The state and federal government bodies are recently beginning to concede to public pressure to provide funding for development of renewable energy sources, and the prospect of using wind energy conversion technology to provide electricity and heating sources on a residential level is becoming closer to reality. While the wind itself is obviously free, the current cost to convert the energy produced by the wind to usable energy on the existing utility grid is prohibitive.

While the total capacity of wind farm energy production worldwide is 100,000 megawatts, the United States is leading in advancement and implementation of this technology and currently supplies over 18,300 megawatts of energy from it’s various small scale windfarms, including the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center of Texas which is home to the world’s largest wind farm. The level of energy output produced from U.S. windfarms is currently adequate to service 5 million households with electricity. The American Wind Energy Association was formed in 1974 as the national trade association for the wind energy industry in the U.S., and is the leading body in providing wind energy research in an advisory capacity to the industry.

Among the distinct advantages of wind energy is that it’s conversion to usable electricity requires no chemical processes and therefore there are no bi-products are environmentally contaminating pollutants.

While there must be adequate and continual wind speeds to assure consistent energy output of turbine fields, obviously, wind is an unending source of energy. The equipment required, though, must take into consideration that consistent wind speeds are at elevated levels, therefore wind turbines must be very tall and require specialized equipment for their construction. Conversely, the extreme height required for adequate wind turbine generation makes it ideal for use in farmlands, where grazing animals, or crops can be planted around the turbine supports. Many wind farms are superimposed over existing farmland that supplies crop bi-products to the alternative liquid fuel industry. In addition, windfarms can be built off shore, therefore reducing even more of the landscape environmental impact.

As we consider the environmental impact of our energy choices and methods to convert and distribute forms of “clean” energy, it must also be understood that solar energy has an advantage over wind energy in that the wind turbines produce a considerable amount of noise. Also noted is the impact the wind turbine fields have on certain people who react negatively to the pulsation in the air waves created by the turbines and the visual impact to natural landscape with the implementation of wind turbine farms.

As solar and wind energy seem to be running neck in neck for the position of most widely used source of renewable alternative energy, it seems that the federal government is bracing to lend it’s support to the advancement of mass wind turbine farms. The economic impact of this development could mean renewed financial stature to many of the citizens of the United States as fabrication, construction and maintenance of the turbine fields will require a new industry of workers to support it.

As the hot topic of the impending necessity for the United States to develop domestic resources for alternative energy is discussed, many companies are refining their roles in the energy industry to strive toward a common goal of providing the U.S. with independence from foreign fuel sources while reducing the negative impact traditional energy conversion has had on the global environment. The most obvious sources of renewable energy that can be harnassed and converted to heat and electricity for commercial and residential use are solar energy, wind energy and oceanic wave energy.

Another valuable source of potential energy is the process of extracting natural hot water reservoirs from the earths underlayers and pumping them to the earth’s surface to be used as insulating conduit inside of walls and floors. This process is called geothermal energy, and was first tested for viability in 1904 in Italy, although to date, only 1% of the worlds total energy use is being propagated by geothermal technology. Currently the world’s largest geothermal energy plant is located north of San Francisco in California. The power plant taps into the Geysers as it’s source of renewable energy and is responsible for providing 60 percent of all of the energy consumed by the coastal region of California.

Geothermal energy is extremely cost effective, in that no method of heating the water is necessary, there is no purchasing of fuel required and there is an unlimited heat source deep in the earth’s mantle. The only cost involved in the use of geothermal energy is in construction of the power plants necessary for boring into the earth and the equipment required for extraction of the energy source. Furthermore, the processing of geothermal energy creates no dangerous emissions. There is a mild environmental argument that holds that if geothermal energy is mined for on a mass scale, there may be considerable damage done to the outer layers of the earth’s crust, which can eventually affect the plate tectonics of our planet. As the technology advances, though, less invasive methods for extracting the necessary components will make this form of energy more ecologically feasible and available on a wide basis.

Geothermal energy can be harvested for use in several forms. The hot beds under the earths outer layers contain hot water, gas and molten rock, all of which can be “mined”, so to speak, and used in their various forms to heat homes, commercial buildings, and public walkways to prevent snow and ice build up.

When converted correctly, geothermal energy produces no polluting emmisions into the water or air environments. Also among the benefits of geothermal energy production are the traits of the energy power plants themselves, which generally only require a small building footprint and are a self-sufficient source of energy that has little impact on the landscape environment.

As is the case with any new form of energy, or new process for harnessing energy, it is of vital importance that steps are taken to insure the proper drilling and conversion of geothermal energy. Improper drilling can release hazardous chemical and gases from the earth which can be potentially dangerous to surrounding life as well as the overall atmosphere.