Part 1: Share
- Share your findings in your own words with cited images
Nunez, Christina. “Renewable Energy, Explained.” Renewable Energy, Facts and Information, 10 Mar. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/reference/renewable-energy/#close.
This is some information on the author of this article as well as some of her experiences: “Christina Nunez is a writer based near Washington, D.C. She spent five years at National Geographic covering energy for the website, including stories about the hidden clean energy labyrinths underneath cities, the scientific effort to find and fix the places where the world is hemorrhaging methane, and Californian farmers converting crops to solar panels.”
“‘Renewable’ doesn’t necessarily mean sustainable.”
In this article, Nunez goes over several types of renewable energies; hydropower, wind energy, solar energy, biomass and geothermal. She goes on to list the benefits and drawbacks of each source of energy.
Total renewable energy, accessed June 18, 2020, <https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/data-analysis/energy-data-analysis/renewable-energy-facts/20069>
This graph shows that hydropower is the leading source of total renewable energy, however, some of its drawbacks are:
- Disrupting river ecosystems and surrounding areas, harming wildlife and displacing residents
- Hydropower at full capacity is not emission-free, as “decaying organic material in reservoirs releases methane.” (National Geographic, 2019)
Installed Capacity of Wind Power, accessed June 18, 2020, <https://www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/data-analysis/energy-data-analysis/renewable-energy-facts/20069>
Wind energy is becoming a very valuable resource, increasing from 23,900 megawatts to 539,00 megawatts in the span of over just sixteen years (from 2001-2017). Because of Canada’s vast and expansive landscape, this makes it ideally suited to large amounts of wind power.
Benefits of Wind Energy:
- Wind energy is an unlimited and free sustainable source of renewable energy
- The price of producing wind energy is decreasing, it is becoming more and more inexpensive to produce (once a turbine starts running, operational costs are very low)
- Wind turbines are very low maintenance, only requiring maintenance check-ups every few months
- It can be expensive to connect remote locations such as remote research facilities or small villages to the main electricity supply, but installing a wind turbine in such places could provide power in places such as those.
- Compared to other sources of energy production, such as fossil fuels, wind energy is considerably more ecofriendly.
- No emissions of air pollutants or greenhouse gases
Disadvantages/Drawbacks of Wind Energy:
- The initial cost of installing wind turbines is very expensive. The process includes an engineer carrying out a site survey, and possibly installing a research turbine in order to measure wind patterns. If the site survey is successful, the wind turbine is purchased, transported and installed, all of which contribute to the initial high cost of installing wind turbines.
- Wind turbines can be very noisy.
- Wind power is dependent on weather, which can fluctuate. This can affect the efficiency of a wind turbine.
- Although, “Utility companies invest a significant amount of time and money in researching which locations are suitable for wind power.” (Clean Energy Ideas, 2019)
- Because of their large size (the blades of a large wind turbine can reach over 50 meters long), wind turbines pose a threat to birds, bats and other flying animals.
- “It was estimated that in 2012, wind turbines destroyed 573,000 birds,” (National Wind Watch, 2019)
- A significant enough amount of flying animals are dying for engineers to look into making wind turbines safer for wildlife.
- Some object to the visual effect that wind turbines have on the horizon. Below shows a turbine blade passing through a town in England. This shows the sheer size of a wind turbine.
Turbine blade convoy passing through Edenfield, England (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
- Make a statement to Justin Trudeau about the implications of your findings
Although there are several disadvantages to wind energy, such as the high initial cost, the threat they can pose to wildlife, and their dependence on the weather, the fact remains that wind power is one of the most readily available and environmentally friendly sources of renewable energy today. By turning our focus to more eco-friendly sources of energy, we will be able to reduce our reliance on more harmful sources of energy (such as fossil fuels) and continue to fight against global warming. I have concluded that the benefits of wind energy far outweigh the disadvantages, especially considering the advancements made in recent years on wind power technology.
Part 2: Answer
- What questions did you need to ask in order to research your topic?
- Which source of renewable energy is the most efficient?
- What is renewable energy?
- Which source of renewable is the most eco-friendly?
- Which source of renewable energy has the most benefits?
- Which renewable energy source is the most harmful to the environment?
- Which source of renewable energy is the most costly/expensive?
- What are the benefits and drawbacks/negatives of wind power?
- How many birds and bats were killed by wind turbines in 2019?
- What is the initial cost of installing a wind turbine?
- What is the size of an average wind turbine?
- What was the process you used to investigate the topic?
For this assignment, I knew that I wanted to focus it around renewable energy sources. After choosing a broad topic, I used specific questions like the ones listed above to narrow down my options (e.g. ‘What source of renewable energy is the most harmful to the environment?’ or ‘What source of renewable energy is the most efficient/beneficial?’) After a few searches, I chose to focus my research on wind energy.
After I chose my specific topic, I began researching the disadvantages and benefits of wind energy. After reading through several articles, I verified that they were credible sources of information before beginning to note the significant pros and cons of wind energy. After I created my lists, I then asked more specific questions as to add more context and detail to my points (e.g. How many birds and bats were killed by wind turbines in 2019?) After compiling two separate lists of benefits and disadvantages, I compared the two, then came to my conclusion.
- How did you verify and cite the information you found?
For each website that I used to gather information, I made sure that it was a credible source before even reading the article. I did this by checking whether the website was an established institution and by checking the author’s credentials and citations. I was wary of commercial sites that usually ended in .com (as they are usually biased/trying to sell their products), and tried to use government-provided sources.
Bibliography
Canada, Natural Resources. “Government of Canada / Gouvernement Du Canada.” Natural Resources Canada, Government of Canada / Gouvernement Du Canada, 3 Apr. 2020, www.nrcan.gc.ca/science-data/data-analysis/energy-data-analysis/renewable-energy-facts/20069.
Clean Energy Ideas. “Advantages & Disadvantages of Wind Energy.” Clean Energy Ideas, 18 Oct. 2019, www.clean-energy-ideas.com/wind/wind-energy/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-wind-energy/#:~:text=Advantages%20%26%20Disadvantages%20of%20Wind%20Energy%201%20Wind,Wind%20Turbines%20Are%20Low%20Maintenance.%20More%20items…%20.
Lloyd, Dallas. Wind Energy: Advantages and Disadvantages, 11 Dec. 2014, large.stanford.edu/courses/2014/ph240/lloyd2/.
National Wind Watch. “Drastic Loss of Bird Population Deeply Troubling.” National Wind Watch, 7 Oct. 2019, www.wind-watch.org/news/2019/10/07/drastic-loss-of-bird-population-deeply-troubling/.
Nunez, Christina. “Renewable Energy, Explained.” Renewable Energy, Facts and Information, 10 Mar. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/energy/reference/renewable-energy/#close.
Turbinesinfo. “Size of Wind Turbines.” Turbines Info, 23 Jan. 2020, www.turbinesinfo.com/size-of-wind-turbines/.