You must reply to at least two colleagues in a manner that extends the discussion. A simple “I agree/disagree” will not be accepted.

post 1.

The article I found was similar to the book and it also showed us myths and then the facts about renewable energy. It showed 21 different myths about renewable energy and I wont be able to talk about them all, seeing as that would take me forever to write, but I will mention a few. The 1st one was Offshore wind power isnt a viable renewable energy option. The fact is, for about 20 years it has existed and has become an important part of Europes energy. Europes total installed offshore wind capacity was about 2 gigawatts in 2009. To put that into perspective, that is about the size of a very large nuclear power plant. There are an additional 100 gigawatts of proposed or developing projects currently going on. Some of the United States best wind resources lie off the coasts too, so they are large population centers where the electricity is needed. Another myth is, Wind turbines are bad for the environment because they kill so many birds and bats. The fact is wind turbines kill a minimal amount of birds. A 2007 National Academy of Sciences report, estimated wind energy is responsible for less than 0.003% birth deaths. There is no evidence that bird casualties, caused by wind turbines result in measurable changes to bird populations in the United States. The last myth I found was, Offshore wind farms wont be able to withstand a hurricane. Turbines are designed to shut off when the winds get too high, usually about 50-60mph. They feather the blades, which means, to increase their angle of pitch by turning the blades to be parallel to the airflow. It is so they dont catch wind and apply breaks. Wind farms located in hurricane prone areas can be designed to withstand winds in upwards of 150 mph (67.056 m/sec) or a Category 4 hurricane. Overall, I thought this article was really interesting. There are so many myths out there about renewable energy. There were some on this list that I was wrong about, so if you get a chance, check out the article.

https://oceana.org/renewable-energy-myth-vs-fact-0

post 2.

As with anything, there are widely varying belief systems depending on who you speak to, and sustainable energy is no exception. Unfortunately a lot of the misconceptions come from the fact that people don’t recognize the difference between sustainable and renewable energy. For a lot of people, renewable energy and sustainable energy are foreign ideas, so there are many misconceptions surrounding them. A survey from Oklahoma State University found that there are four common “myths” held by the general public.

One of these myths is that “Expanding the emphasis on renewable energy is the route to energy independence of the United States”. Unfortunately the idea of energy independence for the United States is not truly possible. This article (https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/18/the-myth-of-u-s-energy-independence-has-gone-up-in-smoke/) does an excellent job of laying out why this is not truly possible. One important point that is referenced multiple times is that Trump “trumpeted that America’s new oil abundance cushions the disruption and boosts strategic stocks”. His reasoning being that the creation of more pipelines would protect the US from oil price shocks. Unfortunately, this is false. Oil is priced in a global market, which means the prices in the United States would move as the market moves, even if they are not importing at all. Over the past few years, Congress has made the decision to sell off approximately half of the US’s oil reserves to fund their priorities based on the thought that America is energy independent. This could result in a massive, temporary oil supply disruption, which is what these reserves were in place to help with. An important note is that it doesn’t matter as much how much oil we import/export, as it does how much fuel we are using. This is what keeps the United States so vulnerable to price changes in oil.

As it currently stands, renewable energy sources cannot replace the use of oil throughout the transportation sector. This poses the biggest issue because this is where the majority of our oil usage is currently. There is no good solution. Biofuel is extremely expensive, and wind and solar aren’t viable options. Until we can overcome these issues, renewable energy cannot takeover oil in the transportation sector, and the United States will not be independent.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/09/18/the-myth-of-u-s-energy-independence-has-gone-up-in-smoke/