Keonte Stevens
September 20, 2014
Module 5 Assignment 1
Ecology and Environmental Sustainability Examining Your Community’s Source of Energy

Each community has their own source energy that they get their power from. This type of power allows energy to be powered from their homes from solar panels then to win power. Each area is different depending on where you live, for example the power company that my family uses is Georgia power. This company has many different type of energy sources, that helps power not only my home, but many homes here in Georgia as well. Our power company produces 1100 megawatts of renewable energy as well as nuclear energy to help power our home.
The main type of energy that they use for and energy source is solar energy. This is one of the most valuable types of energies around. In order to be able to use this energy, you first must use solar water heating system, so that it can absorb the suns energy. For it to do this, solar panels are placed on the roof of your home or apartment complex building, allowing it to get the power it needs to power your home. This method is more preferred to many people here in Georgia, to help get the energy they need into their homes.
Hydropower is another form of energy that we use here as well. Hydropower is fuel by the water that fall from the dams. Once powered, the water is then released and begins to generate the power that is needed. The thing that makes this energy the most used energy to date is the fact that it doesn’t pollute the air and all the water that is used isn’t removed from the damn either. The energy from the turbine is transferred to a power transformer, which helps increase the voltage and then is sent to the line to distribute the power.
Another energy used is biomass, this is one of the oldest forms of energy sources around. Biomass is developed from wood chips, tree trunks and pellets, which then is converted into energy. Biomass has many ways of producing energy, but the most common one that is used the most is, burning wood to make steam , which is then used as energy that generates power
All these forms of energy is great for the environment. However they can also harm us if used in a negative way. A prime example of this is, solar energy has a greta effect on the environment, being that it doesn’t produce toxic waste or cause global warming diffusions, since the sun gives a great supply clean anf free energy. Another way solar energy does good for our environment is the usage of land and water. Even though many habitats are being lost, due to the producing of dangerous supply. The negative effect that solar energy has on the environment is; while the solar panels are being made, the toxic and chemical materials that are being used to create them. Another thing that effects the environment and ecosystem is the water that is coming from wells underground.
Hydropower impacts the environment from the water is uses from dams. This destroys the forest and wildlife habitats, from the floods that’s is used from the dams. So not only does this affect us, but also the fishes and other underwater animals as well as animals that live on land because many of them are getting killed from the turbine blades, that generate the dam. Hydropower also effects the environment from the global warming emissions that is being released into the air, causing more pollution in the atmosphere. These negative problems that affect the environment, come from many of the power plants that help develop energy. People who live near these dams or plant, are forced to move from the low oxygen levels in the water.
When burning wood chips, and tree trunks to produce Biomass, this pollutes the air, making it even worst for us and the environment. The type of pollution that it creates is a nitrogen and carbon monoxide pollutions. These chemicals that it’s emitting is bad for our health, though biomass has many problems it also decreases any chance of global warming from happening. In my neighborhood, we don’t have any nuclear waste that needs to be disposed of. We run of the energy provided by the power plants located in the city area of Georgia. If the nuclear waste isn’t disposed of in the right manner, it will be harmful to us. It can get into our water, land which will then get into our systems and kill us because of the radioactive materials that it contains.
The three types of energies that I listed above are the main types of energy that the people in my community have always used. Thought these energies aren’t harming my neighborhood, they are however causing problems or our atmosphere, with the pollution that the plants produce to provide us energy, for our homes and work places. Theses energies may not be affecting people in my community, they are however affecting the places they are located and he people who live near them.
The impact that hydropower has on the air is as harmful as it seems. The reason being is, there is pollution that affects or harms us in any type of way. The only impact that hydropower affect is mainly to the water. That’s mainly from the dam where they get the energy from. Once the dam opens and allows the turbines to process that energy and distribute it out to where it needs to go. This however overflows traveling to nearby and affects the ecosystem, water supplies and the wildlife. This causes temperature change, which hard fishes and other animals that live in this specific area.
The type of impact that solar energy produces affects our air. The type of damage is does is, manufactures materials from the power plants, which then releases hazardous toxic chemicals in to the air causing more and more pollution in the atmosphere. Though the power plants produce hazardous toxic pollution, the heat that’s produced from the sun doesn’t have any effect on us at all. The impact of water use is that it is used for making parts of the solar panel. They require water depending on there location and they way they are created.

Biomass impact on the air is when burning tree trunks and other things that help to produce biomass energy. Emissions that produce nitrogen and carbon monoxide is the only energy that affect us the worst out of the other two forms of energy stated above. This type of pollution is very harmful to people, especially the ones who have asthma and respiratory problems. The impact of water quality uses a lot of water that is used produces the feedstock for the biomass such as energy crops. The water usage depends on the number of factors and the temperature.
In my home, we use 487.2 KWH per year. The amount that my entire community uses altogether per year is 194,880 KWH. I had to make a choice on which type of energy that my entire community had to use, I would choose to use solar energy power. The reason being for this type of power , is it’s much safer for our environment since it doesn’t produce any pollution or harmful chemical that will be released into the air. Also it’s a free system that absorbs sunlight then converts into useful energy that we all can use, and doesn’t require any other form of of material to give us the energy that we need.
Having this type of system, helps keep the price of your electric bill down, being that your using less power from your electric company and using more of the solar energy instead. The more sunlight that is captured the less you have to spend giving to the electric company. As a bonus, the federal government provides a state tax credit for usuing this form of renewable energy. This helps save money and lower cost on heating and cooling air (air-conditioning and heat. Solar energy is a reliable, safe and free energy resource that will be around for years.
Not only does solar energy produce power, it give off the only the amount needed. It does this by using the many types of panels, the amount that you receive depends on the amount of sunlight that you are able to receive from your location. If you use a bigger panel however, you would receive way more energy, that can power your home more.
Using the type of energy, is great for not only my household but for the many others that use it as well. It’s harmless to our environment and has great feature that we can all benefit from. The only problem that it has is, that it cost from $18,000 to $40,000, which is a lot of money to be spending. However if that’s to uch, there are many power companies that use this form of energy as well and will provide it to you at a lower price than paying all that money for your own. I feel that some of the community may not all agree with the conversion at first but once they realize what they are spending their money on, they would see that spending that amount of money would be a good investment. This energy to me, is considered to be a new form of energy source, that will have a huge impact on the environment, by helping prevent pollution that other energy resources produce. This form of energy is not just safe but it won’t have no problems to our ecosystem, but it also won’t have any effect on our wildlife. The main organisms that will truly benefit from this are birds, being that they spend most of the time in the air, they won’t be harmed by the conditions (toxic chemicals) that normally would be released into the air.believe this new energy source would impact the environment by saving it from all the pollution that other resources would produce.

http://www.energy4me.org/energy-facts/environmental-protection/environmental-impact-by-source/ http://www.ucsusa.org/clean_energy/our-energy-choices/renewable-energy/environmental-impacts-of.html http://www.lennox.com/solar-solutions/why-solar.asp http://www.georgiapower.com/about-energy/renewables.cshtml http://www.sunrun.com/solar-lease/cost-of-solar/ http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/13/1377652.html
http://www.ehow.com/about_5398329_much-power-solar-panel-generate.html