Climate change poses an issue for many regions. This is true especially for coastal regions below sea level. The logistics of trying to counteract the effects of climate change are seemingly ridiculous. For regions like Southern Florida, the effects of climate change are severe to the point that they cannot be mitigated with tradition methods of dealing with a rise in sea level. Some short term solutions involve creating bigger and bigger pumps to transport the water away from important areas, but as the sea continues to rise pumps cannot realistically keep up. Not to mention how much energy these massive pumps consume moving the water away [2]. So given the massive rise in sea level due to climate change, perhaps we can just leave those old
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It is a strong point of country and it allows us to develop technologies faster than any other country on Earth. Wind energy is also very abundant in the United States [3]. While there are some who would say that renewable energy sources like wind are not good enough to replace coal or natural gas, they obviously have a poor understanding of the field. Coal and natural gas have been utilized for literally hundreds of years [1]. The advancements in burning things for power has stagnated. Wind turbines are newer and have been seeing massive improvements on a very regular basis. Since 2000 global wind power capacity has increased by a factor of about 20 [3]. The United States alone went from a wind power capacity of 4147 MW in 2001 to 61,327 MW in 2014 [3]. This demonstrates the rapid and easily scalable capabilities of wind power. Because you focus on multiple small parts instead of one giant power plant you are able to easily parallelize production, which allows for incredibly rapid production that is simply not possible from sources like coal, oil or natural gas. This all comes packaged with advancements made in gearboxes and drivetrain technologies which extend beyond just the wind …show more content…
Because their research and development covers so many fields, there technologies pay tribute to projects and technologies involving those fields. Innovations that can be used for mechanical parts in cars, electrical power delivery systems, and efficient structural design are all being complimented by wind technology [3]. Wind is also versatile. Some designs have solar cells which allows turbines to gather a large amount of power with a very small footprint, by gathering both wind and solar energy. There are other big innovations like smoke stack turbines which are turned from the smoke coming from power plants. They act much like a turbo charge in a car, relying on pressurized combustion exhaust. They are helping with the transition to wind by improving the current efficiently of some power plants [3]. Wind is not the only player however. Solar cells have been taking large strides and advancing as well. The very first solar cells where only about 2% efficient. This improved, and in 1961 a series of solar cells were designed to provide electricity to 256 lighthouses off the coast of Japan. The very first implementation was on the Ogami Island Lighthouse in 1966 [4]. The cells were designed to provide constant operation regardless of the harsh conditions present, like the large waves and gusts of wind. They completely replaced the diesel generators that were previously used. Keep in mind that this is 54
It is a strong point of country and it allows us to develop technologies faster than any other country on Earth. Wind energy is also very abundant in the United States [3]. While there are some who would say that renewable energy sources like wind are not good enough to replace coal or natural gas, they obviously have a poor understanding of the field. Coal and natural gas have been utilized for literally hundreds of years [1]. The advancements in burning things for power has stagnated. Wind turbines are newer and have been seeing massive improvements on a very regular basis. Since 2000 global wind power capacity has increased by a factor of about 20 [3]. The United States alone went from a wind power capacity of 4147 MW in 2001 to 61,327 MW in 2014 [3]. This demonstrates the rapid and easily scalable capabilities of wind power. Because you focus on multiple small parts instead of one giant power plant you are able to easily parallelize production, which allows for incredibly rapid production that is simply not possible from sources like coal, oil or natural gas. This all comes packaged with advancements made in gearboxes and drivetrain technologies which extend beyond just the wind …show more content…
Because their research and development covers so many fields, there technologies pay tribute to projects and technologies involving those fields. Innovations that can be used for mechanical parts in cars, electrical power delivery systems, and efficient structural design are all being complimented by wind technology [3]. Wind is also versatile. Some designs have solar cells which allows turbines to gather a large amount of power with a very small footprint, by gathering both wind and solar energy. There are other big innovations like smoke stack turbines which are turned from the smoke coming from power plants. They act much like a turbo charge in a car, relying on pressurized combustion exhaust. They are helping with the transition to wind by improving the current efficiently of some power plants [3]. Wind is not the only player however. Solar cells have been taking large strides and advancing as well. The very first solar cells where only about 2% efficient. This improved, and in 1961 a series of solar cells were designed to provide electricity to 256 lighthouses off the coast of Japan. The very first implementation was on the Ogami Island Lighthouse in 1966 [4]. The cells were designed to provide constant operation regardless of the harsh conditions present, like the large waves and gusts of wind. They completely replaced the diesel generators that were previously used. Keep in mind that this is 54