Your Questions About Energy Sources Pros And Cons

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Solar Energy – Our sun is the greatest source of energy we know about it today, it comes to us freely and is efficient. It is very possible that solar power can replace traditional electricity sources in many places, especially where there is abundant sunshine. Unfortunately not all places are ideal for solar power. In the areas at high latitude there is not enough sunlight in a day to produce efficient energy, and the same for places where it rains a lot.

Wind Energy – Wind is very efficient at producing electricity. Obviously you need a lot of wind, like along coast lines and at high altitudes. Wind power could replace up to 20% of our total electric consumption in the foreseeable future. Wind is a clean source of energy with none of the harmful byproducts like carbon dioxide. However the huge blades of the windmills do pose a danger to birds and you need a lot of room to build a sufficient number of windmills.

Hydroelectric Energy – This type of power is mainly sourced from dams. The production of electricity from the water movement is clean and it does not produce waste material. However, the ideal type of places to build this is very limited and it is very expensive to build the dams.

Tidal Energy – Tidal energy work much in the same way as hydroelectric energy, but on a smaller scale, and it uses the natural tides of the ocean. There are several drawbacks though. Because of the sometimes violent and unpredictable nature of the ocean, they can not be constructed in many places. So far only about 9 places have been identified to build this kind of power plants. And these power plants can have a negative impact on migratory birds and also fisheries.

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Everything in life is trade offs. You eat to much you get fat,you spend more then you earn, you call deep in debt. You get it.
Nuke is the cleanest,but you have residue. Low risk.
Food to make energy .cost or food goes up. World has a hungry problem.
To change over as quick the greenies want,don’t take in consideration of cost to the driver of buy and selling is car.
No one ever tells you the cost ,when will it be ready.
All they worry about 50 years in the future. Which may or may not be a fact.

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Nuclear energy is attractive to consumers and utilities because it is able to provide a lot of energy relatively inexpensively and very reliably. Nuclear power plants generate power over 90% of the time. This is the best record of any electricity source. Nuclear power should be attractive to environmentalists because it doesn’t produce any CO2 and disturbs very little land. Next generation nuclear plants are also capable of using their excess heat to produce hydrogen or to provide process heat to industry.

The risks are mainly from the radiation. However, nuclear utilities have an excellent track record of keeping the waste contained. Reactor technology is continuing to improve and their safety levels are increasing.

Wind energy is great because it is easily scalable, you don’t have to rely on a big utility to provide you with power you can have your own, it is clean, construction costs are low.

The serious problem with wind is reliability. If you rely on wind power you rely on nature. If we were to get all of our energy from wind then we would have problems if the wind stopped blowing. If the wind stops blowing you either don’t have power or you have to get it from another wind farm or use some form of energy storage. If you rely on another wind farm then that wind farm has to have enough capacity to cover their energy needs as well as yours, thus increasing the cost. Grid storage increases cost plus you have to increase the capacity of your wind farm to produce enough to recharge the storage, thus further increasing cost.

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PROS— Coal = cheap fuel and plenty of it, large amounts of electricity can be generated per plant.
Wind = No fuel cost, no pollution.
Pumped storage = instant energy for load topping.
CONS—Coal = lots of pollution, CO2 and dust, ash and causes acid rain.
Wind = need lots of them to generate large amounts of power, output not consistent due to weather, visual impact.
Pumped storage = Very limited output time wise before you run out of water, uses approx. 30% more electricity than it produces .

Out of the 3 above only coal can produce the amount of electricity required in the UK, the Wind power is useful to supply power to more remote areas, ie Scotland & Wales. Pumped storage is a no starter because you need more power to run it than what you get out, it is only useful for peak load leveling.

If you want to see a Pumped storage site go to either Loch Awe, Scotland, or Dinorwig in Wales, both run tours.

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Http://www.geocities.com/daveclarkecb/ElecGenProsCons.html

Fossil fuel electricity is only cheaper than the more viable of the environmentally friendly options (for example, wind farms and hot dry rock geothermal) because the fossil fuel power station operators are allowed to dump their toxic waste (carbon dioxide) into the atmosphere at no cost to themselves. Of course this same waste is the main cause of man-made greenhouse warming, and that is the greatest environmental threat to the world today. Even worse for fossil-fuelled electricity: no one has yet demonstrated that carbon geosequestration is viable at any price, and at best, geosequestration is more a land-fill style of disposal than it is an environmentally friendly method

Disadvantages
Coal Low cost
Plentiful: we will not run out of coal in the foreseeable future
Not sustainable
Produces more carbon dioxide (CO2) per Watt-hour of energy than any other generation method
The methods of mining coal can be very destructive, although responsible coal miners do a remarkably good job of restoring the land after the coal has been mined out.
Very large quantities of ash have to be disposed of
A lot of smoke is produced, although in modern power stations most of this is separated from the waste gas stream and disposed of with the ash.
Some coal contains significant amounts of sulfur. After burning, this changes to sulfur dioxide and eventually sulfuric acid, if it is not removed at some stage. Burned sulfur is one of the main causes of acid rain.
War time – For maximum efficiency coal fired power stations must be big. They therefore present a desirable target for enemy attack.

Advantages
Coal Low cost
Plentiful: we will not run out of coal in the foreseeable future

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Pros – clean, renewable energy source
Cons – Solar panels are expensive

From http://altenergy.in

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Pros: Easy to get, lots of it, cheap, easy to refine, easy to transport, extensive distribution system.

Cons: Not the cleanest choice