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You hear more and more about alternative energies these days a lot of people have different ideas about just what it is. I wrote this article to try to clear things up.

One way to approach a definition of alternative energy is to consider what “regular” energy is. Ever since the mid 19th century, fossil fuels such as coal and oil have provided an increasing proportion of our energy needs. Fossil fuels have become the energy standard against which other forms of energy are considered alternative.

This wasn’t always the case. In the not too distant past, sailing ships and animals powered transportation.

Dutch windmills are an icon of the country. Windows are also closely associated wit old ranches of the American West.

Many people are surprised to learn that producing solar hot water heating systems was a commercially profitable business in the latter part of the 19th century and early 20th century.

I think you can see that our dependence on fossil fuels is relatively recent. Rather than something completely new, using alternative energies is a return to an older practice.

Having said all that, let me give you my current definition of alternative energy: energy that comes from a source other than fossil fuels

Although some people use the phrase alternative energy and renewable energy interchangeably that really isn’t the case. Well many even most forms of alternative energy are, in fact, renewable some aren’t.

However most sources of alternative energy are renewable as well as better for the environment than fossil fuel. That is why there is such interest in these types of energy these days.

Although most people think about solar panels and windmills when they think about alternative energy, the field is really much broader than that. it’s very exciting to see all the research being done in areas such as biomass, tidal power, geothermal, solar chimneys and so forth.

My expectation is that in the not-too-distant future the tables will turn: what we consider “alternative” today will be the standard tomorrow. Burning fossil fuels will be oddball alternative.

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