Physical Science : Green Energy Costs

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Temat: Środowisko

Hi I'm Steve Jones and I'm going to tell you a little of the costs of green energy. Although

the energy itself is free that is the sunlight is free we don't have to pay to stand in the

sunlight, these forms of energy do require infrastructure. If you think of Geothermal

energy, energy from, within the earth this energy requires large wells digging and those

wells down which we pump water and from which we get hot water, that is a large amount of

infrastructure. And we have to take that energy to towns. So we need big pipes, we need lots

of water and so forth. This is the cost of Geothermal energy, although the energy itself

is free. Biomass is the same. If we want to produce Biomass we have to grow the plant.

We have to buy the seeds. We have to prepare the ground. We have to harvest it, we have

to transport it to where it's going to be processed. And then we have to have a facility

to turn it into energy. So when we talk about diesel from Biomass it does have a cost. Although

again the sun that makes the plants grow is free. Hydroelectric power, is very effective.

And we get massive amounts of electricity but I can't see us building a dam on the cheap.

These are huge construction projects, they require roads and infrastructure and towns

and hundred of thousands of people to run them. So hydroelectric power although the

actual energy is free, because it's the sun's energy moving the water and the water cycle.

The actual cost is the cost of the infrastructure creating the electricity from the hydroelectric

power. Wind energy is also the same. The infrastructure is needed. The tall tower, the turbines and

getting the energy to people. So it is free, the wind we don't pay for but we pay for the

infrastructure. Finally solar energy must be one of the most expensive of all these

renewable sources because silicone and the related chemicals and structure are very expensive

to produce. And therefore solar cells probably every fifteen years you've got to replace

them and it probably takes about fifteen years to pay the cost of producing them. So overall

solar energy is actually quite an expensive form of free energy. So although the energy

is free, it comes from the sun. We have to remember there are costs, getting that energy

from the sun into our houses.

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