The first in a series of fall term 2014 presentations by the students of FYS 158 (First Year Seminar: Archaeology of Sustainability) on the topic of sustainability.

1. MICHAEL WILLIAMS
RENEWABLE ENERGY
PROFESSOR MENDOZA
22 SEPTEMBER 2014

2. HISTORY
• Talks around the use of renewable energy started back in the beginning of the 20th centuries but has
been adapted from around the 18th century
• Renewable energy is generally defined as energy that comes from resources which are naturally
replenished on a human timescale such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat.

3. HISTORY CONT.
• Renewable energy resources exist over wide geographical areas, in contrast to other energy sources,
which are concentrated in a limited number of countries. Rapid deployment of renewable energy and
energy efficiency is resulting in significant energy security, climate change mitigation, and economic
benefits
• Prior to the latter half of the 18th century, windmills and watermills provided the energy needed for
industry such as milling flour, sawing wood or pumping water, and burning wood or peat provided
domestic heat

4. WHY RENEWABLE ENERGY?
• Not till the late 20th century did society realize all the harm we were doing to the environment, through
studying the past we have learned we need an alternative solution for energy.
• The widescale use of fossil fuels, coal at first and petroleum later, to fire steam engines enabled the
Industrial Revolution

5. FOSSIL FUELS
• Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead
organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and
sometimes exceeds 650 million years
• Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include coal, petroleum, and natural gas
• The use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns. The burning of fossil fuels produces
around 21.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, but it is estimated that natural processes can only
absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tons of atmospheric carbon
dioxide per year.
• Carbon dioxide is one of the greenhouse gases that enhances radiative forcing and contributes to global
warming, causing the average surface temperature of the Earth to rise in response, which the vast
majority of climate scientists agree will cause major adverse effects.

6. EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT
• The U.S. holds less than 5% of the world's population, but due to large houses and private cars, uses
more than a quarter of the world's supply of fossil fuels.
• In the United States, more than 90% of greenhouse gas emissions come from the combustion of fossil
fuels.
• Combustion of fossil fuels also produces other air pollutants, such as nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide,
volatile organic compounds and heavy metals.

7. WHAT CAN WE DO?

8. WINDPOWER
• Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines
to produce electrical power, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or
drainage, or sails to propel ships.
• Wind power, as an alternative to fossil fuels, is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, clean, produces
no greenhouse gas emissions during operation and uses little land. The effects on the environment are
generally less problematic than those from other power sources.

9. SOLAR ENERGY
• Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the sun harnessed using a range of ever-evolving
technologies such as solar heating, solar photovoltaics, solar thermal electricity, solar architecture and
artificial photosynthesis.
• It will increase countries energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible and mostly
import-independent resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of mitigating
climate change, and keep fossil fuel prices lower than otherwise.

10. HYDROELECTRICITY
• Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of
electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water
• It is the most widely used form of renewable energy, accounting for 16 percent of global electricity
generation 3,427 terawatt-hours of electricity production in 2010, and is expected to increase about
3.1% each year for the next 25 years.
• The cost of hydroelectricity is relatively low, making it a competitive source of renewable electricity. The
average cost of electricity from a hydro plant larger than 10 megawatts is 3 to 5 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour.

11. HOW IT WORKS

12. BRIGHTER FUTURE
• Renewable energy including wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass provides substantial
benefits for our climate, our health, and our economy.
• Little to No Global Warming Emissions.
• Improved Public Health and Environmental Quality
• A Vast and Inexhaustible Energy Supply