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.

Quiet Revolution

While researching information on wind power, I came across a company located in Wales called Quiet Revolution. This company creates small turbines in the shape of an upside down egg beater that can be installed on the top of buildings in urban environments. The goal of Quiet Revolution is to provide a clean, affordable, and quiet source of energy for generations to come. In 50 years, they want renewable energy to be the dominant source. Quiet Revolution's turbines will contribute to this goal because it makes it possible to have wind energy in urban areas.

Quiet Revolution uses the unique shape of turbines so that it doesn't require wind that comes from a consistent direction. These turbines produce 20-40% more energy than typical turbines because it does not have to rotate and waste it's resources.

The wind turbines can operate with a minimum wind speed of 4.5 m/s and a maximum speed of 14 m/s. Each turbine will create about 6,000 to 10,000 kWhrs depending on the wind speed. They will reduce carbon dioxide by emissions by 0.568kg per kWhrs. Each year, the qr5 model will generate about 6,000 to 10,000 kWh. That is enough energy to power 15-20 man offices (ex. lights, computers, phones, etc.).

Below are a couple pictures of wind turbines in urban areas. I think they look cool!

Below is a news clip from MSNBC about the Quiet Revolution wind project:

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Bird Kills Continued

After researching the amount of birds killed per year by turbines, I found that many more birds are killed from windows and buildings. The reason for this has to be because there are so many more buildings in the country than wind farms. According to the American Bird Conservatory, each turbine in the country kills one to 7.5 birds per year. That means that as more turbines are constructed, more and more birds will suffer. For example, if there are currently 1,000 wind turbines and each turbine kills about 4 birds, 4,000 birds per year are dying. But as the industry grows, and there are 4,000 wind turbines, 16,000 birds will be killed per year. As the numbers grow, it will be harder to say that buildings kill that many more birds than wind farms do.