There’s a lot more news about alternative energies recently. Different people have different ideas about just what it is. They also have different ideas about how long alternative energy has been around. I wrote this article to give my perspective on

One way to look at it is to consider alternative energy an alternative to “standard” energy. Since the mid-1800s standard energy has pretty much meant fossil fuels – coal, oil and natural gas.

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

I’m sure you seen a picture of a ranch house in the American West with the windmill next to the homestead. They originally were used to pump water. Later they were actually used to generate a small amount of electric power (say, enough to power of crystal radio) in the days before rural electrification

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.

So for now we’ll consider alternative energy to be any source of energy that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels to create it.

We should make a distinction between alternative energy and renewable energy. People tend to assume that they’re one and the same but they aren’t. Some non-fossil fuel energy sources can be depleted.

Concern for the environment has made people aware of the impact of burning fossil fuels. While price fluctuations and occasional interruptions and supplies makes it clear that we are also running out a fossil fuel. Factors such as these have led to the increased interest in returning to alternative energy sources.

The alternative sources people most commonly think of are solar power, wind power and hydropower. However, researchers are eagerly exploring other innovative sources as well. These include things such geothermal, biomass and tidal power.

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.