One of these is solar power. Solar power is driven by photovoltaic cells, and these are progressively getting less expensive and more advanced. Solar energy power can be used for electricity, heating, and making hot water. Solar energy produces no pollution, as its input comes completely from the sun’s rays. However, much more work still needs to be done in order for us to economically harness the sun’s energy. For the time being, the resource is a little too conditional—storage batteries are needed to be used as backups in the evenings and on inclement days.
Wind energy has become the most-invested-in (by private investors and governments together) alternative energy source for the time being. The great arrays of triple-bladed windmills are being placed all over as “wind farms”, to capture the motion of the wind and use its kinetic energy for conversion to mechanical or electrical energy. Of course, there is nothing new about the concept of a windmill for harnessing energy.
Modern wind turbines are simply are more advanced variations on the old theme. Of course, the drawback to wind energy is…what do you do when there is a calm, still day? Needless to say, during these times the electric company kicks in for powering your home or office. Wind energy is not altogether independent.
Hydroelectric energy is available as a source of alternative energy, and it can generate a substantial amount of power. Simply put, hydroelectric energy uses the motion of water—its flow in response to gravity, which means downhill—to turn turbines which then generate electrical energy. Needless to say, water is ubiquitous; finding sources for driving hydroelectric turbines is, therefore, not much of a problem.
However, hydroelectricity as a source of alternative energy can be complicated and expensive to produce. Dams are often built in order to be able to control the flow of the water sufficiently to generate the needed power. Building a dam to store and control water’s potential and kinetic energy takes quite a lot of work, and operating one is complex as well,and conservationists grow concerned that it. Of course, a dam is not always needed if one is not trying to supply the electrical needs of a city or other very densely populated area. There are small run-of-river hydroelectric converters which are good for supplying neighborhoods or an individual office or home.
Probably the most underrated and under-appreciated form of alternative energy is geothermal energy, which is simply the naturally-occurring energy produced by the heating of artesian waters that are just below the earth’s crust. This heat is transferred into the water from the earth’s inner molten core.
The water is drawn up by various different methods—there are “dry steam” power plants, “flash” power plants, and “binary” power plants for harnessing geothermal energy. The purpose of drawing up the hot water is for the gathering of the steam. The Geysers, approximately 100 miles north of San Francisco, is probably the best-known of all geothermal power fields; it’s an example of a dry stream plant.
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victor brown is an expert in business management and investment ideas, and also a consultants in financial investment and money matters. and a writer
Question by Isaac’s Mommy **9-2-09**: How to convert energy from a waterwheel to a light bulb?
For physics class I have to design my own experiment.
I want to conduct an experiment answering how to convert energy from a waterwheel to a light bulb.
How exactly can I get the energy to convert?
Will I have to get a generator or something?
I know the basis of what I want to do, I just need help with how I can go about building a waterwheel and it successfully converting energy to light a light bulb.
Any suggestions would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance!
Best answer:
Answer by Hugo
Your on the correct line you would have to connect the waterwheel with a generator and then connect the generator to the light bulb. =]
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Energy density
Image by Argonne National Laboratory
The nation needs real breakthroughs in basic research before we can produce large batteries that are affordable, efficient, safe and reliable enough for widespread use. To meet that goal, we must bridge a technology gap in energy storage, as shown here.
The dashed line here is a slope of 1, so this shows how we have not achieved theoretical limits on specific energy yet. Importantly, this graph also shows that, even if you improve lithium ion to its theoretical maximum, you only move the Li-ion point slightly to the right on this curve. Granted the scale is logarithmic, but this illustrates how far we are away from octane.
Buy water jug with faucet, small DC motor use on toys & one wheel or small impeller same as air condition impeller & small flashlight bulb 3 volts. Preparation fix the small impeller to the small dc motor, connect the bulb to the DC motor supply line + & – . Put the water jug higher than the DC motor & open the water jug faucet. Allign the impeller that the wheel will be hit by running water & see the light bulb will lit as soon the impeller or wheel turn. Note: don’t allow the DC motor to be wet with water cover it by plastic or plastic tape.
If you take a bicycle wheel, and find a way to mount it in a frame of some sort so that it can rotate freely, you can bolt an old bicycle generator onto the frame. The generator sort of rolls along the side of the wheel, and if the wheel rotates, even at a modest speed, it should generate enough electricity to light a bulb. You will need to wrap the rotating part of the generator with rubber so that it can get enough traction to rotate against the rim of the wheel, since you will need to remove the tire to build paddles or buckets onto it.
(If you try to simply connect a generator to the axle of a rotating water wheel, I think you will find that you will not get enough speed to generate much power. If you want to proceed that way, you need to consider a gear train to increase the speed of rotation of the generator.)
Then you will need to take the tire off of the wheel, and glue small paddles or better: buckets onto the rim, enough that they will catch water and cause the wheel to rotate. You will have to experiment to see how large each little bucket will need to be to get the force needed to rotate the generator.
i am sure that there are many other approaches to this, but some of these ideas may be helpful.
use a generator or something……….yup. that should work