The Availability of Coal and Energy Production - Essay Example

?Examining my Community’s Source of Energy Introduction The type of energy in use in a given society determines the environmental future of that community. Several challenges come up in the wake of energy use and this calls for a reason to new measures that are friendlier both to the community and the environment. However, the choice of a source of energy is greatly dependent on the prevailing economic factors and the government energy regulatory policy. A household is not bound to adapt a source of energy that it cannot afford (Finkbeiner, 2011). However, it is more uneconomical both to the community and the environment if there will be a short term adaption of a source that is less friendly to the environment. This paper seeks to establish the sources of energy in Hillsborough County, Florida both at the basic home level and the community level. It will look into the type of energy in use and the approximate cost of energy from the household to the community. This will also include the impacts of the energy source to the community over the time it has been in use and seek to establish new alternative sources that can effectively replace the existing sources with consideration to the effects both to the household and the environment. Sources of energy for the community Hillsborough County in Florida is a community that has several choices on the sources of energy to use. This comes as a result of the availability of several companies that specialize in provision of the different types of energy. Currently, there are around sixteen energy production companies in the area. The common types of energy source in use are coal, electricity, solar energy and wood. However, is worth noting that these sources of energy are mostly generated locally which leads to the centralized pollution system to the environment by the well over sixteen companies in the area. Of much concern is the ethanol generating cum electricity companies that operate in the area. In households, the most common sources of energy are solar and electricity while in the community at large, the use of coal and wood are common to the industries that operate for the benefit of the area. In most cases, the wood is used to produce wood pellets that are used to generate heat and energy mostly from the available sources that are renewable (Finkbeiner, 2011). The coal is also used for the same reason of heat and energy production by the companies though there are a small number of households that make home use of it. Impacts of available energy sources on home and community The discussion about use of coal, wood and the production of electricity are all embroiled in the fact that to some extent, they all pollute the environment. The United States of America is one of the countries with the highest use of coal. In the locality, the disaster caused by the use of coal cannot be undermined. One effect of coal use is the radiation exposure. Coal is known to contain traces of Uranium and Thorium which are radioactive materials that occur naturally occur naturally. The coal wastes from the plants are known to be highly disastrous than the direct emissions from a nuclear plant. The other long term effects of the gases released from the use of coal are those associated with the greenhouse gas release to the environment. These greenhouse gases are of great hazard especially to the ozone layer depletion. The third negated effect of coal use is that it causes so many annual deaths. In the United States at large, the deaths resulting from the coal particulate pollution and ground level ozone without effective pollution control measures is on the increase. The deaths are caused by probable development of lung cancer, heart attacks and the acute bronchitis to the victims. Coal also when used even in traces release methyl mercury to the environment. This is a mercury emission that is very fatal to the plant and animal life. The air emissions related to use of coal in this environment is of absolute interest. There are a myriad of gases that are emitted to the environment by the use of coal. They are toxic gases which when mixed with the air and water creates compounds such as sulphur dioxide and the vast group of cyanides. The use of wood pellets has a net release of very low levels of carbon dioxide to the air but thinking about the wood that is consumed to come up with these pellets, the effects on the environment can be very adverse over a long period of time. Hillsborough County has got several companies in the community that produce different items. These companies use the wood pellets to produce heat that generates what they produce. Virtually, the area has its own power production companies that make supplies to the area. Wood use depletes the forests around and the natural setting of the environment is interfered with tremendously. Wood is used in very minimal quantities at the county by the homes and the community at large. For electricity, its conformity to environmental friendliness is not absolutely questionable. However, there is a big problem especially when it comes to the production of the electricity. There is an ethanol plant in the area which also produces electricity. It produces the environmentally friendly electricity but the method of production is total pollution to the environment where the wastes used in the production of the electricity are hazardous to the environment (Bush, 2011). According to me, these three sources of energy have directly or indirectly affected the environment especially the coal and wood use. Though the area does not have a nuclear plant, the effects of the use of coal over time are equated to the release of nuclear gases in the air. According to the community statistics, these sources of energy have been in use for several years and there have been more plans to build more energy provision companies in the name of alleviating any form of impending energy supply limitations. Quantity of energy in use-homesteads and community According to the United States Census Bureau, Florida, the energy use in the area is dependent on and varies from home to home, household to household. Our annual home use of energy is based on the daily, monthly and annual statistics but the average use is dependent on the seasons. Our household calculation can be calculated as follows: (Monthly energy usage in $)*(12 months per annum) = (energy household usage per year in $) $132.75*12months=$1,593 That is the annual consumption of $1,593 per annum. In terms of kilowatt hours, the average consumption is as follows: 1365.25 kilowatt hours*12 months=16,383 kilowatt hours The approximated number of 1500 households in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida would therefore make a consumption of: 16,383 kilowatt hours*1500 households=24.5745 megawatt hours The total cost of the same would be: $1,593*1500 households=$ 2,389,500 for the households in the region. The consumption in terms of the kilowatt hours is 16,383 kilowatt hours per annum. This high amount of energy per household is important because it is an eye opener to other inventive ways of saving the energy in use. It is important to note that more consumption of energy leads to extra demand for the same service which will motivate the state government to license other companies to provide more power. This in real terms leads to demand for more coal and wood to run these companies. More coal or wood would spell more disaster to the already prevailing conditions of pollution by the established companies. To reduce this, there is need to reduce the household consumption per day and hence per annum (GREENandSAVE, 2011) Recommendations for alternative sources The above figures are relatively high in terms of the costs to the families, households and the environment as a whole. Therefore, there is needed to make replacements to the existing energy sources and save the area from imminent dangers of prolonged use of coal and wood. There is therefore need to increase the use of solar energy, wind energy and the possibility of finding the proximity to a hydro-electric power. This will save the place from the adversities of using the ethanol using plant to generate more power for the households. Solar energy is very realistic in that it has no chemical impacts on the environment and the households are self-reliant. It wholly depends on the natural factors; the sun. It does not require a lot of manpower operation and therefore it will be less costly to produce, distribute and therefore more friendly to the environment. Wind energy production is also applicable because it has no negative chemical or waste energy disposal to the environment. The third factor would be to adapt the use of hydro-electric power. This type of power may not be available but being sourced from a farther region would result in decentralization of the waste disposal just in the course of accidentally polluting the environment (Loeffler, 2010). Peoples’ responses and costs involved The response of the people in planning to change the sources of energy is dependent on whether the natives will be educated during the planning and piloting stage. The need to plan the projects must take civic engagement criteria in which the society is put in the participatory limelight of the whole project. Given that it is an area of working people, there would be need to carry out basic conservative education even during the reconnaissance stage. The expenses that will be put in this project are more than far surpassed by the cost of the existing power supply projects. As far as the state government is concerned, there is needed to make investments into these projects since they will not be dependent on the existing projects such as the ethanol plant. Advantages to ecosystem There are several beneficiaries to the adaptation of the wind power, solar power and the hydro-electric power. The first beneficiary will go to the people in this area of Florida. There will be highly decreased costs of the power due to the natural setting that the production is based on. Given that there will be use of natural factors in the provision of this power; the cost of its availability will equally be dependent on less monetary costs. Moreover, they will not suffer from the availability of the waste chemicals to the environment caused by the use of coal and wood. Reduced cases of heart attack diseases due to the bad air that is breathed in the wake of these chemicals will also be reduced. The animals and the birds of the area will also benefit from the improved ecosystem. The wastes left by the use of coal are naturally consumed by the worms; the worms are fed on by the birds and other creatures. Therefore, the entire food chain and system stands to benefit from the clean ecosystem. Water animals and all creatures will benefit and extend their existence. Wind energy for instance never pollutes the environment. It is only dependent on the sun and can also stop existing when the sun stops existing. Since there will be no waste to be disposed to the water, the sustainable development and livelihood of all the water creatures will be elongated further. Since the environment is a universal issue, the extended advantages that will accrue to this adaptation will be felt not only in Tampa but also in the entire Florida region if not the entire United States of America. The issue of global warming which is aggravated by the existence of the fumes and wastes to the environment will be highly reduced and the effects thereof equally reduced. The availability of coal is important for energy production is important but the effects of the use are equally and basically an issue hazardous to the environment. Wood that would be used to make the chips used to provide the wood pellets that are made from the biomass would be saved. This is possible because the ability to use these trees in the provision would be highly reduced by adaptation of the newly recommended forms of energy. Since trees play the part of cleaning the environment, the availability of the trees and their preserved nature would be of functional use both to the environment and to the people (Jacobsen & Kotchen, 2010). - Conclusion According to the American home sufficiency check-ups, the rate at which the utility bills are increasing is alarming. The energy audits especially in Florida where the area under discussion, Hillsborough is located have revealed a dynamically increasing trend in the bill supply. The rate is however not bound to reduce if something and more so the recommendations in this piece of research are not implemented. The costs shown in the research are approximations and the real values could be higher than these. The paper has analyzed the energy supply in Tampa, Hillsborough County in Florida where there was a discussion on the energy available for use to the homes. It has also discussed how people use the energy in their respective households and the respective sources. The recommendations leveled are based on the fact that there are some sources of energy that can be used at the expense of the ones in use. These could be cost effective and friendly to the environment. References Bush, M. M. (2011). Wood to Energy: Use of the Forest Biomass for Wood Pellets. Wood to Energy Fact Sheets, 1(207), 1-10. Finkbeiner, M. (2011). Towards Life Cycle Sustainability Management. Florida: Springer. GREENandSAVE. (2011). Energy Audits And Home Efficiency Checkups In Florida. Saving Your Money and the Planet, 10-15. Jacobsen, G. D., & Kotchen, M. J. (2010). Are Building Codes Effective at Saving Energy?: Evidence from Residential Billing Data in Florida. Florida: National Bureau of Economic Research. Loeffler, D. (2010). Forestry-based Biomass Economic and Financial Information and Tools. New York: DIANE Publishing. Read More