Examining Your Community's Source of Energy - Case Study Example

Primary types of energy sources There are lots of energy sources are available in the community. Three primary types of energy resources are Electricity generated from fossil fuel, Nuclear energy and Hydroelectricity. According to the report of community website 39% of the country's electricity production is being done from fossil fuel power. According to the report of energy department of USA 19.2% of the nation's total electric energy generation is being done from the nuclear energy. Hydrocarbon is also a primary source used in the community contributes almost 7% of the country’s electricity generation. These three sources are used in the community to fulfil different energy needs of community members. Lives of the community members are heavily dependent on the basis of these energy sources. These sources have significant influence on the lives of community members. Fossil fuel is consisting of high percentages of coal, carbon, petroleum and natural gas. Nuclear energy has different radioactive materials. Hydro electricity is generated from water. Does the use of these types of energy resource have a negative impact on the environment in your area? Yes, certainly all these energy resources have different negative impacts on the environment of the community. According to the statistic of Energy information administration fossil fuel emits 3.2 billion tons of extra carbon dioxide on yearly bases. Carbon dioxide is highly detrimental for the environment of community. It add significant amount of pollution in the air. Burning of oil and coal; damages community lands, causes lung diseases and over all environmental degradation takes place. It causes global warming, acid rain and water pollution in the community. Different radioactive materials like uranium and plutonium are being used in case of nuclear energy. These materials are very hazardous for the community environment and can reduce natural growth of plants and create unhygienic environment in the community for living. Different radioactive isotopes are very dangerous and have sheer negative impacts on the environment of the community. It can bring catastrophic situation for the environment of the community. In case of hydroelectric power generation, big dams are needed to be prepared. It restricts normal flow of water. Once the normal flow of water has been restricted there are high risks of floods. Global warming is a serious negative impact for the environment of the community when hydroelectric plants are installed then it creates lots of air pollution in the community. Does your community have nuclear waste to dispose of? Yes, the community has different nuclear waste in its disposal. As nuclear energy is being used as one of the primary source of energy, then it is quite obvious that there will be significant nuclear wastes. Nuclear energy is created in fission process. It is being done by splitting of uranium atoms. As Uranium is a non-renewable resource so it cannot be recycled on a human time scale. It generates lots of harmful nuclear wastes in the community. Once nuclear energy is created it must releases some radioactive isotopes in the community. If any accident takes place in the society different radioactive wastes will come out and it is very difficult almost impossible to recycle those radioactive wastes. Some amounts of low-level waste are produced due to the usage of different chemicals. Nuclear reprocessing does not able to eliminate all wastes created from nuclear energy and all those wastes remain in the society. Three power sources used by the community and its impact on the environment Fossil fuel is the only power sources which always has been used by the community. Other two sources like nuclear energy and hydro electricity are being used recently by the community. Fossil fuel is the age old energy source for the community. It has long term present in the society in compare to other two energy sources (Kruger, 2006). As fossil fuel is the oldest energy source in the community, it has significant impacts on the environment than other two primary energy sources. It has contributed significantly towards the community environment degradation and caused lots of environmental pollutions. Because of high percentage of carbon emission from this source, it has increased pollution in the society. Although, other two resources are always not used in the community but other two energy sources also have different negative impacts on the environment. Impact on local air and water quality All three sources have significant impact on local air and water quality. Sulfur dioxide, Carbon dioxide and mercury emit and come to the proximity of local air and water and pollute it heavily. It is often being noticed that some parts of the community is experiencing acid rains. Different types of water born diseases are also being noticed in the community. All these are due to the pollution from fossil fuel. Nuclear radioactive isotopes have huge impact on local air and water quality. It emits different dangerous by-products which are hampering the quality of local air and water (Smith and Taylor, 2008). As the water flow changes in case of hydro electricity it changes the quality of local water. Lots of contaminations take place in the local water. In the process of this energy generation the local air is being polluted immensely. Energy your house uses each month According to US Energy Information Administration 903 Kilowatt-hours (kWh) energy is being used by one resident in monthly basis. Calculation of annual usage of energy of a house hold and the community The following formula will be helpful for the calculation. The formula is Monthly energy usage * 12 months per year = household energy usage per year; Yearly energy estimate for your house * estimated number of houses in your community = estimated yearly energy use for your community Here monthly energy usage is 903 kWh (U.S. Energy Information Administration, 2012). Annual usage of energy of a house hold is (903 * 12) = 10836 kWh. Estimated annual energy usage of a house hold is 10836 kWh. According to the census data of 2012 estimated numbers of households are 117,538. So, estimated yearly energy use for your community is (10836 * 117,538) = 1273641768 kHz. Best source for your community Different alternative renewable energy sources are solar power, wind turbine and geo thermal energy. Solar energy creates no air and water pollution. It does not emit greenhouse gases. Geothermal energy has comparatively little environmental impact it does not burn fuel to create electricity. It emits very little Carbon dioxide and Sulphur in compare to fossil fuel. Wind turbine is also a very clean energy and it has very less impact on the community environment. All the above alternatives are realistic renewable sources. But solar energy is the best sources for the community. The above calculation is showing that the need of energy in the community is very high. It shows that for serving the community huge amount of energy is needed. Solar energy is abundant in the community. So, this energy will be able to fulfil the total requirement of the community. This energy is very cost effective also. It has negligible impact on the environment of the community. Raw materials for this energy are easily available. People of the community will have to pay less for this resource. Environmental stability of the community will be maintained by the usage of this energy. Now a day’s people of the community are paying higher electricity bills as sources of energy are conventional and are declining. But solar power is a non conventional energy source and easily available. So, per unit cost will be less with this alternative energy source. Justification of the choice of energy resource There are a number of resources available for providing electricity in the community. These include geo thermal energy, wind energy and solar power. Seeing the consumption of the electricity level in the community and assessing the availability and cost of the different energy resources, solar energy can be identified to be the best possible source of energy available to the community. Solar energy is considered to be the suitable energy resource for providing electricity to the community. Solar energy resources have the capacity to produce huge amounts of electricity and thus, are expected to sufficiently cater to the electricity needs of the community. Also, solar energy is a cost effective energy resource and has no negative impacts on the environment. It is a renewable source of energy which can be easily accessed through the use of solar plants. How realistic is this alternative power source The solar energy resources are identified to be much realistic for use in the community under study. As calculated in the previous sections the annual consumption of electricity in each household of the community is 10836Kwh. In total, there are 117538 households in the community. This makes the total energy requirement of the community per year to be 1273641768 kWh. It is much easy to supply this amount of energy in the community through the extensive use of solar energy. For fulfilling the required need of electricity in the community, substantial expenses have to be incurred by the local authorities as well as the people. Solar energy is one of the most cost effective ways of generating electricity (Kalogirou, 2009). As such, it can be identified that it is the most feasible source that can be used for electricity generation in the community because of cost effectiveness, wide availability, renewability and no negative impacts on the environment. Responses of the people in the community towards the energy conversion The people in the community under consideration are likely to support the use of a new energy source for meeting the power requirements of the region. This is because the people living in this community are mostly educated and aware people who have a fair idea of the negative impacts of fossil fuel and nuclear energy on their health as well as on the overall ecosystem. The people in this community are also much concerned about the environmental and are aware of the need of sustainability of the ecosystem. Therefore, it is likely that they would show a positive response towards the introduction of the solar energy as a new source of electricity generation. The fact that solar energy would be cost effective would mean that the taxes and utility bills that they pay for electricity will automatically be reduced. This is another positive factor that is likely to boost the acceptance level of solar energy as an alternative source of energy in this community. If more awareness is created among the benefits of solar energy sources as compared to the non-renewable sources of energy, then it is likely that more people would accept and support the change. Also a parallel drawn between the advantages and disadvantages of solar energy and the sources of energy that are primarily used in this community like nuclear energy, fossil fuel and hydroelectricity, can contribute significantly in increasing the acceptance level of solar energy among the people. Expenses associated with the new power source Setting up a solar energy power plant is a comparatively less expensive option as compared to the other sources of energy. Both photovoltaic and thermal solar power plants require an affordable amount of investment (Tiwar and Mishra, 2011). Also, setting up solar power systems in homes is a much cheaper option which can lead to long term benefits like lower utility bills and availability of power in a continuous and environmentally sustainable manner. Impact of the new source on the environment There are no negative impacts of solar energy on the environment. This means that solar energy is a highly beneficial alternative source of energy as compared to any other source of energy. This form of energy is a completely natural and renewable source of energy which does not harm the ecosystem, the human beings or any other living being. The organisms that would benefit from this conversion Not only the natural environment of the community but also the human beings and other living beings residing in the community benefit from the solar energy sources. The use of solar energy would ensure that the harmful effects of fossil fuels and nuclear elements as sources of energy are minimized. Also the human beings, the microscopic organisms, fishes, birds, animals and other beings that constitute the ecosystem will be saved from the harmful effects of the use of non-renewable energy resources. References Kalogirou, S. A. (2009). Solar Energy Engineering: Processes and Systems. Massachusetts: Academic Press. Kruger, P. (2006). Alternative Energy Resources: The Quest for Sustainable Energy. London: Wiley. Smith, A. Z. and Taylor, D. K. (2008). Renewable and Alternative Energy Resources: A Reference Handbook. New York: ABC-CLIO. Tiwar, G. N. & Mishra, R. K. (2011). Advanced Renewable energy resources. London: Royal Society of Chemistry. U.S. Energy Information Administration. (2012). How much electricity does an American home use?. Retrieved from http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=97&t=3. Read More