Working on a new Site

Hi, as I promised, I'm working on a new site which also has the facility of discussion and user article submission. Won't say much, go check out http://solarwebworld.com/blog/

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Cost of Pollution

Hello!
A thing always comes to my mind when people say that renewable energy is way too costly than simple fossil fuel energy.
Let us see what exactly you pay, using renewable energy in contrast to conventional fuel energy.
See, in the case of fossil energy,

1. Extraction costs {Fossil fuels are extracted (mined) from deep inside the earth, includes refining cost}

2. Transportation costs {Fuel is transported to power station}

3. Equipment cost {Machines used in the power plant}

4. Transmission costs {Wiring costs plus transformer costs; Electricity comes to our home through wires, of course}

5. Finally; the cost of waste generated; The cost of Pollution {Nobody bothers to include this to your bill but you are paying it anyway; explained below}

And in the case of Renewable Energy (lets take Solar!)

1. Equipment costs {Major one, cost of Solar cells or Solar panels or Solar concentrators; One time cost}

2. Essential Accessories {Batteries, inverters etc.; One time cost plus maintainance costs}

That's All! {Free energy; No wastage; Clean; Pollution free; Less use of Resources; Full control; Flexible & Everything Nice}

What is the cost of pollution all about?
It is nothing but the price it takes to remove Carbon dioxide(Green House Gas) from the atmosphere which is generated as a waste product from the power plants and industries. It is the major contributor to Global Warming and Climate change. Currently, there is no way to remove this gas from the atmosphere, artificially, because the process itself consumes energy {a lot}, the generation of which creates more harm than good! Of course new techniques can be employed which use Solar energy to remove excess CO2 . As this one.

And how you are paying this cost anyway?
All of the 5 steps listed above in the case of fossil fuel energy produce waste carbon dioxide and other polluting substances like particulate matter, Carbon Monoxide, nitrogen & sulfur compounds etc. which are responsible for a host of health problems including Asthma, Hypertension etc. and Carbon monoxide is a well known poisionous gas. Nitrogen & sulfur compounds cause acid rain etc.
So you're paying the cost in terms of increasing medical bills, costlier energy, changing climate etc.
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This post just describes an idea. I'm accumulating the data now and a new entry with animation effects is due to be posted soon. So bookmark {add to favourits} this page for future reference.
If you have any questions/comments about this; please comment by clicking on the link below.
Please help Support this idea with some data you find relevant!
Regards,

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very informative piece. It shows how much we are really paying for conventional energy indirectly. I'm looking forward to the new entry.