Unlocking The Powe of Renewable Energy
We have come to rely on energy. We use it in almost everything we do, we live in it, and we use it for modern conveniences. Without energy, we wouldn’t know what to do. Before energy, there were lanterns for light and matches for heat. People had only one option. When power was accessible to everyone by running power lines through cities, towns, residential areas, people were skeptical as to how this would affect everyone in the future.
The energy friendly appliances made for less manual labor and more time for leisure. The latest in washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and cooking stove technology do not need wood. People were skeptical of the inventions, but they still took advantage of them. We have the worry of saving the energy that we love. Our energy is fueled by non-renewable resources which will allow the deplete of these resources slowly and over time where we won’t realize it until it is gone. We need to find a way to store our energy, but we also need to find a way to power it.
Solar energy has been tested and explored as we learn how to conserve and store the natural heat from the sun. We all know how effective it is and how much we should conserve. Conservative methods of saving energy can mean endless usage of water and other necessities.
Natural resources are used to make thermal mass systems. If only for a short period of time, this type of storage uses renewable resources from the earth, such as dirt, water and man made resources, to help store energy. When the sun doesn’t peak through the clouds, thermal mass can help heat your home or water at night. There is no long storage capability using solar power yet.
The thermo-chemically phase uses devices to store heat. Some examples of this type of storage are included.
There is wax inside a tank. When the wax is heated it is a liquid that can hold heat for a long time without cooling it down. The heat can be held in longer as the wax becomes hard.
Eutectic Salts can be used to store heat in a heating system which will distribute the heat evenly and last longer.
Solar energy can be stored in molten salts because they allow the heat to remain hot without being non-flammable and cost effective. The salt mixture is heated and then used to make steam when the storage tank is heating up.
A great way to store energy is with a rechargable battery. This type of storage allows the power source to stay powered up. Lead acid batteries are the most common used for this type of storage.
There are several ways that we can store natural energy and we need to learn how to make them more efficient. We will have an unlimited supply of natural heat when we figure it out.
