British Petroleum (BP) is one of the world’s largest oil companies and is infamously known for the Transocean oil rig explosion which released approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The revenue lost by 210 million gallons of crude is worth approximately $408,807,000 at market prices in 2010. Combined with other losses BP incurred,…
Category: Energy
The reality is chasing sunlight to get work finished and not having electricity consistently available is not out of the norm for the rest of the world. 17 percent of the world’s population currently lives without electricity. That is almost unimaginable for the majority of Americans because, as a nation, the U.S. uses 25 percent of…
1.2 billion people,17 percent of the global population, in the world presently live without electricity. In developing nations where incomes are low and jobs are difficult to find, there tends to be lower education achievement. A large part of has to do with lack of electricity; when the sun goes down, the books have to close. There are…
According to the Brundtland Commission report, sustainable development calls for “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Long before the report was published in 1987, Native American indigenous cultures lived by the proverb, “we have not inherited the earth from our fathers,…
Conventional solar panels are sometimes regarded as an eyesore, but there are new forms for rooftop solar. Solar shingles are building-integrated photovoltaics that are integrated into the existing design of a conventionally-shingled rooftop. Solar shingles were introduced in 2005 and have since been making ground mostly in Colorado. Household solar shingles have the ability to cut…
As the world modernizes and realizes the urgency for cleaner energy sources, countries are writing policies to introduce more renewables onto their grids. Germany is a leader in this movement and has developed a policy that expedites this process. Energiewende is Germany’s energy policy enacted in 2011 to introduce a significant increase in the use of…
Wind energy is a renewable energy source which means there is an inexhaustible amount of energy that can be cultivated. With zero greenhouse gas emissions, wind energy has very low impacts to the environment and can be used virtually anywhere the wind blows. According to the American Wind Energy Association, the wind industry has generated…
The Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana was one of the hardest hit areas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Located adjacent to the Industrial Canal levy, the neighborhood flooded with over 20 feet of water. However, after this devastating blow, a conglomeration of humanitarian aid and philanthropic deeds, the community began…
Europe’s wind-energy industry plays a large and positive role in Europe’s economy. Even in economic recession, the wind power sector employed around 238,000 in 2010. Also in 2010, the wind energy sector contributed almost 0.3 percent of Europe’s total GDP. There are 15 wind farms off the coasts of Europe consisting of 754 wind turbines all built…
The rotation of the blades cause the internal generator system to spin producing wind energy. This motion converts the rotational energy into electrical energy and moves down the shaft to a transformer where the energy is fully converted to electricity. Lastly, the electricity produced is distributed through a power grid where it is consumed by…