Alternative Energy Publications

The latest publications in the alternative energy sector. News and information resources about renewable energy technologies and developments.

The buzz-term "alternative energy" is all over the news but what exactly does alternative energy mean, why is there so much interest in the topic and what are the latest developments and technologies in alternative energy?

Due to the problem of global warming, scientists and researches along with politicians and green-energy activists are looking for alternative energy resources to replace fossil energy sources like oil and coal, which embody a huge potential to destroy the earth's atmosphere due to high carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming. Nuclear energy also is a fossil energy source that has unwanted side-effects. Humanity has yet not found a solution to the radioactive waste disposal, which threatens every lifeforms habitat on our planet. Alternative sources of usable energy usually come without the undesired and harmful consequences to the environment.

The problem with the definition of alternative energy sources

The term "alternative" presupposes a set of undesirable energy technologies against which "alternative energies" are opposed. As such, the list of energy technologies excluded is an indicator of what problems that the alternative technologies are intended to address. For example, there was a time when coal seemed to be a good alternative to wood. Of course this point of view does not serve the idea of clean/ green energy nor a cleaner future. Controversies regarding dominant forms of energy and their alternatives have a long history. Therefore there are plenty of different definitions of the term: Alternative energy stands for...

• ...energy fuelled in ways that do not use up natural resources or harm the environment.
• ...energy derived from sources that do not use up natural resources or harm the environment.
• ...energy derived from nontraditional sources (e.g., compressed natural gas, solar, hydroelectric, wind).
• ...energy that is not popularly used and is usually environmentally sound, such as solar or wind energy (as opposed to fossil fuels).

These definitions where taken from the Oxford Dictionary, Princeton WordNet, the "Responding to Climate Change" report from 2007 and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Energy sources commonly considered "alternative"

There are several energy sources that are widely considered "alternative" to fossil ones. Among that list there are Ethanol fuel and many renewable and natural (naturally replenished) resources such as sunlight (Solar Energy), wind (Wind Energy), rain and water ((Hydropower), tides (Hydroelectric Energy) and geothermal heat (Geothermal Energy). They all can be used to generate clean energy. That is why we feature the latest news and information about these kinds of alternative and renewable energy technologies in this section.