In a home, geothermal or geoexchange pumps use the constant temperature of the earth a few feet below the surface to cool homes in summer and warm houses in winter—and even to heat water. Geothermal systems can be initially expensive to install but typically pay off within 10 years.
They are also quieter, have fewer maintenance issues, and last longer than traditional air conditioners. A backyard wind farm? Boats, ranchers, and even cell phone companies use small wind turbines regularly.
Dealers now help site, install, and maintain wind turbines for homeowners, too—although some DIY enthusiasts are installing turbines themselves. Depending on your electricity needs, wind speeds, and zoning rules in your area, a wind turbine may reduce your reliance on the electrical grid.
Wind- and solar energy—powered homes can either stand alone or get connected to the larger electrical grid, as supplied by their power provider. Electric utilities in most states allow homeowners to only pay the difference between the grid-supplied electricity consumed and what they have produced—a process called net metering. If you make more electricity than you use, your provider may pay you retail price for that power.
Advocating for renewables, or using them in your home, can accelerate the transition toward a clean energy future. Contact your power company to ask if it offers that choice. The Ute Mountain Ute tribe is working to free itself from fossil fuel dependency—and preparing to help solarize the rest of the state, too.
Plus, Bernhardt tries to sink offshore wind, and our first-term president takes credit for building a plastics factory that was announced seven years ago. Some people tout bioenergy as a solution to our climate crisis.
Two new bills could put the Prairie State on the path to percent renewable energy within decades. In Texas, tax breaks for fossil fuels outpace tax breaks for renewables by a rate of two to one.
Guess which sector is whining about unfairness? With its plan to source all city energy needs from renewable power by , Albuquerque, a winner of the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge, is also jump-starting its solar workforce.
New polls show that all Americans—Democrats, Republicans, and independents alike—want to close the book on our dirtiest fossil fuel. If you want to know where coal is headed, look no farther than Texas—where this dirty fuel is in its death throes. The people and the planet can claim more than a few victories—and is looking better already. Photovoltaic panels on the Leech Lake reservation are generating clean power—and revenue to help those who need it most. Her new book considers its future.
A number of governors who campaigned on renewables and other environmental causes won their races—and the chance to get their states moving on serious climate action. Activists across the country rallied, hosted listening sessions, and submitted public comments to advocate for carbon pollution limits from power plants. But it may not be the solution local communities need to escape the stench and swill of the pork industry.
Since the election, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio have been keeping their clean power progress strong. A megawatt solar farm could make this region a hub for clean power and big companies looking to cut carbon. The prospect of geoengineering freaks us out. And it should—it signifies the lateness of our climate hour.
We need wind farms to produce renewable power, and new solutions can keep the giant turbines from also harming birds and bats. It could end up meaning the world. Likewise, all of the renewable resources may be treated differently for urban application than for rural application. Avoid operational definitions. For example, if different types of hydropower are to be treated differently for political or legal reasons, address such treatment in operational language, not by definition.
From the legal perspective, existing laws such as land use, water, mining, and hydrocarbon laws need to be scrutinized to determine their potential jurisdiction over and applicability to renewable resources. The main examples of stock-limited resources are the fossil fuels principally coal, petroleum, natural gas, tar sands and oil shales and the nuclear fuels principally uranium, thorium, deuterium and lithium. Can all Renewables be governed by a common policy? Policy makers should be cognizant of the similarities as well as the variations among renewable energy resources.
The commercial renewable energy technologies Establish an objective, specific to each renewable resource, which is designed to achieve national goals. Fundamentally, the answer depends on why the question is being asked, and in which country the policy is being applied. There are, however, guidelines which may prove useful to policy strategists making this determination in any country.
Essentially, form must follow function. In other words, it is essential that the policy strategist understand the nature of each of the renewable resources and the nature of the process by which each of those resources is developed. The resources are fundamentally different. At present, the major commercial grid-connected renewable resources are hydroelectric, geothermal, biomass, wind energy and solar. In the majority of legal regimes, hydroelectric and geothermal resources are identified as owned in common by the people of the country and husbanded by the government for their benefit.
Drilling for geothermal resources involves many of the same discrete considerations involved with drilling for petroleum hydrocarbons and individual treatment is prudent. Geothermal resources. What are the renewable energy applications? Characteristically, a grid is a portfolio of generating units operating under the control of a central dispatch center.
Technically, every one of the commercial renewable resources can be and have been installed both on-grid and off-grid. Off-grid applications can take many forms, from photovoltaics for an individual village home to centralized windmills to power a village water pump or a commercial battery charging facility. These off-grid applications are most generally used in remote or rural settings. The following charts illustrate common on-grid.
This reduces transmission costs. Distributed generation tends to yield the largest returns in locations where it averts the need to increase transmission capacity. There are many other uses of each technology. Although a complete list of the benefits of renewable technologies can be very extensive, they can be categorized under four headings: environment, diversification, sustainability and economics.
Renewable resources are environmentally benign. Renewable energy facilities generally have a very modest impact on their surrounding environment. The discharges of unwanted or unhealthy substances into the air, ground or water commonly associated with other forms of generation can be reduced significantly by deploying renewables.
Clean technologies can also produce significant indirect economic benefits. For example, unlike fossil-fuel facilities, renewable facilities will not need to be fitted with scrubbing technology to mitigate air pollution, nor will a country need to expend resources in cleaning up polluted rivers or the earth around sites contaminated with fossil-fuel by-products. Furthermore, they provide greenhouse gas reduction benefits and should a worldwide market for air emission credits emerge as has been predicted, countries with a strong portfolio of renewable energy projects may be able to earn pollution credits which can be exchanged for hard currency.
Finally, having a clean environmental profile enhances the attractiveness of renewable projects in the eyes of investors, especially the multilateral development agencies, many of whom operate under guidelines that require the promotion of non-polluting technologies. Renewable resources promote energy diversification. In effect, the construction of a renewable energy project provides future generations a low cost, energy facility that produces power with little or no environmental degradation.
Renewable resources are sustainable. Reduced dependence on fuel imports reduces exposure to currency fluctuations and fuel price volatility. Renewable energy projects thus act as engines for regional economic development. In the case of large scale, on-grid projects, easements will need to be purchased and local workers hired to construct and operate the facility. Frequently, a local industry such as a sugar mill or a paper mill when biomass technology is employed will be associated with the development, enhancing the opportunities for joint ventures between local landowners and private investors who may supply technological expertise.
Smaller scale facilities often attract local private sector involvement. Local involvement, in turn, stimulates new economic activity in a multiplier effect and adds value to the local tax base. Appendix A provides concise descriptions of renewable energy technologies, their applications and environmental impacts. Locate and describe the tropical grasslands and their forages. Locate and describe the temperate grasslands and their forages.
Important issues affecting grasslands and their forages. Describe the current role of forages in US agriculture. Discuss regional forage production. Discuss forages from a livestock perspective. Discuss the environmental benefits of forages. Discuss the possible future role of forages in the US. Differentiate warm-season from cool-season grasses.
Summarize the distinctive physical characteristics of grasses Describe the utilization of grass in forage-livestock systems. Describe how knowledge of grass regrowth is beneficial to forage managers. Provide specific information about the common grasses used as forage Summary Exam References Legumes Overview Pretest - Legumes Instructional Objectives Legumes are a valuable part of forage production.
Differentiate warm-season from cool-season legumes. Summarize the distinctive physical characteristics of legumes. Define the utilization of legumes in forage-livestock systems. Provide specific information about the common legumes used as forage.
Describe the major differences between the plant families used as forages. Provide the vocabulary needed to identify grasses. Provide the basic vocabulary for identifying legumes.
Identify common species of forage. Provide practice in identifying common forages. Determine limitations to forage selection. Forage selection requires an understanding of species and cultivars.
Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of selecting mixtures. A model for forage selection Summary Exam References Establishment Overview Pre-Test Instructional Objectives Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of pasture establishment Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of pasture renovation. Discuss the steps in seedbed preparation. Discuss the considerations of seed quality. Discuss the methods and timing of seeding.
Discuss the purpose and wise utilization of companion crops. Instructional Objectives Explain why producers and the public should be concerned about weeds. Describe several ways in which weeds cause forage crop and animal production losses.
Describe methods in determining quality List several poisonous plants found on croplands, pasturelands, rangelands, and forests.
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