DeAnza College/CIS2/Green technologies

Green Technology
Green technologies are refer to the term clean energy. By adopting green technology, scientists believe that it can greatly reduce the greenhouse gases and pollution in our environment. Green technology is also refers to the solutions of alternative substitution of traditional resources like petroleum and natural gases. Also to qualify as a green technology, the energy source itself has to be social, economical and environmental friendly. The energy must be social friendly for the users. That means it has to be easily reached and easily used. To become economical friendly, the energy has to be cheap and can be largely produced or found. Environmental friendly is that the technology sources should produce a low level of pollution and remain its efficiency.

Renewable Heat Energy
Renewable heat is a term that refers thermodynamic and geothermal energy. Geothermal energy is basically an energy that we do not have to produce because it is already in side our earth. The reason that geothermal energy is consider as renewable and heat energy is that it is originated from the steam, water and even lava from the center of our earth. Geothermal energy is also one of the oldest energy sources on human history. Back to ancient time, the Roman have use this kind of energy to heat up water and spaces. Geothermal energy can be used in ancient time is due to their great stability and high efficiency. In today's technology, geothermal energy is associating with many different kinds of green technologies, like hydro-power energy and solar energy.

what will be the renewable heat technology used in the next 3-5 years?
Heat renewable energy is using in varies ways in our daily life today. The most common ways that we can use this energy is from the electricity power plant. There are 3 types of electricity power plants are using geothermic energy to generate electricity, they are Dry Steam Plants, Flash Steam Plants and Binary Cycle. In the future, we will be expected to see this technology will apply on our water pies and our home heating system as well. Because the heat energy is coming from the earth underneath, so scientists planed to build our water pipe close to those energy spot, it can efficiently reduce the electricity consuming from heating up the water, instead the water will be heated up by the geothermal heat energy automatically.

Will the impact of technology be positive or negative?
The impact of this technology will be dramatically huge and it will be a positive effect in our society. Geothermal energy is an energy that under the earth,and it is a very stable and efficient energy source to reach; therefore, we can just simply plug the energy storage machine/ water pipes close to the energy site to recharge the machine. On the other hand, Geothermal energy could be harmful to our environment if the green house gases like CO2 has break out from the earth during the drilling process. However, unlike other energy resources, geothermal energy can product much larger energy then we could produce in a electricity power station, so it can be a replacement technology to produce electricity in the future. In contrast, geothermal energy maybe restricted by its geographical reason, because heating spots are located in different locations all over the world and it is not easy to find a perfect location for the spot, therefore it is very hard to find a perfect spot as an energy spot. In addition, the cost of investing on a geothermal site will be relatively high when compare to a regular nuclear or coal electricity power station.

How will this affect us?
Geothermal technology might change our environment in varies ways. Because this technology will release less pollution to the environment, so it might be able to help to reduce pollution in our environment and eventually it will reduce greenhouse gases in our environment and to lower the temperature.

Who is driving the development?
The U.S government is now putting their resources into some of the green technologies, such as geothermal enhance system, hydrothermal system and geothermal heat pump systems. They provide funding to encourage companies to use these technology and also scientists to research about them.

Hydropower
Hydropower is a technology that use momentum of water to generate energy. One example of this energy source is the Hoover Dam at the Colorado river between California and Arizona. The major product of hydropower generator is electricity. Hydro power is one of the major energy resources, it contributes around 19% of total electricity in the world. Similar with renewable heat energy, hydropwer is another technique that has been used by the ancient Indian, Roman and Chinese. Agricultural is the one catagloy of work that this technique had applied on in the ancient time. The ancient citizens used this theory to build waterwheels and mills to watering their farmland. Today, Hydropower is also included Hydraulic power pipes, the technique that used pipes to transform water power other power source by its pressure.

what will be the Hydropower used in the next 3-5 years?
Hydropower has well practicing by Brazil,Canada, China, Finland, France, Japan and Norway. There countries agree to apply this technology into their public. Most of these countries have engaged into an agreement with a organization called IEA, and the organization has developed some plans for these countries to follow. In the past few years, most of these countries have developed some small scale hydropower system for the small industries within the country to reduce their production cost. In the future, this plan will be turned into another phrase and the government will develop a larger scale hydropower generator to try to provide enough power to a whole industrial area. Eventually, hydropower will be combined with wind power in the future to increase its efficiency.

Will the impact of technology be positive or negative?
This is definitely a positive technology to our society and there are 5 reasons that shows it should be great to us.

1)It is a very efficient technology that we only need a very small amount of water to generate energy that can be transferred to a mile away from the generator.

2)It is a very reliable energy source, as long as the water is moving to the generator, it can produce unlimited energy to our society.

3)Some of small scale hydropower technology do not even need a reservoir to generate energy. This will prevent a lot of construction and avoid to damage our ecosystem.

4)According to the data, hydro power is a cost effective energy, it only takes few thousand dollars to build a hydropower generator but the power it produced can support an small industry.

5)This technology is either good for the developing and developed countries. Developing countries can save their resources from building expensive and non effective power plant. The developed countries can use this technology to help their citizen to lower the energy cost.

How will this affect us?
Compare with geothermal heat energy, hydropower resource is more clean and reliable. Although hydropower might not as efficient as geothermal energy, however it costs less to build a generator and it provides a cost effective basis for the users, which gains more popularity to the public. The hydropower will eventually change our habit of reliance. In the future, we will be less relied on nuclear electricity plants and coal electricity plants but more favorable on this clean energy.

Who is driving the development?
As mentioned before, an organization called IEA has work into this field and try to push the governments to use hydropower as their alternative energy source. 7 countries have also participated in a hydropower plans call Annex which is supervised by IEA.

Wind Power
Wind power is when the energy of the wind is used for a form of energy using wind turbines. Wind turbines are large fans that distribute the energy. Across the world wind power is used for about 1.5% for electricity and countries like Spain Denmark Portugal ad Germany are using more and more wind power throughout their countries. Wind power consist of wind farms that use electricity from local providers. Wind power is very useful because it's clean, commonly used, renewable, and don't put out harmful gases. Wind power is not an on demand power use because it only works and gets full use when the wind is blowing.

What will be the Wind power used in the next 3-5 years
Wind power over the last few years has grown in the U.S.A and other countries its heavily used in a small percentage but nevertheless its still growing and looks to grow over the years. Even though we are in a recession Wind power is still projected to grow and be used more world wide. There are two forms of wind power, land wind farms and off shore wind farms. Land wind farms have large wind fans and small wind fans. Over the next few years these will be the wind power technologies used world wide. The small scale wind power will be less common due to it being uncommon but it will still get its fair share of distribution.According to a BTM its projected to grow over the next few years a considerable amount. Other than that Wind power has the same technologies they have been using and the other variables they have to worry about is pricing on land, products, and electricity. Also more wind power companies will mean more job openings across the USA and manufacturing jobs will increase if wind power use expands world wide.

Will the impact of technology be positive or negative?
After doing research on wind power and looking at awea.org Technology will only help the growth of wind power over the years if they can rebuild and get new transmission lines. The towers are made of still and the wings that spin are usually made of fiberglass or reinforced polyester so there's no technology issues there. It really doesn't say what the transmissions lines are are made of but im guess its steal copper and wires and I don't see how technology will had that back in wind power advancing.

How will this affect us?
Wind power has no real affects on the environment except for the worry of flying animals such as birds and bats and also the appearance they have to the land that they're on. They have no pollution put out the places the products are made that make up wind power are safe. All wind power can due is help the environment and not hurt it it has to be accepted in what ever town, city, country, or state if they choose to use wind power and have the wind turbines on display. We all can benefit from wind power and it has way more reward than risks if people learn to choose to accept and use wind power technology.

Who is driving the development?
There are many organizations and companies that are pushing for wind power to develop throughout America and the world. Organizations like American Wind Energy Association, Siemens USA, whywind.org, capewind.org, and many other companies that make or manufacture wind power parts.

Rechargeable Energy Storage System
Rechargeable energy storage system is a system where Maryland Researchers are developing so that instead of wasting more energy or electricity for things, you may just recharge it and not waste anymore resources. Or a source of energy you have in possession that can be used when it is needed or required to reduce excessive amounts of energy that can be done for things that need it.

what will Recharge-able energy be used for 3-5 years?
It would be used for hybrid cars for an example so that the owners do not have to deal with recharging the battery at stations or using the solar panels, instead it will have an amount of stored energy that can be accessed when needed or just in case.

What role Rechargeable energy play?
It will play as a money saver and as a energy saver due to the resources we may get the energy from.

Will the impact of Recharge energy be positive or negative?
The impact of rechargeable energy would be positive because many people will not have to use money on gas or waste as much energy as they have did in the past. The negatives would be on the gas sellers or people who own the recharge stations but other than that they're no negative impacts.

Who will benefit and how?
Owners of the cars will benefit from not wasting that much money and time spent on gas and all the requirements just to recharge a battery for the hybrid cars. Overall you reduce a lot of time and a load of money for gas.

Who will be hurt?
No one will be hurt due the "Green technology" It will reduce the global warming rate and pollution we have in our environment, The people who will be hurt are the ones who benefit off of selling gas for a very expensive price.

Who is driving the use of technology around this issue?
Maryland Researchers are the ones driving the use of this type of technology, their specific name is "Maryland Nanotech".