TOP-10 Alternative energy sources

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The main sources of energy - for example, coal or oil, tend to run out, and moreover, they pollute the environment. These are contrasted with renewable resources such as geothermal energy or solar radiation.

Our civilization needs huge amounts of energy - for any kind of production, fueling vehicles, lighting houses … But the Earth seems to be completely inexhaustible.

Consider ten alternative energy sources that have already proven themselves in action.

1) "Solar windows"

The sun is an obvious and reliable source of energy, but solar panels require extremely expensive materials. The SolarWindow technology uses transparent plastic glass to serve as solar panels at the same time. They can be installed as ordinary windows and the manufacturing cost is quite reasonable.

2) Tides

We started looking at tides as energy sources very recently. The most promising wave generator, the Oyster, was only developed in 2009. The name translates as "oyster", since it is her that he outwardly resembles. Two installations, launched in Scotland, are enough to provide energy to 80 residential buildings.

3) Microwave generator

An ambitious project by the British engineer Robert Schoer, proposing to completely abandon the usual fuel for spacecraft. Resonant microwaves hypothetically should create powerful jet thrust, while at the same time refuting Newton's third law. Whether the system works or is quackery is not yet clear.

4) Viruses

Scientists from the National Laboratory. Lawrence at Berkeley, a couple of years ago, a virus was discovered that can create electricity by deforming modified materials. Such properties were shown by harmless viruses-bacteriophages M13. This technology is now being used to power the screens of laptops and smartphones.

5) Geothermal energy

One of the most famous and widespread alternative energy sources is geothermal. It is taken from the heat of the Earth itself and therefore does not waste its resources. One thermal power plant, "sitting" on a volcano, provides electricity to about 11,500 residential buildings.

6) Betaray

There is another solar battery of a new type, however, which focuses not on cheapness, but on efficiency. Betaray is a sphere filled with a special fluid and covered with heat-trapping panels. The device generates four times more energy than conventional solar panels.

7) Biofuels

A very promising source of energy, literally grown in the fields. It is extracted from vegetable oils such as soy or corn. But the most promising are … algae, which give a hundred times more resources than land plants. And even the waste from them can be used as fertilizer.

8) Radioactive thorium

Radioactive thorium is very similar to uranium, but gives up 90 times more energy! True, for this, scientists have to sweat a lot, and basically thorium plays a secondary role in nuclear reactors. Its reserves in the earth's crust exceed the reserves of uranium by 3-4 times, so that potentially thorium is able to provide humanity with energy for hundreds of years.

9) Inflatable turbine

In fact, it is the next level of development of wind farms. The turbine, filled with helium, rises to a height of 600 meters, where the wind blows constantly and with great force. Apart from the energy payback, the device is also very weather resistant and cheap.

10) International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor

Despite all the dangers associated with nuclear power plants, they still remain the most powerful energy sources invented by man. ITER is an international thermonuclear reactor project, in which the EU countries, Russia, the USA, China, Korea, Japan and Kazakhstan are participating. The end of the construction of the reactor is scheduled for 2020.