I chose the article dealing with solar and wind energy, considering I know a bit about hydroelectric and I have no interest in geothermal or biomass based energy. Inside I learned that the Sun gives off 173,000 TW of energy continuously, which is about 10 times what humans need to use today. It was pressed once again in the article that battery technology is what is really holding back a large push towards renewable, considering the fact the batteries are too costly to store all the energy that could be captured from solar radiation. I also learned about wind energy's "high payback time." Apparently building the turbines is very easy and fast with a very short amount of time to wait to start profiting off the energy produced. This is what makes creating an entire farm or just a handful of them so viable, very little risk is associated with it.
In class we had to sit in the hallway due to a tornado warning. This gt me thinking about wind energy and the best locations for it. Assuming no damage is done to the turbines would it make sense to place these farms in areas with large storms in addition to the open and windy fields? The placement of solar panels and wind farms is a key component to convincing more people to switch to renewable energy. If they are put somewhere that makes sense and is somehow out of the way, maybe more people can get over how they look and see the clear benefits.
A question I have is about batteries. How soon is that tech gonna be cheap enough for schmucks like me to afford it? Tesla cars, solar panels, and other such environmentally friendly tech is on my bucket list of things to mess with one day, I just hope I don't have to give up doing other cool things to do so.
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