Alternative Energy: Are New Energy Currents Finally Joining The Mainstream? - Page 2

How about a car that doesn’t shirk at the scent of ethanol, like an FFV, or flexible-fuel vehicle? Where most car models can only handle gas containing around 10 percent ethanol, or E10, newer, more flexible models may be able to use fuel with up to 85 percent ethanol, or E85, which would cut back on the use of oil.

Or what would you say to a car that didn’t use gas at all, but one you could run instead by plugging it in and recharging it alongside your cell phone and MP3 player? With Toyota, this plug-in feature could soon be a possibility. The company is currently developing a newer model of their economically viable vehicle, the Prius, which actually plugs in. This plug-in will allow the car to rely more on its electric motor, saving the gas motor for longer trips. And those trips really would be long, as the car can average up to 100 miles per gallon with this type of system.

This focus on alternative energy for cars is important because it helps lower car-produced pollution. The emissions from transportation have "accounted for 33 percent of CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion in 2006," according to the "Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2006."

But car changes aren’t the only uses for alternative energy. And transportation emissions aren’t the only source of pollution. Electricity generators, also discussed in the report on the United States' greenhouse gas emissions, “consumed 36 percent of U.S. energy from fossil fuels and emitted 41 percent of the CO2 from fossil fuel combustion in 2006." Not only are individual and industrial uses of energy using up the dwindling supply of fossil fuels, they're producing nasty pollutants in the process.

This is why scientists are now turning away from Mother Earth and her coal and oil to provide for energy needs, and paying more attention to other elements such as water, wind, and fire.

Water, one of these elements, can create viable energy known as "Hydro Power". The DOE is dishing out over $18 million to research and development teams that can create ways to harness this water fuel. Poor Poseidon will no longer be the only one who has power over the seas by the time scientists and engineers get hold of this funding.

Then, there is energy created by that other unruly element, the wind. This energy is produced through wind turbines which, according to American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) calculations, "will generate an estimated 49 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of wind energy in 2008, just over 1.5 percent of U.S. electricity supply, powering the equivalent of over 5.7 million homes."

Article Author: Bekah Terry

I'm Bekah, a college student who writes things that amuse me, reads things that cause me to muse, and watches things intellectually of use. I like to play on words, trampolines, and stages. In my past lives, I was a mafia boss, a Buddhist monk, and a rabbit named Hester. …

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