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Alternative Sources of Energy

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Alternative Sources of Energy
“Alternative sources of Energy"

In the not-too-distant future -- with regard to history's time-line -- there will come a point when oil that is fossil fuels will have been depleted. However, waiting until supplies are exhausted would place a major hardship upon future energy demands. Even the existence of other conventional sources such as hydropower, wind energy and biomass will not suffice keeping in mind the rapid advancement. It is therefore imperative to look for alternative sources of energy in order to avoid the inevitable disasters that lie ahead.

For the last few years, major research is going on in various fields, such as solar energy, energy from the ocean (tidal, wave, thermal). So also ways to harness energy from the air, vide air tur-bines. Not to ignore the clean, yet the deadliest form of energy, i.e. the Nuclear energy.

Solar energy as the name implies comes from the sun. It is estimated that during the day, the side of Earth facing the Sun, a square kilometer at the outer edge of our atmosphere receives 1,400 megawatts of solar power every minute, but only half of that amount reaches Earth’s surface. It is this amount that needs to be harnessed and stored for use during the night and cloudy days.

Solar energy is safe, clean and non-polluting. It is renewable and an endless source of energy. Most important of all, it is free! Har-nessing solar energy has its share of drawbacks, such as cost of hardware, storage and maintenance. Limited to, bright and sunny days. It is to be noted, however, that if research is to be accelerated, greater funding should be available and customer support to the industry is of utmost importance.

Tides, waves and underwater tidal power are also good sources of energy, which are being experimented upon for quite some years now. The rise and fall of water during tides can be used to run turbines placed in the flow of water passing through barrages. This tidal power is also clean and renewable source of

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