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There are many types of solar lights & many different designs from which to choose. Some are better for pathways, some are better suited for lighting the perimeters of flower beds, some are good to use as spot lights & some are a nice addition to an already established landscape arrangement.

The most common perhaps are the ones that merely stick in the ground & have a light at the top. There’re many different designs for these types & it all comes to personal preference to which would work in various situations. There is more. The most common material for these types is plastic, copper & stainless steel. Each has their corresponding characteristics & it would depend where you want to put them & how they look aesthetically to you to determine which would work for you… These types of lights come in various light colors & some have lights that alternate between various colors.

If you have a hankering for solar spot lights a little out of the ordinary, there’re solar spot lights encased in stone like cases. Visually, they look like a rock, but are usually plastic. On one end is the solar panel which is barely noticeable & the other is a spot light. These could easily be used anywhere you need spot lighting. Do you follow? They blend so naturally within the landscape you hardly know they’re there.

Another type of solar lighting is solar stepping stone. These are usually ceramic stones with a solar light embedded within it… They come in 12-13 inch squares, circles or hexagon shapes. There is more. They can be often used in a walkway as an accent within any landscape layout. These lights come in white or green color & can be a wonderful addition to any patio or garden.

There are also solar lights that are a little out of the ordinary. We could call them novelty solar lights since they serve a purpose like light a way or act as a spot light. These novelty solar light come as dog statues that resemble a black Labrador, golden retriever or British bull dog. These statues which are typically 12 ? 15 inches tall hold a solar lantern. For a dog lover, would be an excellent addition to their outdoor space.

Another novelty solar light would be a solar dwarf light standing 12 -16 inches tall & they resemble a gnome or a dwarf out of Snowy White & the 7 dwarfs. There is more. There’re about 6 different styles to this light & they all hold a spot light. These would be a wonderful addition to any yard where light you want to create a theme.

There are other types of solar novelty lights that include a statue of a frog, a snail, an owl, a parrot, a squirrel, or even a rabbit holding a solar spot light. One truly completely unique solar novelty light is an angelic harpist or a fairy with alternating, color changing lights. These would really add some variety to any landscaping project. Imagine the comments you would have from your friends & neighbors when seeing some of these types of lights.

To check out some real cool solar lights see http://www.solarlightspro.com

Jerome Sturgeleski started a website in May of 2005 when he decided to share his passion for enjoying his yard after hours. He thought that if his newly renovated landscaping project could be lighted after dark it would be enjoyable even in evening hours. He started small & is now offering many different types of solar lighting that would fit in in any number of applications.

Solar energy is the earliest source of energy known to mankind, & is also the origin of other forms of energy used by man.

Other renewable sources of energy, such as, wind energy, hydro power, biomass & ocean energy are the indirect forms of solar energy. Solar energy has many salient features, which make it an attractive proposition. These features are wide-spread distribution, environment friendly & virtually inexhaustible supply.

The solar energy can also be converted into electrical energy in the solar homes by the use of specially designed Photovoltaic cells. There is more. They are also known as PV cells or solar cells. There is more. They are basically made up of silicon & a few other elements are added to give a more efficient combination. These days semiconductors are used in the Photovoltaic cells. There is more. The Photovoltaic cells convert the incident solar energy into electrical energy. They are assembled on the roofs of solar homes to obtain maximum incidence of solar energy & thus more electrical output. This electrical energy is stored in special storage batteries that can be often used for an assortment of purposes. There is more. They can be often used to heat as well as work cooling devices like fans & air conditioners. There is more. Thus during summers when cooling is essential PV cells play a major role. This electricity can be often used for refrigeration as well as lighting. Do you follow? They also give rise to less consumption of electricity from conventional sources. There is more. Thus the solar energy finds a role in replacing the traditional sources of energy in every field of work not just in a household but in other aspects of life also.

Farming & agriculture are other areas where solar energy plays a major role. India has one of the largest solar energy programs in the world. The Indian government has dedicated a ministry for renewable energy & extensive work goes on in this field. Prominent Indian industrialists like Tata & Birla are involved in this project. Though it’s still at its nascent stage these programs have the potential to become a roaring success as this will save a lot of money for the consumers.

The beauty of solar energy is that it’s pollution free, easily & freely available in nature & this is one source which will never dry up. In other words solar energy is called green energy because it has the power to reduce global warming by not cutting down trees & forests for wood. Easy to use, no noise or fumes & available in plenty this is the ideal energy to switch to in countries where there is sunshine through out the year.

Besides agriculture industry is another sector where power is extensively used. Erecting power plants causes pollution & a lot of industrial waste is generated from it… Oil & fuel is also wasted in these power plants. Dams are built across rivers so that hydro power is generated. Though this may give rise to employment, the nearby villages are to be evacuated & their agricultural land is required for building dams. Due to this, people start protesting & the projects are stopped halfway. Here the use of solar energy will be ideal as there will not actually be any disturbance to nature as well as the people. Power is available in plenty & people can carry on with their lives without being disturbed. All this goes to prove that solar energy is green energy as the color green is associated with growth & abundance.

Chad Hartman is a solar power supporter & a staff writer for Go-Solar.org. Do you follow? To learn more about solar energy & how you can benefit from it, please visit our site at =>http://Go-Solar.org

Considering the danger represented by the climate changes & the global warming phenomena scientists & businessmen worldwide started to look for alternative energy sources. Besides the wind power or the nuclear energy is has been recently taken into consideration a new power generating substance: helium 3.

What exactly is helium 3? Helium 3, an isotope of helium, a gas used to inflate balloons, has a nucleus with two protons & one neutron. The solar wind, the rapid stream of charged particles emitted by the Sun, strikes the planets & their sattelites in the solar system & thus helium 3 is deposited in the superficial soil (also called regolith). As the Moon’s atmosphere isn’t very dense this flow of particles easily penetrates the gas layer & reaches the ground. Over millions & billions of years that adds up. But for its denser protective gases layers the Earth would have been under the direct action of the Sun too thus being contaminated by toxic products.

Louie Alvarez & Robert Cornog discovered helium 3 in 1939 but it was only 1957 when it drew the attention of researchers. Clear? It has been estimated that only a few hundreds pounds exist on Earth, most the by-product of nuclear-weapon production. Experts estimate that there’re about 1 million tons of helium 3 on the Moon, enough to provide the world with power for thousands of years from now on. The equivalent of a single space shuttle load (25 tons) could supply the entire United States’ energy needs for a year, according to Apollo 17 astronaut & Harrison Schmitt.

The advocates of this energy source support the idea of building reactors based closely on the reaction of deuterium & helium 3 even in the middle of a big city. It’s said that the fusion reaction using this gas is very efficient & it releases very little radioactive by-products. There is more. This gas could also be used for powering spacecrafts.

Commercially unfeasible

Man on Moon

The US goverment & some European countries as well have studied the energy potential of the Moon. And yet it’s highly unlikely that any government or group of states will spend the money necessary to go straight to the Moon & establish a base on it to support scientific research or the construction of the first production facilities. Hopefully the next few years will witness a media campaign to support the enterprise in the context of the global warming & the lack of terrestrial resources. Human society is straining to keep pace with its ever increasing energy demands which are expected to increase eightfold by 2050 as the population swells toward 12 billion. The moon & its resources just may be the answer.

At the moment the most significant aspect that stop the exploitation of the lunar resources is the money… The long term investors have to consider spending a lot of it for ten to 15 tears before any adequate return of investment. Companies in the field of energy production are reluctant to consider investing in such an enterprise. The other element that encourages skepticism is the lack of appropriate technologies. There is more. The fact is that once applied for economical purposes ? not just in labs ? & used on large scale these technologies become very expensive. Both proponents & skeptics have to consider that for example to produce seventy tons of helium 3 one million tons of lunar soil would need to be heated to 800? C to liberate the gas.

If successful the researchers’ efforts to find new alternative resources on the Moon could pay off the interested investors but as we said before nobody is prepared to invest money in soap balloons & the Moon in the sky.

Find related articles here http://www.tipstoread.com

Alternative fuels are our future… On this topic there is very little argument. We, as nations, can not continue on the path we have been on if our future generations are to have a planet & infrastructure to sustain life & happiness as we have known it… Future generations will be dictated from what we do right now & over the next 2-3 years. We do not have the luxury of studying it anymore. In order for alternative fuels like bio or hydrogen fuel cells to become commercially viable we need a market.

In order to have a market we must have a buyer & a manufacturing agent that gives a product. With fuel based products there is one more key ingredient. The infrastructure throughout the supply chain. So what’s this you ask? The infrastructure is both the pumping stations & the physical plants to produce the products. Then you need the completely unique suppliers who build the parts completely unique to the new tanks both in the vehicles & in the ground or where ever the fuel is stored at the delivery station. So, how do we get there? Well, big business would say they do not see a buyer or thus a market to invest in the plants & tooling needed to produce the fuels. The purchasing public would hold off purchasing a product that is bleeding edge & thus limited support once they drive it off the lot of their auto dealership locally. In addition, its one thing to buy it it is a whole other question to answer as to where to re-fuel the tank which leads us to the true market barrier in our opinion.

Today, there’re very few if any non fossil fuel stations where some one can refill their alternative fuel vehicle. There’re experiments in the field today albeit limited but they’re out there & today their support is typically centrally located & thus limited at best to full functional testing. You would not attempt a drive through the Mojave Desert from Los Angeles to Las Vegas on an alternative fuel vehicle today. However, if you had stations setup in Barstow, Baker & the border of Las Vegas you might reconsider your decision as the way points are much more conducive to you safety should something happen to your vehicle en-route. So, it is back to the chicken & the egg. All sides want the end result which in this case is a non polluting non fossil fuel vehicle. But who goes first? The United States isn’t the best country at launching ventures like this. We tend to offer grants & thus research environments but when it comes to the Commercial world we turn to private industry to solve it… Given the decades of build out of our current fossil fuel environment we do not believe that the government can not actually be involved. If the USA funded the first twenty percent of the overall re-fueling stations across the USA the rest would follow & private industry would have its risk reward ROI (return on investment) all set up for venture capital to enter the fray. Not unlike what Germany has done with the financing of the solar industry in country. It can sometimes be done. We are entering a completely unique period whereby a new President will be voted in. Our current President will leave office due to our two term maximum. The time is now to find the candidate that understands this problem & get behind them. This election is all about fueling our Green Planet needs. Make no mistake.

Irene has been servicing the Health & Wellness industry since graduating from Cal State Fullerton in 1982. Through her professional experiences in primarily the Physical Therapy field (presently working) she has gathered deep understandings on nutrition, exercise & overall healthy programs to share with her readers & clients of Planet Berry LLC. To learn more on Irene or Planet Berry please visit their corporate web site at http://www.planetberries.com or email at info@planetberries.com

One you have decided that your home is ready for solar conversion; you really need to decide the very best way to do it… The first step in converting an existing house for a solar power system is to select which solar strategies will work in your home. Then evaluate each choice in terms of how much solar power will it collect, how much money it will take to build the system & what the system will do to the appearance of the home. One bright way to welcome the sun into your home is to build a solar addition, or sunspace. Constructed properly, a sunspace not just gives a ray of hope in the fight against rising energy bills, it also can serve as a cheery, light-filled living area.

A sunspace is the most popular solar retrofit because sunspaces usually work well with any size or style of home. Besides providing inviting sun-warmed living space, sunspaces are also very efficient. They usually contribute anywhere from ten to fifty percent of the heating needs of an average house. A sunspace collects energy efficiently only if it is built to take the heat. That ability depends primarily on three considerations - location, size, & glazing.

There is computer software now available to help establish design & performance criteria for specific solar projects like sunspaces. There is more. This software makes it easy to avoid making uninformed & potentially costly decisions about a sunspace addition. Once you have determined where to build the sunspace, you really need to decide how large it should be. Generally speaking, bigger is better, but deeper can be wasteful. You do not want to build a sunspace so deep that sun light can not penetrate to the back wall. Exactly how deep it should be depends on the height of south-facing windows & how much roof glazing, if any, the space will have, as well as sun angles, shading, & other factors at your site.

The third consideration is the amount, type, & placement of glazing. Under the best circumstances, each square  foot of glazing will collect enough heat to warm two square  feet of sunspace area. Thus, glazing is usually installed on the entire south wall but kept to a minimum on the east & west walls. Glazing slightly angled usually to a maximum of sixty degrees collects more sun during winter. The right amount of glazing for each house will vary. The most popular kind of glazing is fixed glass, but if you want to keep down costs, you should consider other materials. Fixed windows are less expensive than the operable variety & lose less heat. Wood framed windows lose the least heat through the frames. For metal frames select a brand that has good thermal breaks between the outside & inside surfaces. Double insulated windows are the best buys in most parts of the country.

Now that you have collected & stored all that free heat, you have to find a way to distribute it as evenly as possible. You can do this in two ways, take advantage of natural forces, or give Mother Nature a little help by adding a fan or two. Many solar designers like to give the convective process a boost by inserting small fans inside some of the vents. Another way to enhance a passive solar system is to use a fan to force solar heated air past an indirect thermal mass, which makes heat transfer faster & making the mass more efficient. By example, you can use pre-cast concrete slab sub-floors that have cores running from one end to the other. Fans pull solar heated air through the concrete storing the solar heat in the slab for later use. Another even more extensive hybrid is an underground rock-bed that has heated air forced into it for storage.

Just about any home can tap into this source of almost limitless, free nonpolluting alternative energy source. Once you have mastered a few basic principles about passive solar energy, you can open your house to sunlight, capture & store its energy & distribute energy & heat when & where you need it.

Build a Sunspace & get free alternative energy. Besides providing inviting sun-warmed living space, sunspaces are also very efficient. They usually contribute anywhere from ten to fifty percent of the heating needs of an average house, visit http://www.solarenergyassociation.com to learn about building a Sunspace.

President Bush has called for a 22% increase in federal grants for research & development of alternative energy. Unfortunately, the world thirst for oil is growing, not reducing. One of the major problems of transition to alternative energy is that higher oil & gas prices stimulate the economy through increased employment of industry workers & service & supply companies who support the oil industry, & from oil company profits which keep stocks lucrative on Wall Street. So, as prices rise, companies & employees & contractors are not always inclined to look for alternatives. But if oil production starts declining as some scientist & oil executives predict, we may face major supply problems, especially when it comes to transportation?cars, aircraft, trains & boats for which we have no ready alternative to petroleum-based fuels.

Cambridge Energy Research Associates speculate that oil will peak sometime after 2020, but a number of oil geologists & executives predict it will happen much sooner. According to a controversial new model developed by a Swedish physicist, global oil production will peak sometime between next year & 2018 & then decline. And so… So far so good. While the amount of new technologies & infrastructures that need to be developed & built is staggering, corporation after corporation is springing up around the world, helped by various governments’ tax breaks & rebate incentives, to drive forward the alternative energy mission.

Alternative or ‘green’ energy becoming more profitable to investors & would-be employers, & the continued trouble-brewing in the Middle East, Nigeria, & other areas of importance to the oil-driven economy have made it clear to Americans that we’re in need of developing new avenues of energy supply & production. Further, allegations that petrochemical processing & usage contribute to global warming are creating a world-populace demand for a switch to alternative forms of energy to decrease damage to the atmosphere.

Viable energy sources currently being developed, that can act as alternatives to mammoth amounts of oil & coal, include biofuels from things like corn, sugar cane, & soybeans, refined hydroelectric technology, natural gas, hydrogen fuel cells, the further building of atomic energy plants, the continued development of solar energy photovoltaic cells, more research into wind-harnessed power.

The most recently developed wind-turbine technologies have brought wind-produced energy which is more cost efficient as well as, typically, more market competitive with conventional energy technologies. So… Solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, technologies are already implemented in pocket calculators, private property lights, US Coast Guard buoys, & other areas. Because costs are falling, solar cells are becoming more common on the roofs of housing & commercial buildings & building complexes. There is more. Their energy efficiency (the ratio of the amount of work needed to cause their energy production versus the actual energy production) is steadily on the rise.

Photovoltaic cells create absolute zero pollution while generating electrical power. However, photovoltaic cells are not presently as cost effective as ‘utility produced’ electricity. ‘PV’ cells are not capable at present of producing industrial-production amounts of electricity.

Alternative energies derived from currents, tidal movement, & temperature differentials are poised to become a new & predominant form of clean energy. Some concerns for such energies have centered around the problems with the deterioration of metals in salt water, marine growth such as barnacles, & violent storms which have been problems in the past. However, these problems, for the most part, have been resolved through the use of different, better materials. Ocean-produced energy has a enormous advantage because the timing of ocean currents & waves are well understood & reliable.

Vickie Adair is the senior technical writer at Media A-Team (http://www.mediaateam.com) & also publishes as a freelance writer. She writes for many websites such as http://www.houstonmanufacturers.com, an on line directory & news site for the Houston manufacturing community, & http://www.natural-products-directory.com, a directory of on line business that sell or manufacture organic and/or natural products.

Work is a force applied over a distance. Let’s further define energy as a shifting back & forth, but never truly changing one thing: it is constancy.

The first law of thermodynamics: energy is conserved. Thermodynamics is the study of the movement of heat. This law instructs us that even though the kind of energy in a given system can change, the total amount can’t. Energy is able to travel seamlessly through systems, yet it never changes its structure or shape.

I find this concept enlightening, because you would not normally think of energy as such a fluid movement. It seems more. I found it fascinating that all forms of energy are interchangeable. It makes one think about the potential of newer energy as well.

All objects hold some internal energy. That is, the kinetic energy of moving atoms. Conduction is discussed as the transfer of heat through collisions of electrons & atoms. Leaders at the University of Irvine that are studying the effect of aging, & specifically how the breakdown of DNA over time, effects aging.

The group at the University of Irvine has made a fruit fly live twice or two times as long by their experiments. As they stated, it may only be a bit more time before scientists discover a way to reverse or slow down aging, if they can discover the cause.

Thermal conductivity, the study of how energy transfer occurs, sounds very interesting. Radiation, or the movement of infrared energy & light traveling across a room, until they absorb, are also important to the second law of thermodynamics as well, because it makes one think about the process of how atoms & energy move from place to place.

The concepts of electricity & magnetism can be explained very differently from how Sir Isaac Newton explained gravitational pulls. One learns that lightning is a result of electrical charges, which come about from the transfer of electrons. There is more. That makes one think about what’s going on to cause the lightning bolt, rather than just running from them!

It’s also important to note that objects with like charges experience a “get away from me” stance, while objects with opposite charges attract each other. We know that every Magnet has a north & south pole & those magnets exert forces on each other, & always contain two poles.

A compass will point at the earth’s “dipole” magnetic field. Dipole is the magnetic field that arises from the two poles of a magnet. In the previous example of the earth, that would be the north & south poles. There is more. That’s a long distance to carry forces!

That brings us to wavelengths, amplitude, & frequency. Science has discovered that ocean waves are transverse waves that move perpendicular to the direction of the waves. James Clark Maxwell discovered that electromagnetic radiation could travel through a vacuum at the speed of light. Before this, scientists must have really wondered how that happened.

Gamma rays are the highest energies in the spectrum, & they’re used to treat tumors & other medical needs in hospitals. There is more. The rays cause the bad tissues to die, allowing the human to live on his/her excellent tissues. Clear? It really makes one think about what happens as light moves.

Knowing all of the above, how can we better make use of earth’s energy? The answer is renewable energy. This type of energy use taps into natural cycles such as the movement of the wind & water, the heat & light of the sun, heat in the ground, & the carbohydrates in plants. There is more. These are all natural energy sources that can supply our needs in a sustainable way.

Current levels of renewable energy use represent only a tiny fraction of what could be developed in the United States. So… Since electricity generation is a leading cause of carbon dioxide emissions, something needs to be done soon.

Renewable energy will also help alleviate our polluted air, water, increase plant & animal life, & help deter global warming. It is tough though, because fossil fuels & nuclear energy are tough to compete with due to their widespread usage & politics.

Still though, I encourage you, write your congressman. Let them know that you’re for renewable energy & you can even get petitions going in your area to see this come to pass. Over time, renewable energy sources could replace nuclear generation altogether. Furthermore, because renewable energy is homegrown, it can increase our energy security as a nation & create a ton of jobs as well.

Don Alexander is a writer & published poet & has two on line missions: Sharing his writing & also helping “all to succeed” in on line business. Don feels that on line home business is the financial answer for the average American today.
http://www.leading-online-business.com
“Helping ALL to Succeed”

Hydrogen fuel cells, biomass gases, solar collectors, solar hot water systems, heat storage vaults, photovoltaic electricity, solar panels, solar greenhouses & solar house plans will are all part of the growing trend toward homes that are powered by alternative energy sources. There is more. This trend is being driven by ever-more government recommendation & sometimes backing of alternative energy research & development, the rising cost of oil & other fossil fuels, concern about environmental degradation & global warming, & desires to be energy independent. We as individual also face the need of becoming more energy independent from giant energy companies who have a stranglehold on people when it comes to powering their homes by grid-driven electricity.

Zero energy homes, very energy-efficient homes, & off-the-grid lifestyles have faced difficulty with the mainstream audience because, until recently, so many grid-free homes have been prohibitively expensive or aesthetically-challenged & ugly. However, Lori Ryker’s book, Off The Grid: Modern Homes + Alternative Energy, foils both arguments, profiling ‘ten beautiful homes in regions as diverse as New York City, urban Germany, suburban Southern California, rural Canada, & the remote ‘bush’ of Australia,?(and) shows you how to take responsibility for your future choices & conveniences by living in a beautifully designed home that uses much less energy. Off-the-grid living is a concept that can be easily understood & adopted by everyone, regardless of where you live or how much money you make.’

Since Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to make California a world leader in solar energy, California already is the third-largest consumer of solar power equipment, behind Germany & Japan. The goal of his plan, to create a large, stable solar market that will lower the cost not just of components but also of installation, seems to be helping make solar energy more affordable for home owners here at home.

However, for many of us, building a zero energy or energy efficient home may be financially out of the question. But, homeowners can improve their situation in two ways: by using less energy & by wasting less of what’s used & by making their existing homes more energy-efficient. Here are some specific ideas that can be put in place right away.

Using less energy:

• Check the ducts for leaks & repair ducts with mastic or special metallic-backed tape. Leakage of conditioned air from broken or disconnected ducts accounts for twenty to forty percent of energy loss.
• Turn up your air-conditioner to 78 degrees in the summer while you’re home & at 85 degrees while you’re away, in the winter set at 68 degrees, you can significantly trim your energy bill & contribute to a lighter load on the power grid. Fans can assist make the higher summer temperatures comfortable at a lower energy consumption.
• Turn off lights, appliances, televisions, computers, stereos, radios, etc. when not in current use. If you’re going to be gone for even twenty minutes, or the stereo is on upstairs & you are going to be downstairs for twenty minutes ? flip the switch!

Products & projects to make your home more energy efficient:

• Purchase compact fluorescent lamps & energy-efficient appliances help reduce electrical consumption.
• Limit the impact of the sun with shade such as building a vine covered trellis that will cast shade on your windows or sunniest side of the house. You can also use awnings, shadecloth, or trees to block the sun on the exterior.
• Replace your windows with double paned or other energy efficient windows that block some of the heat from the window in the summer & block cold air in the winter.
• Upgrade your ceiling insulation to keep heat captured in the attic during the summer from entering living spaces & to keep heat in the house during the winter from escaping through the attic.
• Look for do-it-yourself solar thermal projects that can make your house more energy efficient. Just check the internet for energy efficient projects, & you will find some. The books stores are usually well-stocked with do-it-yourself project books.

Vickie Adair is the senior technical writer at Media A-Team (http://www.mediaateam.com) & also publishes as a freelance writer. She writes for many websites such as http://www.houstonmanufacturers.com, an on line directory & news site for the Houston manufacturing community & http://www.natural-products-directory.com, a directory of on line business that sell or manufacture organic and/or natural products.

In light of the much debated topic on rising gasoline & energy costs, some experts say new investment, in both alternative energy & conventional sources, will boost supply & could cut prices in half. If a global recession hits, the drop could be even more dramatic. Alternative fuels are designed to focus on energy conservation, clean air, soil & water. These fuels include biodiesel, electricity, ethanol, hydrogen, natural gas, methanol & propane. Globally, you’ll find many laboratories experimenting with these fuel options, & have been for many years now.

To get a clearer understanding of the origins of these alternative fuels, the Alternative Fuels Data Center of the U.S. Department of Energy defines them as the following:

? ‘Natural gas’ is domestically produced & readily available to end-users through the utility infrastructure. It’s also clean burning & produces significantly fewer harmful emissions than reformulated gasoline or diesel when used in natural gas vehicles.

? ‘Biodiesel’ is a domestically produced, renewable fuel that can be manufactured from vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled restaurant greases. Biodiesel is safe, biodegradable, & reduces serious air pollutants such as particulates, carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, & air toxics.

? ‘Electricity’ can be often used as a transportation fuel to power battery electric & fuel cell vehicles. Right. When used to power electric vehicles or EVs, electricity is stored in an energy storage device such as a battery. EV batteries have a limited storage capacity & their electricity must be replenished by plugging the vehicle into an electrical source. The electricity for recharging the batteries can come from the existing power grid or from distributed renewable sources such as solar or wind energy.

? ‘Ethanol’ is an alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting & distilling starch crops that have been converted into simple sugars. Feedstocks for this fuel include corn, barley, & wheat. Ethanol can also be produced from “cellulosic biomass” such as trees & grasses & is called bioethanol. Ethanol is most commonly used to increase octane & improve the emissions quality of gasoline.

? ‘Hydrogen (H2)’ will play an important role in developing sustainable transportation in the United States, because in the future it may be produced in virtually unlimited quantities using renewable resources. Hydrogen has been used effectively in a number of internal combustion engine vehicles as pure hydrogen mixed with natural gas.

? ‘Methanol,’ also known as wood alcohol, can be often used as an alternative fuel in flexible fuel vehicles that run on M85 (a blend of 85% methanol & fifteen percent gasoline). However, it’s not commonly used because automakers are no longer supplying methanol-powered vehicles.

? ‘Propane or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)’ is a popular alternative fuel choice for vehicles because there is already an infrastructure of pipelines, processing facilities, & storage for its efficient distribution.

The transition from using gasoline to alternative fuels has not actually been an easy process, since there is still much experimentation on mass production. There is an alternative fuel station locator found on the Alternative Fuels Data Center webpage. It displays a map of your city & lists stations found on the fuel you have chosen, based closely on a certain radius around that city. The lists include the following information:

? miles within the radius of the selected city
? the name of the station carrying that particular type of fuel
? phone number
? address
? city
? state
? zip code
? type of access (private, government only or public).

The resounding clich?, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention,’ clearly defines our call to find alternatives to the growing demand of energy consumption. Another concern for consumers is the affordability & efficiency of vehicles designed by automakers to operate on these alternative fuels or some type of converter to install in their existing vehicles to accommodate selected fuels. Even though these alternative fuels may not win a popularity vote over gasoline, hopefully we will find a solution that will benefit consumers & be safe for the environment.

Kym Gordon Moore is the author of the eBook, ‘Alphabet Soup: 5 Main Ingredients for Turning Words into a Bowl of Hot Topics!’ Many of her articles, essays, short stories & poems appeared in a variety of magazines, newspapers, ezines & anthologies. http://www.kymgmoore.com She is a creative marketing strategist for Moore 2 It Productions & coordinates cost effective, creative marketing packages for budget conscious new authors & new small business owners. http://www.moore2itproductions.com.

The use of energy in our homes is inescapable, providing heating & electricity within the home. Traditionally, we have been reliant on fossil fuels such as coal, gas & oil to provide for our energy needs. Fossil fuels by nature are a finite resource & will eventually run-out. In addition to this, they’re damaging to the environment contributing greatly to the production of greenhouse gases. There is more. The most significant of these greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide (CO2) - almost ½ of the energy related to CO2 emissions derive from energy use in buildings.

There are numerous ways of reducing energy needs within the home without comprising on warmth, comfort & general standard of living. Renewable energy sources can assist reduce the emission of greenhouse gases & also are good for the economy given the issues surrounding the longer term availability of fossil fuels.

Renewable energy options for a homeowner include solar energy (the sun), heat generated from below the earth’s surface (geothermal) & wood & energy crops (biomass). In Ireland, many of these resources are in good supply. The homeowner can do their part for the environment by opting for a renewable heating system that meets their need in terms of heat demand, budget & environmental considerations.

Biomass
Biomass is all plant & animal matter on the Earth’s surface. Bioenergy is the term given to harvesting biomass such as crops, trees etc. to generate energy.

Indeed, Biomass was the first fuel that mankind learned to use when the first primitive fires were started. Biomass has achieved a significant share of the energy market on the Continent. Ireland has one of the lowest uses of Biomass in Europe but has one of the largest resources. Biomass gives about 1% of the country’s energy needs in the form of domestic & industrial wood heating. Wood is a ‘carbon neutral’ fuel in that it absorbs as much CO2 when it grows as it releases when it’s burned.

The main types of wood fuel are chips & pellets. Right. Wood chips are a clean, low moisture fuel made from wood in its natural state. They are a high energy, low-smoke fuel. They are a bulk fuel meaning that they’re generally unsuitable for domestic purposes due to storage issues. There is more. They are used in larger buildings or to heat clusters of domestic properties through a heating scheme. And so… So far so good. Wood pellets are a clean, dry fuel made from a mixture of sawdust & wood shavings. There is more. The Wood pellets are 6-12mm in diameter & 6-20mm in length. Pellets are easy to ignite & leave little ash. A feeding mechanism such as a hopper can be often used to feed the Pellet Burner.

In a similar vein to traditional oil or gas burners, a Wood Pellet boiler will provide full central heating & hot water. Wood Pellet Stoves provide heating for a single room. They produce a small fire that, concentrated in the center of the unit, burns hot.

In a similar vein to traditional oil or gas burners, a Pellet boiler will provide full central heating & hot water. Pellet stoves provide heating for a single room. They produce a small fire that, concentrated in the center of the unit, burns hot.

One important consideration when opting for a Pellet Burner is storage. Pellet are a bulky fuel meaning that more storage space is required than that for oil. The store must also be kept completely dry & free from damp.

Hydropower
Hydropower is the capture of the energy of moving water for some useful purpose. The energy of moving water has been exploited for centuries but was first used to produce electricity in the 1870’s. Power generated from a hydro scheme depends on the height the water falls & the volume of water available. And so… So far so good. Water is diverted from a given point on the river through to a turbine house where a turbine converts the kinetic energy of falling water into mechanical energy. Then a generator converts the mechanical energy from the turbine into electrical energy.

Given it is nature, the resource is very site specific (even more than solar) but if you’re lucky enough to have a stream nearby & you have enough head (height between your source & your hydro turbine) & enough flow, then it’s a viable option. Issues to consider are the capital required on civil engineering work such as the weir & water channel. Building a diversion & intake that effectively screens out debris & can stand up to high seasonal flows can be challenging.

Wind Power
Ireland is blessed with an abundance of wind energy. More & more large-scale wind turbines can be seen around the country to provide for the country’s electricity needs. Right. Wind energy is clean, free & of course, infinite.

For remote locations that have no connection to the energy grid, a power supply based closely on a wind turbine will produce electricity much cheaper than the costs of bringing in power lines. There is more. Turbines large enough to provide a significant portion of the energy needs for the average household require at least ½ an acre of land. Factors determining the viability of turbines for the home include wind speed & direction. Wind speed increases with height so turbines will give a greater output if placed at a higher level. The site must also have a good ‘aspect’ to the prevailing wind.

Paul O’ Connor runs http://www.selfbuildinireland.com, the popular Irish based website aimed at the Self-Builder. The website gives articles & resources for the Home Builder.