Alternate Power Production Methods
Minor, Yet Important Energy Sources
This article discusses the alternate power sources which are assisting the main power generation methods in a very important way.
We’ve discussed nuclear, thermal and hydroelectric plants as the main sources of power production today. However, there are a few other small scale power generation plants that support the main power producers by producing small quantities of power along with them. These alternate power sources are renewable sources, which makes them available in a plenty. These are also non-polluting, which makes them free of greenhouse gas emissions.
The urgent need to reduce carbon emissions to prevent the average global temperature from rising any further has lead to the increase in use of renewable sources of energy.
The alternate sources of energy we’re going to discuss now are:
1) Wind Power: Wind power is produced due to the rotation of blades of the wind mill by high velocity winds, which leads to turning of the rotor and hence to the generation of electric current. This type of power production is suitable for areas which experience high velocity winds for most part of the year.
2) Solar Power: Sunlight is a continuous supplier of fuel to this type of power producer. Photovoltaic cells are used to capture this sunlight and convert it into electricity directly. This electricity is then stored in a battery to be used as required later. The good thing about solar power is that it can be exploited on a domestic household level as well, as compared to other conventional forms of energy which require huge power plants for producing them.
3) Fuel Cells: This is another type of power production which does not require fuel combustion. This kind of production is favored because it is clean and highly efficient. Power is generated as a product of a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. Steam is given out as the end product which makes it pollution-free. The anatomy of the fuel cell consists of two electrodes arranged close to each other and dipped in an electrolyte solution.
4) Biomass: Biomass is nothing but the wastes produced from agricultural processes. These wastes would have normally been thrown away, if not for the search for alternate sources of energy. Biomass is either burnt or converted into a gas, the heat from which is used to heat water to convert it into steam. This steam turns a turbine to produce electricity. Hence, the process of producing energy from biomass is very similar to that in a thermal power plant.
5) Geothermal Power: Geothermal plants make use of the steam trapped within the layers of the earth’s crust to produce energy. This steam is made to pass through a turbine in order to turn it and hence generate electricity. This process is also very much similar to that in a steam power plant, except that the steam is readily available here without having to obtain it from water again.
