Alternative Paper

Dear Mayor of Woodrock,

Good evening Mayor. My name is Ronnice Moore and I am the ecologist assigned to your Woodrock energy crisis. My job and goal is to help you find the best alternative energy source your town that sties it best. The alternative energy that I have personally research and found to be best for town is the geothermal energy and Wind Energy.

These two energy sources were chosen for several of reasons. Geothermal Energy is inexhaustible energy source. There is no pollution to the earth or your location of the town. This often benefits as an excellent supplement to other renewable sources. This energy does not require structures to collect the energy--can be directly used to heat or produce electricity and this comes very cheap. My second recommendation is Wind energy. Wind is free and with modern technology it can be captured efficiently. Once the wind turbine is built the energy it produces does not cause green house gases or other pollutants. Although wind turbines can be very tall each takes up only a small plot of land. This means that the land below can still be used. This is especially the case in agricultural areas as farming can still continue. Many people find wind farms an interesting feature of the landscape. Remote areas that are not connected to the electricity power grid can use wind turbines to produce their own supply. Wind turbines have a role to play in both the developed and third world. Wind turbines are available in a range of sizes which means a vast range of people and businesses can use them. Single households to small towns and villages can make good use of range of wind turbines available today.

Due to the state that your town is in I do not recommend Hydro power energy, solar power, Tidal power energy, and Biomass Energy. For instance, although hydroelectric power is one of the cleanest and most environmentally-friendly sources of energy, it too has the ability to damage its surroundings. Also, hydroelectric power is capable for change in water quality. Because of the nature of hydroelectric systems, the water often changes to a higher temperature. This leads me to another reason not to recommended hydropower energy. An increase in water temperature can hurt the marine life. No offences, but because your community is poor, Solar Power was the second alternative energy I recommended not to use. One major concern that I had was the cost of solar power. The solar panels are not cheap; and because they are made from fragile materials, they must repeatedly be maintained and often replaced. That will cost you a lot of money, which you do not have. Another reason is, it takes up too much space and the space it takes up dose not make up for the power it uses. Lastly, each photovoltaic panel has only about 40% efficiency, single solar panels and is not sufficient power producers. My reasons for objecting Tidal power as an alternative energy source are: Barrages across an estuary are very expensive to build, and affects a very wide area. The environment can changed for many miles upstream and downstream. There are few suitable sites for tidal barrages. Finally, tidal power only provides power for around 10 hours each day, when the tide is actually