Renewable Energy Whitepaper

Welcome back to my blog. In my class called Fuel, we've been learning about, well, fuel. We watched the movie Pump, which is about America's addiction to oil. We've had people come to our school to talk about renewable energies, like solar and wind energy. We went on a video call with a woman who had solar panels installed in her home, and how solar energy works. We learned how to read energy bills, and we learned how much electricity in our homes cost and what the averages were.

Starting this project, we calculated how much carbon it takes to live our lives, and my current lifestyle reaches about 8.5 tonnes of carbon each year, which is equivalent to 541.8 passenger vehicles driven for one year or 21,092 miles driven by a passenger vehicle. 956 gallons of gasoline consumed by a passenger vehicle or 835 gallons of diesel consumed.

There are some things that I can do on my own to help with the reduction of greenhouse gases. For example, I can start by making sure all the lights in my home are turned off before I leave for school, it saves quite a lot of energy (not only energy but money, too). When you use less energy, you reduce the number of toxic fumes that are released from power plants, and that means fewer carbon emissions. Another thing I can do is use public transportation whenever I need to travel somewhere that isn’t too far. According to the European Environment Agency, rail travel accounts for 14 grams of CO2 emissions per passenger mile, and that holds a heck of a lot more people. If I traveled by car, it would be about 411 grams of CO2 per mile. Recycling! Recycling glass bottles, some plastics, aluminum foil, etc. Not only does recycling save energy, but it also reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which helps our environment by decreasing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

MyClimate is a big project that works on tackling climate change. The people who’re in the MyClimate community came up with an idea of making more efficient cooking stoves in Rwanda, to prevent deforestation and the extinction of Mountain Gorillas. The reduction of Co2 for this project is about 35,000 tonnes per year. Making more efficient stoves means using less firewood means less deforestation, more homes for animals, and less carbon being released into our atmosphere.

Millstream - 6.6kw solar system

As a collective action for reducing Co2 emissions, I propose an idea. You see, the average household uses about 7.5 tonnes of carbon a year. I live inside a three-story apartment building. There are 6 different apartment homes inside my apartment building, So multiplying 7.5 times 6, you get 45 tonnes. If each separate apartment home had a 6.6kw(kilowatt) solar system, it would save 10.6 tonnes of Co2 emissions a year. After 25 years, the solar system will save a total of 243 tonnes.

If a few hundred thousand people came together and started using renewable resources, saving energy, or other ways to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, I think that it would make such a difference in our world.

Sources:

Cowie. “Carbon Emissions: Why Are They Viewed as a Problem?” Everblue Training, 30 Dec. 2019, everbluetraining.com/whats-problem-carbon-emissions/.

“Is Solar Power Truly CO2 Free?” LG Solar, www.lgenergy.com.au/faq/buying-a-solar-system/is-solar-power-truly-co2-free.

Katwala, Amit. “Is Holidaying by Train Really That Much Better for the Environment?” WIRED, WIRED UK, 12 May 2019, www.wired.co.uk/article/trains-planes-emissions-co2-comparison.

“Myclimate.” Myclimate, www.myclimate.org/information/climate-protection-projects/.

“Top 10 Things You Can Do about Climate Change.” David Suzuki Foundation, didsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/top-10-ways-can-stop-climate-change/.