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Nathan Shatto

Prof. Kretzer

English 1201.920

19 March 2019

Replacing energy

There are many different ways people get the energy they need to power their homes,

cars, and electronics we use in our everyday lives. There are many ways we power those

everyday enmities, but the primary source we use to power them comes from non-renewable

resources. These nonrenewable energy sources have been powering are stuff for many years, but

now we are starting to run out of those resources that we take for granted. Soon we are going to

need to find renewable energy sources to replace or help slow the demising resources. There are

many solutions to this problem theses solutions include finding a replacement renewable energy,

finding new ways to conserve our current nonrenewable resources and making a plan to help

transition over to clean renewable sources of power.

For the past several years decades we have mainly relied on nonrenewable energy to

power our machines. There is a range of non-renewables like oil, natural gas, and coal to name a

few. These fossil fuels power over 93% of the world and sustain almost everything we do. These

non-renewables have problems since they are nonrenewable they take millions of years to

replenish which cause the challenge of running out of those resources. This was shown in the

article Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy Resources which says “Some estimates say our fossil

fuel reserves will be depleted within 50 years, while others say it will be 100-120 years. The fact

is that neither one of these projections is very appealing for a global community that is so heavily

dependent on fossil fuels to meet basic human needs.”. That means that we are going to be
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running out of these resources soon and need to start looking at other options. These non-

renewables have side effects as well as the emissions that are caused by fossil fuels or the

environmental impacts it can have. It has become imperative for us to look at different types of

renewable power other than these fossil fuels. Renewable are any sources of energy that are no

depleted when used, or that can be replenished in short periods. These renewables can include

items like solar power, wind, and hydropower to name a few.

When looking at the viable replacements for the non-renewables, we are going to have to

find plentiful sources. The primary sources of power that would need to be replaced would be

coal power which is one of the biggest suppliers for electricity in the world. What not better to

replace it with than solar power. Solar power is everywhere due to the fact that the sun is

continuously hitting the earth with energy. This energy is harnessed through solar panels and can

be stored in batteries after the sunset. Solar power is also very useful in conifers that don’t have a

constant stream of electricity. Though solar power is an abundant recourse, there are some

drawbacks. This is shown correctly in the article The energy debate: Renewable energy cannot

replace fossil fuels “Its potential contribution to providing boundless renewable energy is limited

without the capacity for very large-scale storage. Even if it became cheaper than fossil fuels, its

major limitation is that it can’t power anything for about 16 hours a day, or in the case of

consecutive cloudy days.” This shows several of the drawbacks like how solar power is costly to

produce because solar panels cost a lot to produce. There are also the drawbacks of the sun is not

continually shining which can cause an influx of power. Though there is still hope for this to be a

possible replacement due to the fact that the technology in both batteries for the storage of the

power is improving and getting cheap, which will drive the cost down of the solar panels. It is

going to take more than just solar energy to fix the problem completely.
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Wind energy is one of the most used sources of renewable energy. Wind energy is one of

the most significant leaders of renewable energy and is used around the world. According to the

department of energy “The United States is home to one of the largest and fastest-growing wind

markets in the world. To stay competitive in this sector, the Energy Department invests in wind

research and development projects, both on land and offshore, to advance technology

innovations, create job opportunities and boost economic growth.” This shows that wind energy

is being invested in and is one of the leading types of energy. There are also several advantages

to wind energy which is that they create no pollution, they are no super expenses and they

produce several job opportunity. Wind energy might have several benefits, but it also has some

drawbacks. These drawbacks are the fact that wind is not always reliable because it is not

continually blowing or it is going slow, so not much power is generated. There is also the fact

that the windmills that are used to create the electricity take up lots of room and require lots of

maintenance. Overall wind energy is a very go renewable source and has many excellent benefits

but also some drawbacks.

Hydropower is a renewable energy source that uses water to spin the turbine and generate

electricity. This reliable power source mainly relies on the water cycle to function and it is one of

the biggest causes of renewable power today. According to the U.S. Energy Information

Administration “In 2017, hydroelectricity accounted for about 7.5% of total U.S. utility-scale

electricity generation and 44% of total utility-scale electricity generation from renewable energy

sources” This shows that this is a reliable energy source that has been used for many years.

Hydropower is one of the oldest of the energy sources which has been used for thousands of

years to turn grain even before there was steam power. This source of energy is one of the best

and most used. There are some limitations to this source of power. Since this is limited to water
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the plants can only be places of sources of water and it is dependent on the water cycle, which

means that when there is a drought it affects the amount of power produced. This source is an

overall variable source for generating power instead of burning coal.

Geothermal energy is a very good source of energy because it takes the heat energy from

within the earth and converted it into power. The power geothermal can produce uses up no fuel

due to the fact that the factory comes from the heat of the earth's magma. Geothermal has great

potential for replacing nonrenewable energy sources though there are some drawbacks because

to lower the plants they need large wells of water for the heat to evaporate and spine turbines and

there is the fact that it can cause issues in the stability of the land. Though there are

disadvantages they are very minimal which will allow geothermal to be a excellent replacement

energy.

Nuclear energy has one of the biggest patients for energy production. Robust nuclear

energy, not renewable energy sources it is a great source of clean power and it generates tons of

power by using uranium which takes a while to uses up. This allows the nuclear plants to not

uses up the uranium at the rates the other fossil fuel do, which allows it to be a very viable source

for replacing some of the other power plants that use these fossil fuels. Though there is a risk

when it comes to using nuclear power like an article states “nuclear energy is not likely to be a

major source of world energy consumption because of public pressure and the relative dangers

associated with unleashing the power of the atom” showing that people are turned away from

this sources of power because of the risk that is involved. They look at the meltdown of the

reactors as high risk because of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Thought the risk there is

major potential in the shear amount of power that could be generated from these plants. The

article on Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy Resources states it best “governments such as the
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United States see its vast potential and are placing pressure on the further exploitation of nuclear

energy.”. It is showing that they know the risk but wanna keep the pressure up to convey people

to uses this power source because of its potential. The sear potential of nuclear energy is what

makes it such a suitable replacement for other fossil fuels.

Other renewable energy sources are still in the very being process of being used. These

include Bioenergy, and hydrogen fuel cells to name a few. These sources are significant because

with the way that technology has been advancing this source of energy become a very viable

source repealing non-renewables. These sources are being created to try and replace some of the

critical resources we use like gasoline and jet fuel. Biofuels are being produced to try and replace

thing like fuel, but it takes time to produce this biofuel. Though the way that biofuels have

already started being used to make replacement fuels. Then there are hydrogen fuel cells which

are being used as a replacement for gasoline by using hydrogen as the source of fuel. These cars

are already being tested and even have some that are on the road today. With these fuel sources

is that they are still in the process of being made and are not very cost effective as the others

though they are one of the best bets for replacing fuel.

There may be lots of different types of renewable energy but what is the purpose of all of

that energy if we can not store it. Over the past several years there has been a big jump in the

production of batteries. According to an article Building Better Batteries “The world's renewable

power capacity—the amount of energy that can be produced from sources comprising

hydropower, wind, solar, bio-energy, and geothermal—has doubled in the last decade.” This

shows that there has been an increase which means since we have had an increase in power we

are going to need ways to store this energy for use later. The power that is stored in the batteries

can be used to power build, homes and cars. According to the same article “Better batteries
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could make it possible for utility companies to leverage renewable energy sources at scale as

primary power sources, rather than as clean backups to traditional dirty fuels.” which means that

would allow more companies to switch over to renewable instead of using the power they get

from non renewables like coal plants. Batteries are one of the keys for replacing non-renewables

and have even started to. Companies like Tesla is developing and using batteries to power the

products they produce. Now that batteries have started to become better and cheaper to produce

it is now just a matter of time be for more company's switch over to using them.

Now that we either have or are developing these replacements for the non-renewable

which ones should we use and how should we use them? Well, the answer to that is we should

use a mixture of all of the renewable energy sources to replace the non-renewable ones. This is

because no one can fully replace non-renewable, so you would have to use a mixture of them to

fully replace non-renewables. For instance, if you were to try and replace coal which according

to The Department of Energy “Coal is the largest domestically produced source of energy in

America and is used to generate a significant chunk of our nation’s electricity.” which means you

would have to find a way to produce that much energy to take the place of the power output that

coal can. There is a lot of work to be done to replace other non-renewables like oil and natural

gas. There is already technology that has the potential to replace these hard to replace resources.

If you were going to replace oil/gasoline that we use to power our machines we are going to have

to use other renewable energy. There are several options for replacing them, we can replace the

fuel using biofuel or hydrogen fuel cells to power these machines. Thought that technology is

still in development it may be able to replace fuel once further developed. To replace the fuel in

these machines we could also use batteries like how Elon musk uses them to power his cars.

There are many different options but they will all need to work together if we are going to
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replace the non-renewable resources. Like an article says “Perhaps the best solution to our

growing energy challenges comes from The Union of Concerned Scientists: ‘No single solution

can meet our society’s future energy needs. The solution instead will come from a family of

diverse energy technologies that share a common thread they do not deplete our natural resources

or destroy our environment.’”. It shows that we need to use multiple different resources so we

can get enough power to use in the future.

Thought we are running out of nonrenewable energy does not mean that we have to

replace the non-renewables right away. Instead, we should start by slowly phasing out the

nonrenewable. This would allow for a smoother transition from nonrenewable to better energy

sources. This slow transitions should be done in the stage because the end goal is to replace the

nonrenewable energy. It would be hard to just completely switch to a renewable source due to

the fact that almost every uses these fossil fuels. The first stage should be to bring more attention

to renewable energy sources and slowly start to switch out gas power cars for electric power to

replace the oil problem. This has also become easier with the popularity of Tesla and other

electric cars that are being released. The second stage should be improving the way are home get

power and start to replace some of the coal plants with other renewable energy plants like solar

fields, nuclear plants or maybe geothermal. The final phase should just be to continue to rise in

populateriy of renewable energy and replace them till they are cycled out. This processes or a

similar one could help ease some people's worries about how we are going to return this fossil

fuel that we rely so heavily on upon. There is also the option of keeping some of the non-

renewable sources because they still have uses we need to slow down the rate we are using them

up. The article brings up an excellent point about saying “The oil, coal and natural gas

companies know these are serious problems. But until our renewable energy sources become
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more viable as major energy providers, the only alternative for our global population is for these

companies to continue tapping into the fossil fuel reserves to meet our energy needs” Which

shows that we need to continue to uses these fossil fuels and can not just phase them out because

some of the technology still needs to advance. So we should take our time and slowly phase out

nonrenewable which would allow some of the time needed for a more renewable resource to

become more viable and just all around better.

There are people who think that we don’t need to replace or fix the nonrenewable energy

problem. These people have many worries about the changes that would come do to replacing

fossil fuels and how they will replace them. They are worried saying that we should keep the

way we are and they have several valid arguments. One of the discussion is that renewable

energy sources are just not cost effective. The cost of replacing the fossil fuels would be high if

done over a short period of time because you would have to factor in the price of all the different

renewable energy sources that it would take to produce enough power to power everything we do

now and later in the future. That also leads into another argument is how would we get enough

power out of the renewable energy sources since some predict that “that fossil fuels, along with

nuclear energy — a controversial, non-renewable energy source — are supplying 93 percent of

the world’s energy resources.” Which shows how much a gap the nonrenewable energy would

have to fill. Some people also argue that renewable energies sources take up much space. This

argument means that the factors used to make the renewable energy needs much space to

produce power like how one wind turbine requires a least 1.5 acres of land which can add up

very quickly or wind field. There is also another argument like how non-renewables are not

needed because we get plenty of power thought the way we do it now. There are lots of reasons
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why people do not want to replace non-renewables, but it assumes the benefits of switching

outweigh the negatives.

There were many arguments for not switching over to renewable energy, but there are

many reasons those arguments don’t hold, and there are solutions to the arguments. The evidence

that we should keep doing what we are right now and that there is no reason to switch to

renewables is only not right. As mentioned before we are running out of the nonrenewable.

Many articles have said something similar like “...estimates say our fossil fuel reserves will be

depleted within 50 years, while others say it will be 100-120 years.” Showing that in the future

we will not have enough of the resources to power what we do today. There are also many of the

articles saying that the cost would be too much and how would we even implement these

renewables. Well, there are solutions to those the first is that like I said earlier is we replace the

non-renewable slowly or in stages. As for the cost the renewable have dropped in price lately

like an argument made in the article The energy debate: Renewable energy cannot replace fossil

fuels saying “The costs of some renewable energy inputs such as Photovoltaic solar panels have

halved in price since 2008 and the capital cost of a solar power plant—of which panels account

for slightly under half—fell by 22 percent between 2010 and 2013” Showing that as the tech

advances and producing it improves the prices drop making renewable energy more cost

effective. There are also many benefits for using renewable energy other than that fact that they

are renewables. Many of the energy sources produce clean energy that will not affect the plant or

the environment around it. There are also others like how the University of the energy sources

would allow for countries to rely less on imports. That is just some of the counter arguments of

the counter.
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Overall we should try and strive to replace nonrenewable with renewable resources. By

coming up with a plan and looking at the different types of renewable energy sources, there are

many ways we could improve and change the way we get our power. Not only will this help

support people in the future will even help the environment. Though we are running out of non-

renewables, we can use what we know help solve the problems and better society as a whole.

Work cited

Department of Energy. “Energy Sources” The Department of Energy, March 2018,

https://www.energy.gov/science-innovation/energy-sources

Greentumble. “Can Non-Renewable Resources Be Replaced?” Greentumbumble March 26,

2017, https://greentumble.com/can-non-renewable-resources-be-replaced/
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Harvey Chelsea. “Changes to Energy Dept. websites downplay renewables as a replacement for

fossil fuels” The Washington Post, April 21, 2017

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/04/21/the-energy-

department-is-changing-its-website-to-reflect-trumps-climate-

agenda/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a37337f1de86

Pyke Toni” Renewable energy Development, 12 April 2017,

https://developmenteducation.ie/feature/the-energy-debate-renewable-energy-cannot-replace-

fossil-fuels/

McLamb Eric. “Fossil Fuels vs. Renewable Energy Resources” Ecology, September 6, 2011

http://www.ecology.com/2011/09/06/fossil-fuels-renewable-energy-resources

Whitlock Robin. “A Route Into Renewable Energy: An interview with Michael Brownell of

Dayaway Careers” Renewable energy Magazine, 17 April 2014,

https://www.renewableenergymagazine.com/interviews/a-route-into-renewable-energy--

20140417

National Geographic “Non-renewable energy” by National Geographic,

https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/non-renewable-energy/

eia. “Renewable Energy Explained”U.s. Energy Information Administration, July 13, 2018

https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/?page=renewable_home
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Kugler Logan. “Building a Better Battery” Ecology, March 2019

https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2019/3/234916-building-a-better-battery/fulltext