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Renewable & Sustainable Energy (Solar Energy, Wind, Biomass, Hydrogen, Geothermal, Ocean & Hydropower)
Author: Ali
Renewable energy resources are naturally replenished in a relatively short period of time. They include biomass, hydropower, geothermal energy, wind energy, and solar energy. In 2005, about 6% of all energy consumed, and about 9% of total electricity production was from renewable energy sources. Alternative transportation fuels are fuels used for transportation other than gasoline or diesel. Some alternative transportation fuels, such as ethanol and biodiesel, are renewable while others, such as propane and natural gas, are non-renewable.
The United States currently relies heavily on coal, oil, and natural gas for its energy. Fossil fuels are nonrenewable, that is, they draw on finite resources that will eventually dwindle, becoming too expensive or too environmentally damaging to retrieve. In contrast, renewable energy resources—such as wind and solar energy—are constantly replenished and will never run out.
Solar
Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight, Solar energy technologies convert the sun’s light into usable electricity or heat. Solar energy systems can be divided into two major categories: photovoltaic and thermal. Photovoltaic cells produce electricity directly, while solar thermal systems produce heat for buildings, industrial processes or domestic hot water. Thermal systems can also generate electricity by operating heat engines or by producing steam to spin electric turbines. Solar energy systems have no fuel costs, so most of their cost comes from the original investment in the equipment. These are now also being used by many home and farm owners who simply build or buy their own very small solar panels and wind turbines which provide a constant supply of energy in their home or buildings. To try to make solar panels and use renewable energy yourself with lowest cost we recommend homemade energy.
Wind
The terms "wind energy" or "wind power" describe the process by which the wind is used to generate mechanical power or electricity. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity to power homes, businesses, schools, and the like. The sun's heat drives the winds, whose energy is captured with turbines. These are now also being used by many home and farm owners who simply build or buy their own very small windmills and turbines which provide a constant supply of energy in their home or buildings as well.
Biomass
Along with the rain and snow, sunlight causes plants to grow. The organic matter that makes up those plants is known as biomass. Biomass can be used to produce electricity, transportation fuels, or chemicals. The use of biomass for any of these purposes is called biomass energy.
Hydrogen
Hydrogen also can be found in many organic compounds, as well as water. It's the most abundant element on the Earth. But it doesn't occur naturally as a gas. It's always combined with other elements, such as with oxygen to make water. Once separated from another element, hydrogen can be burned as a fuel or converted into electricity.
Geothermal
Not all renewable energy resources come from the sun. Geothermal energy taps the Earth's internal heat for a variety of uses, including electric power production, and the heating and cooling of buildings. And the energy of the ocean's tides comes from the gravitational pull of the moon and the sun upon the Earth.
Ocean
The ocean can produce thermal energy from the sun's heat and mechanical energy from the tides and waves.
Hydropower
Flowing water creates energy that can be captured and turned into electricity. This is called hydroelectric power or hydropower. For more information on renewable energy use and benefits please read the other articles by the same author on Articlesbase, Ezinearticles or Goarticles etc..
Author
Ali Alsharafi
About the Author
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Here’s a good start, with links to articles about specific plants, and articles with more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deployment_of_solar_power_to_energy_grids
It’s starting to look brighter. The Europeans are on the ball with it. Even China and India are investing heavily into solar and wind. I imagine now that more people are aware of global climate change, more will come to fruition. Plus, with the economic recession, part of President Obama’s plan is to create lots of new green jobs that cannot be outsourced. It won’t happen overnight, but once we start, we won’t stop.
your thesis shoudl eb a question, perhaps you need to refine your topic and choose one or two resources as oppose to all but perhaps.
TOdays society is dependent on fossil fuels however if they continue on this path society will be in great peril, and is the reason why raoceity shoudl switch its dependency to renewable resources.
The Singapore Enviroment Institute.
Most sources of energy renewable or not are from solar energy. Biomass is solar energy captured via photosynthesis and stored chemically. Wind power is from temperature gradient in the atmosphere due to heating from the sun. Hydro is from the evaporation of sea water and the subsequent precipitation at higher elevations. Fossil fuels are the solar energy captured by photosynthesis millions of years ago and stored chemically. All of these indirect methods of harvesting solar energy are very inefficient, photosynthesis has a maximum theoretical efficiency of 6.6%, then take into account that only a small portion of a plant is used for first generation biofuels and you can see that it’s only a fraction of a fraction of 1% in efficiency. Contrast that to the current photovoltaic record of 42.8% efficiency
There are a few sources of “renewable” energy that aren’t from solar energy. Nuclear energy is from the decay of radioactive elements left over from the formation of the Earth. Geothermal is heat from the molten core leftover from the formation of the Earth or from the melting of the tectonic plates as they move against each other. Tidal is from the kinetic energy of Earth’s rotation and that of the moon’s orbit. But these tap energy reserves much smaller than that of the sun.
You’ll note that none of these energy sources are perpetual so “renewable” is a bit of a misnomer. But with the exception of fossil fuel, these are the sources of energy that tap energy reserves many times greater than can be conceivably consumed by us during a reasonable expectation for the life of our civilizations. At one time fossil fuels also appeared inexhaustible compared to our energy needs but then our energy needs increased.
If you look at how much energy is available, solar energy is available in quantities of up to 90 PW, that’s peta-watts, at Earth’s surface. Our entire global energy consumption peaks at 15 TW so solar energy is well in excess of our energy needs while indirect solar such as biomass, wind and hydro can in way theoretically meet our energy needs by themselves. Enough solar energy falls upon the Earth in 40 minutes to provide for the entire world’s energy needs for an entire year.
The distribution of solar energy power plants?
im doing a project for geography about the renewable resources. Mine is solar energy and one of the question was that i need to find the distribution of power plants of the assigned source (solar energy). I searched every , but i cant find any decent info. plz tell some good websites thx
Studies for renewable energy/photovoltalic solar etc. and energy efficency?
Is there a university in Singapore that offers classes for energy efficiency, environmental economics with special focus on solar energy and other renewable energy resources???
Thanks in advance for all the friendly answers!
BR,
Lars
need thesis for renewable energy resources vs. fossil fuels?
i’m beginning a very large research paper on the benefits of renewable energy resources (solar power, hydroelectricity, etc) over fossil fuels (oil, coal, natural gas) and i can’t think of a decent thesis statement to base a 12 page paper off of. the general idea is that renewable energy has far more benefits than fossil fuels and are far better for the health of nature not to mention humans. the argument of the paper will include many forms of RER and how we can adapt them/use them for daily tasks, counter argument is fossil fuels benefits, refutation is how bad fossil fuels are for the planet like pollution and global warming. any help on a thesis that will generally cover all of this is VERY appreciated. thank you!
What does the future look like for renewable energy resouces?
What could be the future for renewable energy resources like solar, wind, geo thermal etc.
Why we choose solar energy compared to other resources of renewable energy?
I need help for my summer project please (:
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