development where we recognize this and do our best to minimize any bad outcomes in our search for clean energy.