energy
solar energy
2. Solar power is one of very few sources of energy that are completely free.
3. On Earth we are especially lucky; the sun is in the top 5% of stars in the Milky Way in terms of brightness and size.
4. Although the sun is over 90 million miles from the Earth, it takes less than 10 minutes for light to speed across that distance.
5. Only 0.01% of the energy produced by nuclear fusion in the sun PER SECOND would be needed to satisfy the entire population of the earth’s energy requirements.
Wind
- Wind power involves turning energy from the wind into other forms of useful energy.
- Wind power can be harnessed in a number of different ways. For example, windmills create mechanical energy, sails move boats and wind turbines generate electricity.
- Windmills have been around for a long time, they were used in Persia (Iran) as far back as 200 B.C.
- Wind energy is clean and renewable.
- Large groups of wind turbines are called wind farms.
biomass
1. Millions of tons of organic waste, such as wood and plant residues, are produced in California each year.
2. Biomass electricity is produced by combusting or decomposing organic matter.
3. combustion Wheelabrator Shasta Energy Company’s wood-fired 49 megawatt power plant produces enough electricity to power about 49,000 typical homes. Every year, it processes 750,00 tons of lumber mill waste and forest residues from Shasta County in California and surrounding areas.
4. gasification Community Power Corporation (CPC) is designing the biomass at SOC, an efficient 50kw gasification unit. (The first unit will pilot in Mount Shasta).
5. decompusion Royal Farms No. 1 in Tulare, California collects biogas from hog manure. The biogas fuels a 70 kilowatt (kW) engine-generator and a 100 kW engine-generator, meeting the farm’s monthly electricity and heat energy demand.