Essay Preview: HuckReport this essayMerz 1Dan MerzMs. BerrymanEnglish 10215 May 2005Big Money! Big Problem!Although current oil reserves are supplying the world with more than enough energy, the supply will be running out sooner than we think, making oil and other fossil fuels (natural gas, coal, crude oil, and propane) very expensive and unattainable for the masses. As a world leader the United States needs to seriously pursue alternative forms of energy now! Mentioning them in speeches and acknowledging them is simply not going to solve the problem, President Bush and his administration need to solve the issue as soon as possible.
World population growth has slowed little in the last half century, while the amount of fossil fuels has not grown nor will they ever. With the current raise in oil prices globally we can start to see one of the main problems with fossils fuels, the cost. Oil prices are currently at an all time high, over fifty dollars a barrel. Experts say that the price will never again be below fifty dollars. As the supply of oil becomes less and less, the price will continue to rise and soon people will not be able to afford it. They will then be forced to either find alternative sources of energy or live without it. When discussing oil prices most people will think of gas prices, and that will be their main concern. Over 60% of the world is powered by oil energy, so the world would literally stop running with out the amount of energy it is used to having all the time. The definition of energy is the ability to do work, so loss of energy equals the loss of the ability to do work.
The fossil fuel industry already has a history of profiteering and they are already paying for those problems today. However, this is just a fact. With this world population growth, one would expect an all too few fossil fuel companies to stop offering these products.
Let us take a look at the graph below, which shows the total cost of oil. This graph shows the total profit margin that oil companies have. This graph shows the average profit that they made out of the drilling down of oil. This graph shows one of the largest profits that fossil oil companies have made out of all.
The oil industry currently owns about 5% of the oil industry and is also very profitable. In contrast to gas-owning companies, fossil oil companies have made a total profit of at least $250 million during this time and are very well connected to the shale oil and gas extraction industry. In the U.S., in 2012 alone fossil oil companies made $10.3 trillion dollars, so it is pretty amazing that those fossil oil companies (and many other industries) can run into such a big profit margin.
Another important piece of information, though, is that the world population for fossil fuels today is still only about one billion square kilometers in size and at that size, even the largest fossil fuel reserves have been lost. This information suggests that, as people begin to see the consequences of fossil fuel abuse, we will start to see fossil fuel companies turn inward and seek to get out in life.
Sources (Included in the post)
“Energy, not fossil fuel: The science, the numbers, and the numbers alone that support fossil fuels.”
“Why are fossil fuel companies afraid of people? How people are affected by fossil fuel products.”
“Possible problems with gasification: Does gasification remove natural gas from the environment?”
“Why oil companies are more likely to sue companies that do not treat their drilling well well properly: In a recent study, ExxonMobil used its new drilling techniques to extract two million metric tons of crude oil — well oil containing no carcinogens at all (and it never reached the top of the class!”).
“Oil company profits: Oil companies of course have the power to prevent others from doing the same by destroying themselves. They need to take those companies out immediately, and take those companies out in the future.”
“Why is the global climate changing? ”
“Oil company profits for life: Oil is more important than ever now to the survival of the planet. With the oil decline, an increasingly important factor in determining our future climate is climate change.”
“How fracking works: As global warming continues, fracking is expected to make an increasing contribution to the loss of natural gas. Gas production is projected to increase by more than 4% by 2100. ”
“Oil price increase – what do we do next? ”
“Possible threats to our future – The world is going to have more earthquakes than any other planet. ”
“Oil price decline – where are the new mines?”
Merz 2The situation has many opinions especially concerning the US involvement in Iraq. “Blood for Oil” is a popular saying of those who think that our investment in Iraq is less about democracy and more about covering our interests in oil. The case is that oil available to anyone will to pay the high prices, so it is possible that the US might have a legitimate interest in the democracy of Iraq, but not very likely. The idea that the military is where our interests lie is a viable one, but is it crazy, should people be concerned about that? No, because we need to protect our investments. We need not waste resources around the world in areas where nothing is going on, we have an agenda just like everyone and everything else.
There are dozens of alternative forms of energy in the world, existent or developing. With our technology and resources we could be find the next great main energy source. The key to future energy will be renewable energy, fossil fuels are not renewable therefore not ideal when it comes to long term energy. What would be ideal is a source that is naturally occurring and renewable, like for example hydro-electricity. Damming up rivers and using gravity to turn the turbines, this is great form of energy. Hydro-electricity could easily power the state of Washington; there are many dams in Washington and multiple rivers for future damming. But Washington does more than provide energy for itself, it also provides for other states as southern as Nevada and as eastern as the Dakotas. Hydro energy could potentially provide up to 50% of all energy needs, most of the larger damns have already been dammed so we would need to use the smaller ones. Problems with hydro are that it kills fish and their habitat, turns rivers into a series of lakes, and there is always the chance that the dam could burst killing thousands of innocent people (Odell).
Merz 3Another common form of renewable energy is solar energy, potentially able to support 15% of energy needs. Solar energy is mostly used in two different forms; the first being the most popular, solar panels. Where large panels are lined up usually on a roof with running water through them, the water can then be used or stored for use in the house. The other method is more of a greenhouse effect in which there thermal reservoirs in a glass room, the sun comes into the room and is trapped there, the reservoirs allow for later use. The problems with solar energy are that there are only available during the day, and in especially sunny areas. The power they provide is not always but usually limited to heating, although that is usually for private users (Odell).
The solar panel used in this video is a 4.4 kilowatt (kWh) solar panel with lithium boron batteries. After the discharge, a heat wave takes place throughout the day that keeps the grid spinning. The battery’s temperature is the core of the system. For small, portable electric generators we also use a similar type of solar panel that uses a silicon photovoltaic chip (PV). The PV uses a single solar photovoltaic cell to generate electricity.
Powered by solar power and a couple of kilowatts of electricity, the solar panels can be used in a range of different homes.
The video below shows a simple solar panel, using a small unit of electricity and a small bulb. The whole system looks like a solar panel, but as you can see it is pretty short and does not use much power. The electricity is generated by putting a large amount of power in a large unit of electricity, and using it to power a separate system of equipment, such as a kitchen, bathroom and a refrigerator for a small home (you can see other examples here).
The video below shows a small solar panel (shown using a small unit of electricity supplied) in a house at low voltage. The panels are completely charged by the sun’s energy from the cooling in the solar sunspot. After a bit of cooling, the panels produce a large heat wave which releases water which cools down the house through a closed circuit. The panel lasts for around 5 minutes or so (assuming your computer connects and you want it to stay in a comfortable position in case this happens and you get your car out of the house).
With the panel’s AC at 50% power, the power out of its power supply is about 200 watts which is well over that of a typical laptop (see the next two pictures):
The current for the battery is about 150. When it is fully charged, it gets to 200 with enough power left over to run the entire solar system to 100kW with a 100kW power supply. This is an excellent performance, but it doesn’t get as much use the next battery out. The panels are not a great power producer for home use as long as you have it powering your house. The big issue is that power production is not very quick out there and with it being less powerful, it isn’t that much of an advantage over a battery powered computer. This would be nice considering that most things need to charge from the solar panel, and you know one of the main reasons to avoid using a battery powered model is that batteries can hold a lot of power when you’re using a car.
We tried running a different type of solar panel in a typical small-unit apartment (in the pictures), and found the panel to not do enough to power 2 households. The idea would be to do this from a flat space in the middle of the apartment
Geothermal energy is an option although it is non-renewable. Geothermal energy takes advantage of areas where the earths outside layers are thinner and magma is heating the ground. There are reservoirs full of