solar energy on campus

After listening to the talk about the possibility of solar energy on campus I am actually surprised that I don't think it is that great of an idea. I feel like it is going to be way too expensive to be worth it. And yes I know it would look good for the school to be using solar power but as they said it really wouldn't even supply the school with that much energy. I feel like it's also kind of wasteful to start using solar energy for only 15 years or so. It makes me wonder what happens to the panels once they are dead? Are they recycled or simply thrown into a dump to add to our growing landfill problem. It also makes me wonder that after the 15 years or so are up and the school decides to expand and therefore the land for the solar panels is not available, where will the energy come from then? Then again in 15 years there will hopefully a great increase in renewable resource technologies.

A failed attempt to bring renewable energy to NYC

New York City


After reading this article I was surprised that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in Washington would make a ruling that would impede bringing new energy sources to densely populated areas. Yes, it may be more expensive to use renewable sources for energy but it is also more beneficial to our country in the long run. I feel that there should definitely be some regulations and cost-benefit analysis done before projects are created but that the standards do not have to be so strict. With the increasing technology of renewable energy, prices for it should go down over time and not up like that of nonrenewable sources. I hope that there will be more support in the future for projects such a this one.

Incentives for cab drivers

New incentives for cab drivers.


I think that giving cab drivers incentives to get hybrid or cleaner fueled cars is a really good idea especially for a city such as New York where many people take cabs. Since cabs are literally driving the entire day I think this is a good start to help reduce pollution from transportation. Before reading the article I actually hadn't thought about the idea of regulating and giving incentives to the cab industry. I hope that if the New York incentives go through that maybe the government will realize the great potential these incentives have on reducing emissions and would start to create a national plan. Judging by the article though I feel like there is a going to be a lot of resistance to the changes so I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens.

Where to put nuclear waste?

Yucca Mountain

I find it surprising that now after so much money has been spent on the Yucca Mountain project that the government wants to simply abandon it and abandon it with no alternatives. I don't find this decision very fair at all to nuclear power plants who have been waiting for years to finally have somewhere to put their waste. I feel it was very ignorant of the original government staff who selected the spot without doing any tests on it before selecting Yucca Mountain. You would think that for something as a big a deal as nuclear waste they would have at least sent a few scientists to observe the mountain. That part of the article really shocked me. I have to agree with the article in that if the Yucca Mountain plan is abandoned and no alternative found then we should not build anymore nuclear reactors and perhaps even stop using the ones we have. At this point it seems as though we may never find a place to store nuclear waste.

One persons waste is another persons... energy?

This week in class we learned about how the methane gas released from wastes in landfills can be converted to energy and put into the grid. I thought this concept was extremely interesting and a good idea. I looked on the EPA website and found that there are over 445 landfill gas energy projects (lgep) that are already operational across the US with over 500 potential projects in the works. The EPA estimates that the lgeps generate about 11 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. The fact that there are many projects in the works is evidence that they operational ones are working effectively. I believe that these projects are a good way for us to move away from fossil fuels for creating energy. One thing I was curious about in relation to these projects is to what happens once the landfills stop producing methane gas? Would the equipment be able to be moved to another landfill and used or would it become waste itself? I am also curious as to how much maintenence is required for lgeps. Despite these questions I really like the idea of using our waste in a beneficial way.

Solar Energy in California

Solar Energy In California

This week I decided to read an article on solar energy. After reading the article I was able to make some connections between the use of solar energy and wind power. Both renewable energy sources are relatively new to the US. For example, we have yet to build an offshore wind farm and the article mentions that the solar power plant will be the first of its kind here. Both energy sources also require a lot of money to build them. This was one of the main issues mentioned in the article. One of the quotes that it mentioned was, "Everybody’s for reducing greenhouse gases until you start having to pay for it". Even though there is this huge green movement right now, I always wonder if this movement is just a fad. Especially with the economic times the country is going through right now I have the feeling that less and less people are going to want to put their money towards funding renewable energy projects. I think that once people are actually able to see the benefits of the plants then they will be more likely to fund future projects. The bad thing about that is that it is going to take a good amount of time before that happens.

Thoughts on Nuclear Power

Sweden and Nuclear Power

I recently read the above article about nuclear power and how countries are beginning to think about reinstating, updating, and using old nuclear power plants. The article talked about how Sweden and Britain in particular are thinking about doing this to help reduce environmental pollution and for energy security. I think that using nuclear power as a means to reduce greenhouse gases is a great idea; however, isn't nuclear waste extremely toxic? And from what I've heard , at least in the US, is that safe places to dispose of nuclear waste are running out of room. I've heard that because of this waste is sometimes simply driven back and forth across the country because there is nowhere else for it to go. I'm not sure if it is true but if it is, it would defeat the purpose of using nuclear power as a means to reduce emissions because I'm sure that driving across the country would not be an efficient means of doing that. I believe that before countries start putting money towards updating their nuclear reactors and power plants that they need to make sure there is somewhere for the waste to go.

Wind Energy and Changing Ocean Currents

Offshore Wind Power Could Alter Ocean Currents

For class this week I decided to research more on the effects of wind energy on marine life. While researching I found this article and it brought up an effect of wind energy that I had never thought of: that the ocean currents can also be affected by offshore wind turbines. The article states that the turbines have an effect on the air currents which in turn can have an affect on the ocean currents. The changing ocean currents then in turn churn up more nutrients from the bottom of the ocean. This is a good thing because it provides more food for marine life, but in turn it can also create an excess of nutrients which can lead to algae blooms and eutrification which is not a positive thing. I think only time will tell whether there will be a positive or negative outcome from this. Hopefully, the amount of nutrients stirred up will be enough to feed marine populations but not enough to create an excess.

Bluewater

The Bluewater offshore wind energy project was a huge win for the alternative energy movement. It's going to be very interesting to see how things actually turn out for the project over the coming years. I think wind energy is a great up and coming thing. Even though it is variable and therefore the typical power plants still need to be used, they are able to be used less frequently. This will allow for less fuels to used which is becoming a growing concern. Using wind energy can allow more time for better and more reliable alternative energy sources to be found and developed. It should also prove to be a much more environmentally friendly energy source because it will not create the amount of pollution that other power plants create. As it talks about in the article I also hope that by more and more states creating their own wind power plants that it will force the federal government to make some legistration regarding them.