FluxRostrum asked:

A MoveOn.org sponsored leafleting vigil for Clean Energy that just happened to take place in front of a Senators office. Why? HR2454 American Clean Energy And Security Act of 2009 To create clean energy jobs, achieve energy independence, reduce global warming pollution and transition to a clean energy economy. This is the Waxman-Markley comprehensive energy bill, known for short as “ACES,” that includes a cap-and-trade global warming reduction plan designed to reduce economy-wide …

JM Smith asked:


Alternative energy supplies have been hampered largely because of one major fact about electricity: It dissipates as it travels long distances. This means which ever form of energy is generated it has to be stored close by and it loses too much energy if transferred long distances without being stored and passed on. This will mean ‘booster’ farms will need to be built but this is already happening if you look around your town and see the discreetly placed sub-stations. We will simply have more of them and in more places.

Let’s look at the different possibilities of alternative energy sources. I believe each geographical location will harness and develop the one that is most suitable to their region. Australia is blessed because we have the choice of all of the five above.

Solar is suitable for all regions of Australia; Wind power is well suited to western Australia in particular and Wave generated electricity could be generated from between Bathurst and Melville Islands in the Northern Territory but there is only the people who live on those remote Islands who could benefit. The Islands are located too far off the mainland for the electricity to benefit Darwin residents. Solar power is suitable for both Islands and all other Northern Territory residents.

Hot Rock technology is probably better known as geothermal dynamics and is available and viable in the south-west of Queensland/South Australia border area but once again the generated electricity can’t be transferred any great distances. But these hot rocks power one of the biggest mining ventures in Australia at Roxby Downs. This is a very good symbiotic arrangement for both the Mining Company and the geothermal power industry as a proving ground for the technology.

Richard Chapo asked:


The ongoing discussion about energy is one that can be polarizing. So, just what is the advantage of alternative energy over fossil fuels?

While researching your options for your electricity needs, you will learn that an advantage of alternative energy is that once you purchased the equipment, you will no longer have a need to purchase electricity from a provider. This can be a life-changing event. With alternative energy, you can now supply your own home with all of the power necessary for your needs without the worry of power outages and other problems with providers.

In fact, you could even tap into their network of power lines and sell the excess electricity that your home will not need back to the power plant. They have to buy it from you. An advantage of alternative energy is that it is clean, meaning it does not produce the harmful pollutants that burning fossil fuels do. This makes the power plant want to buy this electricity from you to help them reduce the amount of pollutants that they release into the air.

After you have a good idea of how much your electric need will be, have the power company install a meter to measure how much electricity you generate for them. You will love to see the meter reader coming to see how much they are going to pay you, instead of it being the other way around inmost cases. The amount of money you will earn will be the difference between how much alternative energy you can produce, with the equipment that you have installed, and the amount that you consume.

Another advantage of alternative energy is that we are finding ways to use it in our vehicles. This will reduce the amount of oil that we will have to buy from other countries. Also it will cut down on the amount of pollutants released into the air.

The technologies that are being discovered for using alternative energy are changing the way we look at burning fossil fuels. The advantage of alternative energy over fossil fuels is that it can easily be replenished from the wind, the sun, or from water power. Fossil fuels are in limited supply and once we have used them all up, we won’t be able to get anymore. Once we have mined all of the coal that the Earth holds, we will not be able to quickly reproduce more.

With the population growing and the consumption rate of fossil fuels rising at an alarming rate, the need for alternative energy sources becomes more and more evident. Studies are currently underway for new ways to utilize this technology.