Alternative Energy

Resources as old as the Earth . . . technologies as new as tomorrow are tapping alternative sources of energy to power our homes and businesses. The sun is 93 million miles away, yet it remains our ultimate source of energy. Ancient civilizations worshipped the sun, and with good reason. They realized that everything in their lives was based on gifts from the sun – warmth, food, fire, and even sleep. To a large degree our lives still depend upon those gifts from the sun.

Sun, Wind and More
Even our traditional energy resources such as coal, oil and natural gas are products of our solar gift. They are the finite remains of ancient life forms that over millions of years have been converted to those resources we use today.

Solar energy is inexhaustible and pollution-free. The sun makes the winds blow and rain fall. It makes crops and forests grow. All of these "solar systems" are being harnessed to provide energy for our needs.

Solar Power - Photovoltaic (PV) cells convert sunlight directly to electricity with no moving parts. The diagrams below detail the primary components of common solar energy systems.

Wind Power
Wind technology is as old as sailing ships. People have been using windmills for over a thousand years to grind grain and pump water. The traditional windmill is still widely used around the world.

Modern windmills are much more efficient and hold great promise as a future source of electric power. Today’s wind turbines appear as simple as a child’s pinwheel but are as complex as your computer. Below is a diagram of the primary components of a wind turbine.

Someday our landscape may be dotted with wind "farms" harnessing the power of wind or solar arrays capturing the solar power for our energy needs of our customers.

To find out more about alternative energy, visit the web sites listed below: Solar Energy Network http://www.solarnet.org Solstice (CREST Homepage) http://www.solstice.crest.org/index.shtml Texas A&M University Energy Systems Laboratory http://www-esl.tamu.edu/ U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) http://www.doe.gov U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency and Renwable Energy Network (EREN) http://www.eren.doe.gov U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Education Center http://www.epa.gov/teachers/