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Identify Three Renewable Energy Sources and Assess Their Potential to Replace Fossil Fuel

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Identify Three Renewable Energy Sources and Assess Their Potential to Replace Fossil Fuel
Identify three renewable energy sources and assess their potential to replace fossil fuel

The rapid depletion of fossil fuels has given serious warning that the era of using conventional energy is coming to an end. Due to the energy shortage, a need to find replacement of fossil fuels has appeared. Moreover, problems such as various pollution and serious climate change have occurred, which makes renewable and less pollution energy source alternative choices. Therefore, three options can be suggested to solve the problem with the depletion of natural sources. These options could be wind power, geothermal energy and solar power, which will replace fossil fuels in the future. This essay will evaluate these there renewable energy sources by using the following criteria: availability, cost, practicality, and environmentally friendlness.

On one hand, fierce pollution and global warming affect human beings health. The burning ash of coal and mine contaminates the air gravely, as Sawin (2003) has pointed that almost 80% of CO2 emissions are from fossil fuels burning. In addition, these emissions partly lead to global warming which can be appear in the form of glaciers melting. West Antarctic ice sheets and Greenland are thawing in a surprising speed, and sea level is raised by 12m (Brown, et al, 2008). Unavoidably, glaciers are shrinking every day and in danger of disappearing. On the other hand, the exhaustion of natural energy sources becomes the public concentration. The consumption rate of oil is enormous, which can reach about 1,000 barrels per second in 2005 (Seitz,2008). Middleton (2008) argues that unless the exceeding consumption of fossil fuels is controlled, oil will disappear in just 30-40 years while gas will be used up in only 50-60 years. Population growth, continuing industrialization and urbanization are also the causes of fast consumption.

One way to solve these tough problems is wind power, which will replace fossil fuels by virtue of its low

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