Renewable Energy- What do you actually use?
2 years ago
15 Comments
Solar, wind energy, biodiesel, ethanol, etc. Which are you actually already using?
Tags: ecology, energy, fuel, technology
1. |
 |
||
2. |
 |
||
3. |
 |
||
4. |
|||
5. |
 |
||
 |
Add a new answer! |
Page 1 of 1
Topic Details
This topic was started by rph2go on June 15th, 2006. 50 grupies have voted on one or more of the 5 answers.
Tags: ecology, energy, fuel, technology
Comments |
Leave a comment
Our gas now contains 10% ethanol. It's a start, at least.
how is ethanol a renewable energy source?
to clarify: i know it's classified as renewable, i just never understood how they get away with classifying it as such.
it is considered renewable as it isn't harmful to the environment to mass produce it.
Debatable. It's expensive to produce. The kind of fertilizers used in this country (because we must have maximum and rapid in everything) does quite a bit of harm. It's the reason for the growing dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, for instance.
that's not the definition of renewable though, marvel.
ethanol comes from plants, which are solar-powered.
oil comes from plants too! decayed plant material at least. natural gas comes from the decay of organic material as well. really, what makes ethanol a renewable resource that doesn't apply to oil or natural gas?
Fossil fuels are millions of years old. Not renewable on a human time scale.
right, but the argument that "plants are a renewable resource because they're solar powered" is spurious at best. there are other considerations that are involved in harnessing the plants and creating ethanol, such as land, water, the fermentation process itself, etc.
by the "solar-powered" logic, i could say soylent green is a renewable resource since humans eat plants which are solar powered! all it takes is a bit of processing and we get a delicious green wafer! (farcical, yes)
i'm not trying to troll, and i do understand that it is classified as a renewable resource. i just think that it's not particularly clear where the line is drawn so it can be easily a misleading statement. is the only limit a "human time scale?" if so, how do we know that the fossil fuels aren't being renewed at the moment?
I think time scale is the essential factor. Soylent green is not really a bad example because people will turn cannibal in extreme emergencies. Mark Twain wrote of using mummies to power locomotives, but he was probably kidding.
dunno, twain was pretty crazy. the problem is that humans burn cooler than coal does so mummies wouldn't be as efficient.
FYI MK, corn ethanol is just as harmful to the environment as anyform of large scale agriculture, think of the soil. Not to mention production energy....
Ethanol is not a sustainable fuel alternative
http://healthandenergy.com/ethanol.htm
now switchgrass pellets....
thanks, skritch, i had been looking for something along those lines but hadn't found it yet.
Nominated for Best Tech Topic:
http://www.grupthink.com/topic/9790