Natural gas can be found in oil fields, dissolved or isolaed natural gas fields, and in coal beds. When methane rich gases are produced by the decay of non-fossil organic material, they are referred to as biogas. Biogas can be found in swamps, marshes, and landfills, sewage sludge and manure by using anaerobic digesters and enteric fermentation in cattle.

Natural gas is a major source of electricity generation thru the usage of gas turbines, and steam turbines. Particularly high efficiencies can be achieved through combining gas turbines with a steam turbin in combined cycle mod. Natural gas is about cleanest burning fossil fuel and produces roughly 35% less carbon dioxide then petroleum and about 45% less then coal. Fuel cell technology may eventually provide cleaner options for convertiing natural gas into electricity, but as it is not yet price-competitive.

Coal is a non-renewable energy source because it takes millions of years to create and we’re consuming more every year than whats being produced. The energy in coal comes from the energy stored by the plants and animals that lived millions and billions of years ago. Think back to some of the first life forms that were on the planet.

Roughly 93% of the coal used in the United States is for generating electricity. Except for a small amount of net exports, the rest of the coal is used, as a basic energy source in many industries, including steel, cement and paper industries. The four major uses of coal are:

• For electric power
• For industry
• For making steel
• For export

Coal makes up roughly 50% of the electricity that is produced in the United States. Besides electric utility companies, industries and businesses with their own power plants use caol to generate electricity. Power plants burn the coal ot make steam, the steam in return turns turbines, which generate the electricty for consumers.

When coal is burned it gives off carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas that is linked with global warming and many respiatory and health related issues. During the coal burning another gas hat given off is nitrogen oxidie and mercury. Combining the two in the atmosphere produces acid rain, and smog.

The fossil fuels are burned to release their chemical energy that they store. Fossil fuels are currently composing close to 85% of the energy consumption in the world today.

When fossil fuel is burned the byproduct is a dangerous and some times deadly mix of posionous air. The small particles that can exisit in the air for inefinate periods of time, most the time for several weeks can travel for miles. The particles are sometimes smaller then ten microns in diamter reach deep within the lungs. When particles become smaller then 10 microns they are able to enter the blood stream, irritating he lungs and carry with them toxic substances such as heavy metals and poluutants.

The methane gas from these ice deposits is similar to the methane produced when garbage decomposes. Capturing the gas, and filtering it thru a pipeline to production facilites is a difficult task due to the extreme depths of the gas, and the pressure at the bottom of the ocean floors.

The government of Iceland states: “It should be stressed that the geothermal resource is not strictly renewable in the same sense as the hydro resource.” It estimates that Iceland’s geothermal energy could provide 1700 MW for over 100 years, compared to the current production of 140 MW. The International Energy Agency classifies geothermal power as renewable.

Three types of power plants are used to generate power from geothermal energy: dry steam, flash, and binary. Dry steam plants take steam out of fractures in the ground and use it to directly drive a turbine that spins a generator. Flash plants take hot water, usually at temperatures over 200 °C, out of the ground, and allows it to boil as it rises to the surface then separates the steam phase in steam/water separators and then runs the steam through a turbine.

In binary plants, the hot water flows through heat exchangers, boiling an organic fluid that spins the turbine. The condensed steam and remaining geothermal fluid from all three types of plants are injected back into the hot rock to pick up more heat. The geothermal energy from the core of the Earth is closer to the surface in some areas than in others. Where hot underground steam or water can be tapped and brought to the surface it may be used to generate electricity. Such geothermal power sources exist in certain geologically unstable parts of the world such as Iceland, New Zealand, United States, the Philippines and Italy.

The two most prominent areas for this in the United States are in the Yellowstone basin and in northern California. Iceland produced 170 MW geothermal power and heated 86% of all houses in the year 2000 through geothermal energy. Some 8000 MW of capacity is operational in total. There is also the potential to generate geothermal energy from hot dry rocks. Holes at least 3 km deep are drilled into the earth. Some of these holes pump water into the earth, while other holes pump hot water out. The heat resource consists of hot underground radiogenic granite rocks, which heat up when there is enough sediment between the rock and the earths surface. Several companies in Australia are exploring this technology.