The Return to Alternative Energy

You hear more and more about alternative energies these days a lot of people have different ideas about just what it is. I wrote this article to try to clear things up.

alternative energy is commonly used to refer to sources of energy that are an alternative to coal, oil and natural gas. These fossil fuels have been the most common source of our energy for generations.

Our current perspective blinds us to the fact that the emergence of fossil fuels as the dominant form of energy happened only recently in world history. Wind, animals and hydropower were the dominant sources of energy until the mid-19th century.

I’m sure you seen a picture of a ranch house in the American West with the windmill next to the homestead. They originally were used to pump water. Later they were actually used to generate a small amount of electric power (say, enough to power of crystal radio) in the days before rural electrification

Many people are surprised to learn that producing solar hot water heating systems was a commercially profitable business in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century.

I think you can see that our dependence on fossil fuels is relatively recent. Rather than something completely new, using alternative energies is a return to an older practice.

With that background, here’s my working definition of alternative energy: energy from a source other than the burning of fossil fuels (again coal, oil and its derivatives and natural gas).

We should make a distinction between alternative energy and renewable energy. People tend to assume that they’re one and the same but they aren’t. Some non-fossil fuel energy sources can be depleted.

Concern for the environment has made people aware of the impact of burning fossil fuels. While price fluctuations and occasional interruptions and supplies makes it clear that we are also running out a fossil fuel. Factors such as these have led to the increased interest in returning to alternative energy sources.

When people think about alternative energy solar panels and windmills are probably the most common things that come to mind. However there are many other forms of alternative energy are ready available (for example geothermal and biomass) and researchers are exploring some entirely new possibilities

My expectation is that in the not-too-distant future the tables will turn: what we consider “alternative” today will be the standard tomorrow. Burning fossil fuels will be oddball alternative.