The most common alternative sources of energy like solar energy, wind energy, geothermal energy and the like are being and have been discussed for quite some time.
These sources have been investigated and steps are being taken in order to develop ways and methods to be able to effectively use them for large scale generation of energy in place of the non-renewable fossil fuels.
Some relatively new sources of alternative energy, the possibilities of which are just being considered include: Floating Wind Farms: Wind farms are large areas with wind mills placed at strategic locations, used for mass or large scale production of electric energy.
Floating wind farms are very much similar to the regular wind farms, except for one major difference; they float in the middle of the ocean.
These are specifically designed to be able to harness the energy of the winds flowing over the open surface of the seas and oceans.
A definite major advantage of floating wind farms is that the wind blowing over the oceans has a much greater speed than the wind blowing over the coastal regions and it blows over open space free from all kinds of obstructions and hindrances like buildings, trees, houses and other landscape features like hills, valleys etc.
Algae Fuel: It is a biofuel which is derived from microorganisms called algae.
Algae generate oil in much greater magnitudes as compared to oil producing crops, while using only a fraction of the land and resources used to produce oil from crops.
During the process of photosynthesis, algae use up carbon dioxide and sunlight thereby producing oxygen and biomass.
Algal fuel, when produced synthetically or industrially, does not use up a major natural resource; land.
On the other hand, it has a very high oil yield as compared to other oil producing crops.
Biological Hydrogen Production: Hydrogen gas due to its chemical composition contains a large amount of energy in comparison to other fuels.
Moreover, it is a clean source of energy because the only by-product that it releases during combustion is water.
When water is split using a high speed biological vector for example bacteria or algae, it causes release of hydrogen gas.
But using algae or bacteria, hydrogen gas can only be produced through the process of fermentation, which requires solar energy as an input, which is a limitless source of energy.
However, till date large scale production has not proven to be an easy task.
Developments are being made into the development of mass production.
Biogas Digestion: Breakdown of sewage or garbage results in the release of methane gas.
Harnessing this methane gas for use as energy is known as biogas digestion.
However the process is not as simple.
Natural breakdown of garbage and sewage takes a long time; but if carried out by using bacteria in order to breakdown biomass in an anaerobic environment; the same process becomes much more effective and can result in mass production of methane gas.
Biomass briquettes: Any plant matter when compressed to form small briquettes having almost 70% the calorific value of charcoal forms a good source of fuel.
It can effectively be used as an alternative to charcoal.