Alternative Ways to Produce Electricity

The discovery of electricity has remained one of man’s greatest triumphs. Currently, the enormous amount of electricity being produced each day comes

from a variety of sources including fossil fuel, water, wind, and nuclear. The point of this article is to explore to different ways electricity is produced and their impact on the environment.

Because electricity is created by rotating very large turbines, various ways to move them have been created and are currently being used.

One method of powering turbines is through the burning of fossil fuel. The large amounts of water vapor that is heated by burning materials like natural gas, coal, and petroleum. Unfortunately, this also releases large amounts of carbon dioxide that forces high amounts of pollution into the atmosphere. Alternative methods to produce electricity are becoming more popular because of this.

One alternative method of creating energy is though hydroelectricity. This is created when dams use the river’s natural water flow to power the turbines. While this creates far less air pollution, it can damage the ecosystem of the river and the affect the animals and wildlife that depend on it. At this time, water produces 90% of the world’s electricity created by renewable resources.

Another resource is wind power. Giant windmills are spun by the wind creating large amounts of electricity. Oddly enough, this same technology is now being used to create chargers for cell phones.

Nuclear fission is another method being used. The same power used to create the atomic bomb is now being used for less destructive purposes by producing electricity. When a chain reaction created by the neutron bombardment on Uranium occurs, the Uranium element is split. Each time this split occurs more neutrons are released creating even more splits and so on. The chain reaction produces tremendous amounts of heat that can be used to vaporize water to power electrical turbines.

Bio-waste is an additional method of creating electricity that is becoming more popular. Some rural countries are beginning to create electricity by processing human waste.

Filed under: Alternative Energy

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