Your Questions About Green Living

The Expert answers:

Alternative energy is available now, however it’s the believers that are stopping this technology from being put into place.

Nuclear Power can provide the US with almost all our power needs. However environmentalists are scared about transporting waste, even though the waste is very small and transported every day.

Another excuse is the cost which is only higher because environmnetalists sue Nuclear power plants to prevent them from operating causing prices to rise. Truthfully, they are just scared of modern technology they don’t understand.

By switching to nuclear, we could reduce the green house gas output of the US by 50%.

The Expert answers:

You can’t make a meaningful comparison that way.
A coal plant, for example, may have 30% thermal efficiency. The coal it burns, though, comes from plants that had only about a 2% efficiency in turning sunlight into biomass. A nuclear plant using the same steam technology as a coal-fired plant has about the same thermal efficiency, but involves far less fuel – indeed, some nuclear plants make more fuel than they use.
Thin-film solar panels are only about 1/5 as efficient, area for area, as standard silicon solar panels, but cost about 1/10 as much. Either panel has far higher overall efficiency than a coal-fired plant, but involves manufacturing costs that makes their electricity more expensive if subsidiary costs (like adverse health effects) are neglected.
Relative availability of energy is also an issue. Solar and wind aren’t always available. A hydroelectric dam becomes useless if the river feeding its reservoir dries up.
The wiki article referenced discusses relative costs of electricity produced by various methods.

The Expert answers:

It depends on region and climate of country. For example, geothermal energy – in regions with high volcanic activity. Solar energy – for countries with enough amount of sunny days. Energy of sea waves, wind, tides etc. For example, technical potential of solar energy in Russia (2.3 mlrd t of relative fuel per year) is approximately in 2 times higher than present consumption of fuel.

The Expert answers:

Here is a list of all alternative energy ETFs with some description of each.
Http://etf.stock-encyclopedia.com/category/alternative-energy.html

But I’m not so sure that alternative energy investments would bring good profits. Alternative energy might help the economy in general by keeping energy costs down and decreasing pollution. But in terms of making profits, I don’t see it as a big money-maker.

In most cases, it’s cheaper to extract oil and gas from the ground than to produce alternative energy. And even when the oil runs out, every country and every company will be free to get into the alternative energy business. And when there is a lot of competition. Then profit margins are unlikely to be high.

The Expert answers:

In less you are in collage now by the time you graduate the job market and technology will be on to something else.

As they say there is only jobs and money in an idea or technology as long as the research has not caught up with the product.
Once the product is developed the money and research funds go out of it and it becomes an item on the shelf.
Once it becomes an item on the shelf the value goes away, the money and the job.

In your first year of collage take you core science classes and try and figure out what is your passion.
Once you find your passion follow it in all earnest and your success and feeling of fulfillment will come out of it.

Don’t pursue the job, pursue your intereststs you have to remember it is what you want to do for the rest of your life.