Persuasive Speech: Wind Energy

Topic: Wind Energy
Specific purpose: To persuade my audience that coal affects our environment and that we should use wind energy instead in our future houses.
Central idea: Coal has many negatives effects in our environment and we can help to reduce these effects by implementing wind energy in our houses, which can produce the same results in our homes.
Pattern of organization: Problem - Solution
I. Attention: How many of you can survive for a month without electricity? Without phones, laptops, tv. Not many, because electricity has become part of our daily routines and we are addicted to it.
II. Reveal Topic: We use energy everyday, and its creation by burning coal, has negative effects to our environment. But these effects can be reduced
if we start implementing renewable energy, such as wind energy, to our houses.
III. Relate to the audience: Maybe right now we do not own a house, but in the future we probably are, and implementing renewal energy would be a great option for us. We can help reducing the damages to our environment. We can be part of the so-popular green movement and continue doing the same things we do.
IV. Credibility: I am not a science major, but technology has always called my attention. And hearing the benefits of renewable energy, created a motivation in me to research more about this subject to be able to share it with you.
V. Preview: Today, I am going to talk about the problems that coal creates to our environment. And how we can help reducing this damage by implementing wind turbines in our houses.
(Internal Preview: First, let’s talk about coal)
Body
I. . According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Coal mining can be very useful but has negative impacts on the environment. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, www.eia.doe.gov)
A. Definition of Coal
1. Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons.
2. It is non-renewable energy
3. Coal is used to create energy, medicine.

B. But burning coal to produce energy creates the emission of bad gasses to the environment.
1. One of the major consequences of burning coal is the emission of carbon dioxide. a. In 2007, 5,100,000 tons of carbon dioxide came from the use of coal – as much carbon dioxide as cutting down 223 million trees.
2. Another gasses emitted are:
a. Nitrogen oxides (NOx), which have been linked to the formation of acid rain.
b. Particulates, which have been linked to the formation of acid rain and increased incidence of respiratory illnesses.
c. And Mercury, which has been linked with both neurological and developmental damage in humans and other animals. (Transition: Coal mining has negative impacts on our environment. However, wind energy as an alternative method, can provide the same benefits as coal, with very little effects on our environment)
II. Implementing wind energy in our homes will help to reduce these problems. A. According to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there are many benefits for wind energy. (National Renewable Energy Laboratory) 1. Wind is renewable; it can never be used up. 2. Unlike coal production, wind energy doesn’t require the use of water. 3. Wind turbines do not produce emissions of gases. 4. Stable fuel price benefit. 5. And also helps maintain the prices of other fuels.
B. Even though renewable energy can be kind of pricy, according to the Iowa Energy center, wind energy happens to be one of the cheapest renewable energy available.
1. I have done the math, and you will see you can recover your money and help the environment.
a. According to the U.S. Energy Information administration, the average annual household energy bill in Iowa is around 1,000 dollars. (Iowa Energy Center, Energy Efficiency)
b. After receiving the 30% tax credit, as specified by Energy Star, the total cost of a popular wind turbine that produces 5,534 kwh for household use, is 11,500$ (Energy Star, Federal tax credit for consumer energy efficiency)
c. It only takes 22 years to recover your investment. And as technology grows, that number is only bound to decrease.
d.
As described by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, as the deposits of non renewable resources shrinks, the price is bound to increase. (Energy Information Administration, Non renewable coal)
2. But if happen to be a do-it-yourself kind of person, you can even make it yourself! a. Just type “How to build a wind turbine” in youtube.com and many instructions videos will come out.
b. After reading the reviews of many of these videos, the average price of building them is around 200$.
Conclusion
I. Signal the end of the speech: we all use energy, and implementing wind energy in our future houses, will not change our daily routine.
II. Reinforce the central idea: Burning coal has serious effects to our environment, it increases global warning. By using wind energy, we can help preventing these damages. We have seen that it pays off by itself, and even you can create your own wind turbine. And the feeling that we are helping out planet, is priceless.
III. Clear closing line: We need to look after our planet home, without our planet we cannot exist. Let’s take care of it.

References
Energy Star (2010). Federal tax credit for consumer energy efficiency. Retrieved from
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=tax_credits.tx_index
Iowa Energy Center (2010). Energy Efficiency. Retrieved from http://www.energy.iastate.edu/Renewable/wind/windstudy-index.htm
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2005). Wind energy benefits [Electronic version]. Washington D.C. : U.S. Department of Energy.
U.S. Energy Information Administration. Non renewable Coal. Retried from http://www.eia.doe.gov/kids/energy.cfm?page=coal_home-basics