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Reader Supplement HERE & NOW Alternative EnergyVicki M. Harder |
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Reader Supplement HERE & NOW Alternative EnergyVicki M. Harder |
| Alternative energy resources include solar, biomass, wind, hydroelectric, tidal, and geothermal. Use of these energy resources has been minimal to date because of economics and proximity of the resources to a population. It is still cheaper to produce energy from conventional energy sources (oil, gas, and coal) than to use alternative energy and not all alternative energy resources can be used in all locations. However, new technology is continually being developed to make these alternative energy resources more economical to use. The depletion of our other resources and the need to be more protective of our environment will change our energy use patterns in the years to come. |
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The Science News Reader article Catching the sun to generate electricity, discusses one such advance in solar energy. A new solar power plant has been developed that has the capability of storing the sun's energy until needed. Previous models have not had this capacity. |
| Technology has also changed what was once considered an impossible to collect energy resource into something more possible. The Science News Reader article The Mother Lode of Natural Gas: Methane hydrates stir tales of hope and hazard discusses the occurrence of frozen methane at the bottom of the ocean floor off the continental slope. | Until recently, these hydrates were thought to be impossible and even dangerous to collect. Technological advances in the collection of these frozen gaseous hydrates have allowed researchers to directly measure them and to determine the amount of methant hydrates present. |
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