Altering Planes, and the Way They Fly, to Save Fuel

In the New York Time's article Altering Planes, and the Way They Fly, to Save Fuel , the importance of reducing carbon emissions from planes is discussed. In order to do so, the amount of fuel used needs to be reduced. The most important change involves the way that planes fly. They currently fly miles out of their way from different radar systems to another. Instead, they need to follow a direct path that does not allow for unneccessary distances. There are also special ways to land called 'continuous descent' that reduces the amount of fuel as the plane lands and switches to idle settings. By using lighter materials in the plane construction, less fuel is also required. Although, these altercations can be very expensive. According to Bob Smith, the vice president of Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, “The ultimate goal is to be able to push back, roll to the runway, take off and land and go to the gate, all without ever having to hit the brakes."

The two main reasons cited for reducing fuel use are costs and environmental benefits. In the past four years, the cost of fuel has passed labor as the airline's largest expense. It has become imperil to reduce these costs. It has also created 2% of greenhouse gas emissions... A huge number!

The goal is to reduce fuel use by 6% on every flight using the techniques stated above. This would equal 90 million gallons of fuel being saved per year!

Solar Panels too pricey? Try printing them out

It is true that buying solar panels requires a large amount of cash. This New York Times Article offers an alternative way to capture energy instead of solar panels. At the New Jersey Institute of Technology, scientists have created a cheaper way to capture energy using rays from the sun.

Ink used from ink jet printers are printed or painted on to plastic sheets and then stuck to a wall, roof, or billboard to soak up energy. The article states that this may be a great, cheap solution because projects using wind mills or dams are far too elaborate or expensive for the average person.

I thought that this was a very interesting article because it always surprises me what people can come up with for new alternative energy sources!

Ocean Wind Could Replace Coal!

The article, Obama aide: Ocean wind could replace coal, caught my eye because it is discussing wind farms outside of Atlantic City, NJ which is not too far from my house. I had not heard about wind farms being built enough to replace ALL the coal plants in the U.S.! However, this claim made by the Interior Secretary, Salazar, was challenged by a coal industry group that states that half of the electricity in the nation comes from coal. So this will be very challenging.

Salazar states that winds generated on the Eastern Coast can generate the same as 3,000 coal-fired power plants (which is more than 5 times the amount of coal power plants we have today!!) A spokesman for Cape Wind stated that it would take hundreds of thousands of wind mills and a number of years to build, but it is time that we get started.

Salazar will be hosting four public hearings about converting to renewable energy sources. The first was this past Monday. He believes that by buying oil from foreign countries we are "funding both sides in the war on terrorism." I agree that it is time to start switching to wind power!

Renewable Energy & the Recession

Switching away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy sources has been very important for cutting down on emissions and pollutants and also keeping our nonrenewable resources from running out. However, according to the New York Times, people are straying away from this idea because of the economic crisis. Switching to renewable energy sources will require many costs and people are very sensitive to prices these days. Howeever, the Obama administration is trying to pass a cap-and-trade bill that will force polluters to reduce their emissions or buy permits from cleaner producers. They are also trying to decide if they should require a percentage of the country's electricity to be renewable. This may be tough to do during the state of our economy.

Currently, coal is the cheapest form of energy. By putting these rules in place, prices will increase for burning coal and also for electricity bill rates. This will probably not go over well with the public. Although, the increasing price of coal may cause many people to switch to alternative energy sources.

While I understand that people do not want to spend the extra money right now, I feel that switching to alternative energy may help the economy in the long run. The initial cost of renewable sources will be high but after a few years, the energy will begin to pay for itself. Therefore, people will be saving money that they would be spending on bills and will be able to put it towards the economy in other ways.

Solar Energy

For my project, I have chosen solar energy. I am going to compare active and passive solar energy systems but I wanted to research the basic background information on solar energy first.

The source for solar energy is the sun. The solar radiation comes from the sun's rays that reach the earth. Photovoltaic (PV) devices then use semiconducting materials to convert sunlight into energy. PV cells are also known as solar cells. Each cell produces about 1 or 2 watts of energy. In order to have a larger energy output, the PV cells are connected by PV modules. For even larger energy outputs, the modules are connected to form an array. This way, any energy requirement can be met.

Below is a picture that demonstrates this.















Sources:

U.S. Dept of Energy
Energy Information Administration

Landfill Methane Outreach Program

The speaker from Curtis Engine particularly caught my interest. It think that it is so fascinating that an energy source can be created from waste. Energy from methane gas uses a pollutant that can be very damaging to the environment and turns it into a very beneficial thing for us. In 1994, the EPA has created the Landfill Methane Outreach Program which is working to greatly reduce methane emissions from landfills by encouraging the use of landfill gas as an energy source.

A great benefit of using landfill methane as an energy source is the huge amount of greenhouse gas reductions. Methane is a huge participant in global climate change (it is 21 times stronger than CO2). About 60-90% of methane that is typically released into the air from landfills will be captured and used to create energy.

Another benefit is that using landfill methane as an energy source reduces our dependency on fossil fuels. By using less fossil fuels, we are cutting down other pollutant emissions and the reliance of foreign oil. The surrounding area will be benefited because there will be less landfill odors.

I found an article, One Man's Garbage, Another's Power Plant, and read it because I thought the title was clever. It was a positive article that discussed the benefits of methane gas as an energy source, particularly in New Jersey. New Jersey is one of the leading users of methane gas, which is good because the people of New Jersey produce 50% more pounds of trash per day than the national average. The article states that landfills are typically considered "wasted space" but after this new technology, they can be extremely beneficial.

Benefits of Geothermal Energy

After listening to the geothermal energy speaker on Wednesday, I could not believe all of the benefits that this energy source has. I was not familiar with this resource so I was very interested to learn about it. Geothermal energy is a source that is clean, unlike the coal and oil that we rely on today. It also greatly decreases our dependency on foreign countries in the Middle East. Geothermal energy is a renewable resource. It will not run out like many other forms of energy. It relies on the heat from the core of the earth which will not disappear. Unlike wind farms, there is very little visual impact. Geothermal energy is also much more beneficial to the environment. The only emission is steam. There are not liquid or solid emissions. The geothermal water is also recycled by being reused in reservoirs.

After finding so many positive aspects of geothermal energy, I tried to find out if there are any negatives. There were very few. One negative aspect was that it can be very expensive to install. This, however, was argued because of a new bill that was passed stating that you can get a 30% rebate, saving thousands of dollars. It is also difficult or sometimes impossible to have a geothermal energy system installed if a home is on a small property.

Overall, it seems to me that there are many more positive attributes of using geothermal energy as a clean, renewable source. Hopefully over the next few years, the few negative issues can be solved.