On the eve of President elect Obama inauguration a lot of talk arises about alternative energy sources. This subject seems to be on the tips of every ones tongues wherever you go. I do support the changeover to more renewable sources of energies, but at the same time have major concerns with them as well. My greatest concern is, are they going to be as cost effective as the resources we are currently using. This concern mainly falls in the category of fossil fuels. The need to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels is a colossal debate at the moment. Some alternatives such as hybrids, ethanol, hydrogen, and battery powered vehicles are leading candidates in this category. The hybrids are a decent choice but still rely on fossil fuels at times to recharge the battery cells. Ethanol is vanishing quickly as a solution due to the need for vast amounts of corn or algae needed to produce the fuel. Hydrogen is my personal choice in part because of its ease of availability. A major problem with hydrogen is its weight. A gallon of gas weights less than a gallon of hydrogen so storage for the fuel becomes a problem. The technology for battery operated cars has not yet come along, therefore limiting their travel range to usually two hundred to two hundred fifty miles. So until these technologies advance a bit more I believe we are better off using fossil fuels, because according to the Hubbert Peak we are not in danger of running out soon.
My final concerns is with the green energy sources such as solar power, wind turbine power, and geothermal power. Solar power is a viable source, but the current solar cells only produce about fifteen percent efficiency. There are solar cells that are now producing forty one percent efficiency, but cost nearly one hundred thousand dollars a square yard. Wind turbine power is my personal favorite, but it too comes at a cost. According to a study in 2006 it cost around fifty five dollars per megawatt hour for a wind turbine, around fifty three dollars for a MW h of coal, and around fifty two dollars for a MW h of natural gas. Another draw back is the intermittency of wind, meaning no wind no power. Geothermal power are very plausible mainly due to the fact that geothermal plants require no fuel to operate it. The only draw back I see is that much of the heat energy is lost when extracting the fluid making the plant not quiet as efficient as a coal plant. In the coming months and years I believe a lot of these issues will be resolved. Obama promised a switch to renewable energy in the near future under his administration and I hope it all starts tomorrow.