Sustainability? This word has been the topic of discussion upon many about the absolute meaning of the word and still in today’s society there is no specific meaning to the word. So the word is left for interpretation for us as humans to identify and adhere to. Sustainability is the way of life for many it goes onto identify with their cities and how to improve their over all way of life. How far can we survive living in our communities without making a change? Will we see to the end of our lives or will it end with the next generation, how long will we be able sustain our life? There are a multitude of ways to sustain our environment and alternative energy it the best way to make that change, but what ways are available to make that change.

What can we do to make a change? If we want to keep living in our society we have to make a change, in the way we live and what materials we use. Sustainable energy sources are regarded as including all renewable sources, such as biofuels, solar power, wind power, wave power, geothermal power and tidal power. An example of the way we can live our life is geothermal energy. Geothermal energy can operate twenty-four hours a day working continuously, day and night, making them base load power plants. Also it creates a nearly sustainable environment because of the fact that the heat extraction is small compared to the size of the heat reservoir, which may receive heat replenishment. Geothermal power plants are unaffected by the constant changing in our weather conditions. Geothermal power plants work continuously, day and night, making them base load power plants. From an economic view, geothermal energy is extremely price competitive in some areas and reduces reliance on fossil fuels and their inherent price unpredictability. It also offers a degree of scalability: a large geothermal plant can power entire cities while smaller power plants can supply more remote sites such as rural villages. If heat recovered by ground source heat pumps is included, the non-electric generating capacity of geothermal energy is estimated at more than 100 GW and is used commercially in over 70 countries including the United States. Another renewable energy source that has been used is solar energy. This source of energy has been used in multiple countries and also the fact that there are multiple solar energy plants located in California is the step in the right direction for our society. Also the one that I am most affiliated with is the Wind Turbines, W.T.E.C (wind turbine energy company) is an example of a company that is a premier manufacturer and supplier of Medium Voltage URD Power cables,  pad mount transformers and Junction boxes for Collection Systems, Pre-Packaged substations, Overhead Transmission lines and associated structures for the entire Wind Farm. WTEC manufactures Low Voltage power and Control Cables and electrical internals for Towers and Turbines, they employ highly skilled and Professional Engineers to assist customers throughout the design, construction and commissioning phases of a Wind Farm. The work that has to go into creating a wind farm is a lot but the reward in knowing that we had sustaining the earths resources.

All of this is hard work and it will take time to understand and convert our society to really use it. Alternative energy means a lot to me and specifically the wind farm aspect. I worked for two summers as an intern for the company (W.T.E.C) the business part but it was amazing to see how the converters that were built by General Electric and the amazing part was how these huge machines were and how they would travel over your head even though they were a least a ton. Now General Electric has created a machine that can take wind power electronics to the next level of performance. Wind turbines can now, remain online and feed reactive power to the electric grid right through major system disturbances. GE's innovative Low Voltage Ride-Thru (LVRT) feature enables wind turbines to meet transmission reliability standards similar to those demanded of thermal generators. LVRT adds significance to new resiliency to the wind farm operations at the time when more utilities require it. GE buys majority of their wires from WTEC and the sad part of the situation is a lot of GE’s and WTEC’s business remains outside of the country. While majority of the countries around the world are expanding their resources and looking for new and improved ways for their society to live, our community remains afraid, afraid of a change that we need to make. The government is trying by offering grants to those companies that do alternative energy but at the same time it just makes the government look as if they actually getting something done.

The knowledge of knowing how our day is going to go tomorrow is not ours, the knowledge if we will get a second chance at something is not ours. So why NOT try and change something that we have to control to make. Why are we going away from the steps that are needed to sustain our planets life. Alternative energy is one of the step we need to take to sustain our life on there. There are many different steps that are there to make a change but we have to start somewhere. These are two different corporations that offer to make a change in the world and offer us sustainable life. The one way that we can make a change is by being the change, as Peter Garrett said “I believe the divine is part of the world, not in a pantheistic way but by way of the movement of the Spirit.”