if wind is renewable how does it stay renewable?
407286
because its the force wind exerts on the propeller that creates the energy, we arent using wind as fuel.
302127
This might help you somehow:\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-renewable_resources
594200
Animal power and stReam (hydro) power also wind power.
146543
http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1986_July_August/The_Basement_Built_Wind_Generator\n\nthis might help
383729
It has a dynamo inside it, when you wind it up, that is the driving force for the energy.
815781
Good question.\n\nThere seem to be many other sources of energy but they seem to be expensive to obtain or to require large amounts of land to be dedicated to crop growth or for collectors.  This is in itself a type of inefficiency. \n\nIn the long term prices may come down but energy such as crop based gasoline alternatives don't seem to me like they would cut it with a growing demand for gas their will be a growing demand for the amount of land that must be dedicated to its production. not to mention the population is growing and its not going to stop.\n\nIf we move toward becoming almost entirely dependent upon alternative energy we must move towards harnessing different kinds of power and not just search for one solution.\n\nA lot of money would be lost from a lot of big companies.\n\nFor instance there is a windmill type device you can purchase for your home needs right now for around $10,000 it is highly efficient\nand supposedly super quiet.  It is said to be able to generate between 30% to all of a homes energy needs depending on where you live. If too much energy is generated the excess may be sold back to the electrical company.  \n\nIf you could purchase three of these at the hefty price of $30,000 you could theoretically not ever have to pay a power bill again in some places or pay almost no bill at all. The electrical companies services could be utilized as a form of backup power.  \n\nIf everyone had these wind collectors this would certainly shrink the electrical power industry.\n\nThere is no information available to me about how much it can cost to repair these items or how well they can withstand the event of a hurricane or tornado. \n\nBut I dont think think alternative energy is a pipe dream it is just something that is going to take a large investment to start up and develop towards higher levels of performance and efficiency. \n\nThe engineering of rugged devices will have to play a large role and does currently, however, a lot of trial and error needs to occur to see what works where and why and what got destroyed by random acts of god and the forces of nature and how that can be prevented.\n\nShould things begin to look rather good for alternative energy... and it seems things look better day by day... energy companies would have to begin facing downsizing and new business models and perhaps invest themselves into the production of alternative energy or alternative energy generating devices for sale to the public.  Either way at some point they wont be the economic giants they have been to this point and thats probably gonna keep them from helping.\n\nAlternative energy will only be a pipe dream if people are afraid to nurture it and harness the energies available. This is something that is and will be heavily influenced by politics.\n\nOn another note, I think that nuclear power seems to be an "easy way out" but I don't believe that it is a good or secure solution.  There have been so many nuclear mishaps you dont hear about and so much waste that you cant prevent or do anything about. Aside from alternative energy being developed for fear of a lack of oil I also thought a large part of it was moving towards a cleaner earth. Moving towards nuclear power and nuclear waste is dangerous for everyone.  Radiation does not simply go away it is corruption of matter and it is "contagious".  Sure we could maybe launch it off into space, but should something go wrong on the way out of here we would face yet another type of radiological disaster.
1114274
Tough question, however Solar and Wind are viable sources of energy where available.  BioMass and utilization of human waste are also viable sources of future energy.  There's some speculation about technology to harness the energy contained in Ocean Water (currents) though I am not an engineer and don't understand it at all.  Finally, eliminating wastefulness and extending the usefulness of exsiting fuel types will assure at least in the short term enough for all (this is particularly aimed at the USA as the largest consumer of existing fuels per capata in the World, the question is why)
822817
the above one of solar cell is gr8\nor you can make a model of a wind mill, attach it to a motor and then, artificially, rotate it to produce current in the motor and connect it to a small bulb to show it lighting
349849
The blades of wind turbines kill birds and bats and tons of insects.\n\nThere is some evidence that the air turbulence disturbs weather patterns locally.\n\nThere are also problems related to making them in the first place, and when disposing of them when they are worn out.\n\nhttp://www.awea.org/faq/tutorial/wwt_environment.html
138678
Wind energy is actually growing at a double digit rate, albeit from a very small percentage of the energy total.  Like solar and geothermal it's about as green as energy can get, so it is very responsible in that sense.   It will take strong government committment to spur it's use because it's still rarely competitive with fossil-based energy.   The Wall Street Journal had an article last week about the difficulty of the boldest experiment yet - a Danish island that has tried with limited success to get off shore wind energy as the primary source (it was going OK until the government withdrew subsidies).
275828
Wind mills and /or solar
382138
I live three miles from my job.  Ride a bike two days a week.  Support wind generated electricity because it is right, not cheaper.  Unfortunately, this is not enough. Hope someone else out there is doing SOMETHING!!!!!!!
394468
Green energy that includes natural enegetic processes.  Geothermal power, wind power, small-scale hydropower, solar power, biomass power, tidal power and wave power fall under such a category. Some versions may also include power derived from the incineration of waste.\n\nRemember that no power source is impact-free. For instance, concerns are raised over bird kills and in some cases noise pollution by windmills and over heavy metal use and associated mining damage by raw materials used for constructing solar cells.\n\nHere in Greece we have used windmills  ancients before electricity but now we use it to produse electricity for our islands. We use also solar cells and  small-scale hydropower to produse electicity.
423132
It all depends on the area where you live. Like people in Florida would benefit most from Solar energy. People living near dams would benefit more form water energy. Wind energy would benefit people who live in the mountains. It all has to do with the geography of the land. But dealing with fuel options... I'm stumped!
837910
Windmills are the best solution right now for renewable energy.  Hydroelectric plants destroy the environment much more then building windmills does, solar cells are toxic to make, and degrade after a few years.  To build a 400MW natural gas power plant and 400 MW worth of windmills (roughly 200 of them) costs almost the exact same amount of money.  Once the windmills are built, they require no fuel, and minimal maintainance.  On the other hand, a natural gas power plant is only operational about 2/3s of the time due to the need to maintain the very precise and expensive turbines, boilers, etc.  \n\nwhen people say windmills are an eyesore, putting them ~ 10 miles off the coast wont ruin anyones view, at 10 miles they will look like ripples on the surface of the water.  We have miles and miles of farmland that we could use in the middle of the country (not because there's lots of space there but the flat ground right after the mountains is ideal for windmills), given the relative footprint of a windmill, it wouldn't be a huge loss.  On top of that, by placing windmill on top of skyscrapers (if any of you have stood on an observation deck its always windy - and the structure is already there - you just have to go up a little higher)  the building would generate its own electricity, as well as then provide power to the grid.  \n\nThe downside of windmills is that they aren't efficient to put everywhere, so electricty transmission can become an issue.\nI dont know how many people have actually stood next to one of the bigger windmills, I find them rather aesthetically pleasing.
215423
The problem is oil is running out. Once the oil runs out, we will probably be able to switch to renewables and get by. But the problem is there are many things other than car transport we use petrochemicals for. Plastics, fetilizer, lubricants, moving tankers across the seas and so forth. We will still need those things, and wind farms will not fertilize our crops.\n\nSo the short answer is, we need to stop using oil for things we have alternative sources of power for, because we will still need oil for other things 100 or 200 or 500 years from now. For those things for which there is no replacement for oil.
458754
I like this question. All the talk about alternative energy, and people have not considered that they all have negative environmental impact. SOlar, wind, hydro, tidal all will have some negative impact. \n\nI am convinced that windmills have negative environmetal efects but the true effect will no be know unless there are a bigger number of windmilss out there. What I can say right now is that they kill a large number of birds.