FAT-WHYME

Renewable Energy

Renewable energy

Renewable sources of energy throughout the world at the end of 2006.

Renewable energy is energy generated from natural resources, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat – which are renewable (naturally replenished). In 2006, approximately 18% of global final energy consumption came from renewables, with 13% coming from traditional biomass like wood-burning.Hydroelectricity source was the next largest renewable energy, providing a 3% (15% generaiton global electricity generation), followed by solar hot water and heating, which contributed 1.3%. Modern technologies, such as geothermal energy, wind, solar and ocean energy together provided 0.8% of final energy consumption.

change concerns climate, with high oil prices, peak oil and increasing government support are driving legislation increasing renewable energy commercialization.European incentives and EU leaders agreed in principle in March 2007, 20 percent of their nations' energy should be produced from renewable fuels by 2020 as part of its campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, blamed in part for global warming. Investment capital in renewable energy rose from $ 80 billion in 2005 to a record $ 100 billion in 2006.

In response to the call of the G-8 IEA's "advice on how to achieve a clean energy future, clever and competitive", the IEA reported that the substitution of technology current renewable energy can help reduce CO2 emmisions by 50% in 2050, what they say is vital that policies are not sustainable.

Wind energy is growing at a rate of 30 percent annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of over 100 GW and is widely used in several European countries and the U.S.. Manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached more than 2,000 MW in 2006, and photovoltaic (PV) power plants are particularly popular in Germany. Solar thermal power stations operating in the U.S. and Spain, and the largest of which is the plant of 354 MW SEGS in Mojave Desert. World the largest geothermal power installation is the Gevsers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world which involves the production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane and ethanol now provides 18 percent of motor fuel in the country. Ethanol fuel is widely available in the U.S..

While there are many large-scale renewable energy projects and production, renewable technologies are also suitable small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the world's highest rate of households solar property with about 30,000 small (20 to 100 watts) solar power systems sold per year.

Part of renewable energy technologies are criticized for being intermittent or unsightly, but the market is growing for many forms of renewable energy.

Major energy technologies renewable

Three energy sources

Most renewable energy technologies are directly or indirectly powered by the sun. The earth-atmosphere is in equilibrium such that heat radiation into space is equal to incoming solar radiation, the resulting level of energy in the earth-atmosphere system more or less can be described as Earth's "climate." The hydrosphere (water) absorbs a fraction important of the incoming radiation. Most of the radiation is absorbed at low latitudes around Ecuador, but this energy is dissipated around the world as winds and ocean currents. Wave motion may play a role in the process of transferring mechanical energy between the atmosphere and ocean through wind stress. Solar energy is also responsible for the distribution of precipitation which is tapped by hydroelectric projects, and growth of plants used to create biofuels.

renewable energy flows involve natural phenomena such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, as the International Energy Agency explains:

"Renewable energy is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly. In its various forms, is derived directly from the sun or from heat generated deep within the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated by solar power wind, ocean energy, hydropower, biomass, geothermal, and biofuels and hydrogen from renewable resources. "

Each of these sources has unique characteristics that influence how and where they are used.

Wind Energy

Vestas V80 wind turbines

Air currents can be used to run wind turbines. Modern wind turbines range from around 600 kW to 5 MW nominal, although turbines with rated power of 1.5 to 3 MW have become the most common for commercial use, the power of a turbine is a function of hub wind speed, so the wind speed increases, power output increases dramatically. Areas where winds are stronger and more consistent, as sites at sea level and high, are the preferred locations for wind farms.

Since wind speed is not constant, the production of a wind farm's annual energy never more so than the sum of the generator rating plate, multiplied by the total hours in a year. The relationship between the actual productivity in a year to this theoretical maximum is called the capacity factor. Typical capacity factors are 20-40%, with values in the upper the range in particularly favorable sites. For example, a 1 MW turbine with a capacity factor of 35% did not produce 8,760 megawatt hours per year, but only 0.35x24x365 = 3,066 MWh, with an average of 0.35 MW. Online data is available for some locations and the capacity factor can be calculated from the annual production.

Globally, the long-term technical potential of wind energy is believed to be five times the current total global energy, or 40 times current demand electricity. This could require large amounts of land to be used for wind turbines, especially in areas of higher wind resources. Experience offshore wind resources means ~ 90% higher than the land, so offshore resources could contribute much more energy. This number could increase with the highest altitude of wind turbines on land or air.

Wind energy is renewable and produces no greenhouse gases during operation, such dioxdie carbon as methane.

Hydropower

Energy in the water (in the form of kinetic energy differences in temperature or salinity gradients) can be tapped and used. Since water is about 800 times denser than air, even a slow flow stream water, or moderate swell, can yield considerable amounts of energy.

One of the three Pelamis P 750-Ocean Wave Power engines in the port of Peniche, Portugal.

Not many forms of water energy:

· Energy Hydropower is a term generally reserved for large-scale hydroelectric dams. Examples are the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington State and the Akosombo Dam in Ghana.

· Multi of micro hydro is hydropower facilities that tend to produce up to 100 kW. Often used in water rich areas as Remote Area Power Supply (PAR). Many of these facilities around the world, including several delivering around 50 kW in the Solomon Islands.

· Damless hydro systems for energy kinetics of the rivers and oceans without using a dam.

• The ocean energy describes all the technologies for harnessing energy from the ocean and the sea:

current or power. As tidal power uses the kinetic energy of ocean currents

or conversion of ocean thermal energy (OTEC) uses the temperature difference between warm surface and cold ocean floor crevices. To that end, uses a cyclic heat engine. OTEC has not been tested on a large scale.

Tidal energy or capture energy from the tides. Two different principles for generating tidal energy are used at this time:

tidal movement in the vertical direction – Tides come in, raise water levels in the basin, and deployment of the tides. Around low tide, the water in the basin is discharged through a turbine, harnessing the potential stored energy.

tidal movement in the horizontal direction – or tidal current power. Using tidal power generators such as wind turbines wind, but then tidal current. Due to the high density of water, eight-hundred times the density of air, tidal currents can have a great amount of energy kinetics. Several commercial prototypes have been built, and more are in development.

· Power Wave uses the wave energy. Energy wave machines usually take the form of floating or neutrally floating structures moving relative to each other or to a fixed point. Wave power has arrived marketing.

· Energy saline osmotic gradient or energy is the energy recovered from the difference in salt concentration between seawater and river water. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is under research and testing.

· Cooling deep lake water, although not technically an energy generation method, can save a great amount of energy in summer. Use tubes immersed in a heat sink for climate control systems. The lake water is a year fund local constant of about 4 ° C.

The solar energy use

Monocrystalline solar cells

In this context, "energy solar "refers to energy obtained from sunlight. Solar energy can be applied in many ways, including:

• Generate electricity by heating trapped air which rotates turbines in a tower rising air.

• Generating electricity using satellites in geostationary orbit solar energy.

• Generating electricity with solar photovoltaic cells.

• Generate electricity using power concentrated solar.

• Generate hydrogen using photoelectrochemical cells.

• Heat and cool air through use of solar chimneys.

• Heat buildings, directly, through passive solar building design.

• Heat foodstuffs, through solar ovens.

• Heat water or air for domestic hot water and heating needs using solar panels.

• Solar air conditioning

Biofuels

Plants use photosynthesis to grow and produce biomass. Also known as creep, biomass can be used directly as fuel or to produce liquid biofuels. The produced agricultural biomass fuels such as biodiesel, ethanol and bagasse (often a byproduct of the cultivation of sugar cane) can be burned in combustion engines internal or boilers. Typically, biofuels are burned to release its stored chemical energy. Research on more efficient methods of converting biofuels and other fuels in fuel cells that use electricity is a very active workspace.

Liquid biofuels

Information on pump, California.

Liquid biofuel is usually a fuel alcohol as ethanol or bio-oil as biodiesel and straight vegetable oil. Biodiesel can be used in modern diesel vehicles with little or no engine modifications and can be from waste and virgin vegetable and animal oil and fats (lipids). Virgin vegetable oils can be used in modified diesel engines. In fact, the diesel engine was originally designed to run on vegetable oil instead of fossil fuels. A major advantage of biodiesel is lower emissions. The use of biodiesel reduces emissions of carbon monoxide and other hydrocarbons by 20 to 40%.

In some areas corn, corn stalks, sugar beets, sugar cane, and switchgrass grown specifically to produce ethanol (also known as grain alcohol), a liquid that can be used in internal combustion engines and batteries fuel. Ethanol is being eliminated in the current energy infrastructure. The E85 is a fuel blend of 85% ethanol and 15% of gasoline sold to consumers. Bioethanol is being developed as an alternative to bioethanol. There is growing international criticism of biofuels from food crops over issues as food security, environmental impacts (deforestation) and energy balance.

Solid Biomass

residue of sugar cane can be used as biofuel

Solid biomass is mostly commonly usually used directly as fuel, producing 10-20 MJ / kg of heat.

Its forms and sources include wood fuel, the biogenic solid waste urban, or the unused portion of field crops. Field crops can or can not be grown intentionally as an energy crop, and the rest of the plant product used as fuel. Most types of biomass contain energy. Even cow manure still contains two-thirds of the original energy consumed by cow. Energy harvesting via a bioreactor is a cost effective solution to waste disposal problems facing the producer of milk, and can produce enough biogas to run a farm.

With current technology, it is ideal for use as transportation fuel. Most vehicles Transport require energy sources with high power density, such as that provided by internal combustion engines. These engines generally require fuel clean, they are usually in liquid form, and to a lesser extent, compressed gaseous phase. Liquids are smaller because they have high energy density, and can be pumped, which makes handling easier. This is why most transportation fuels are liquids.

No transport applications can usually tolerate the low power density of external combustion engines that can run directly on the cheaper biomass fuel solid for combined heat and electricity. One type of biomass is wood that has been used for millennia in varying quantities, and more recently is finding increased usage. Two billion people currently cook every day, and heat their homes in the winter by burning biomass, which is a major contributor to global warming global climate change by man. The black soot that is being carried from Asia to polar ice caps is causing them to melt faster in the summer. In the 19 th century, steam engines were common wood, contributing significantly to pollution of the industrial revolution unhealthy air. Coal is a form of biomass that has been compressed over millennia to produce a renewable fuel and highly polluting fossil fuels.

The wood and wood products can now be converted through processes such as gasification into biofuels such as wood gas, biogas, methanol or ethanol, although development may be necessary for these methods affordable and practical. Of sugar cane waste, wheat straw, corn cobs and other plant matter can be, and are burned fairly success. Emissions from net carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by this process are only fossil fuels consumed to plant, fertilize, harvesting and transportation of biomass.

Processes to harvest biomass from short rotation poplar and willow trees and perennial grasses such as switchgrass, Phalaris, and miscanthus, require less frequent cultivation and less nitrogen than typical annual crops. Pelletizing miscanthus and burning to generate electricity is study and can be economically viable.

Biogas

Biogas can be produced from existing waste currents, such as paper production, sugar production, sewage, animal waste, etc. These various waste streams to be suspended in whole and allowed to ferment naturally occurring methane gas. This can be done by converting current sewage plants into biogas plants. When a plant biogas has been extracted all the methane it can, the remains are sometimes more appropriate as payment of the original biomass.

Alternatively, you can produce biogas through advanced waste treatment such as mechanical biological treatment. These systems recover the recyclable elements of household waste and process the biodegradable fraction of the anaerobic digesters.

Renewable natural gas is a biogas plant has been upgraded to a quality similar to natural gas. By improving the quality of natural gas, it is possible to distribute the gas to the mass market via gas grid.

Geothermal energy

Krafla Geothermal Station in northeast Iceland

Energy Geothermal energy is obtained using the heat from the earth itself, usually from kilometers deep in the crust of the Earth. It is expensive to build a power plant, but operating costs are low resulting in lower energy costs for suitable sites. Ultimately, this energy comes from heat in the center of the Earth. Iceland's government said: "It is noteworthy that the geothermal resource is not strictly renewable in the same direction as the water resource." It is estimated that energy Iceland's geothermal could provide 1,700 MW more than 100 years, compared with current production of 140 MW. radioactive elements in Earth's crust to form continuous decline, the replacement of the heat. The International Energy Agency classifies geothermal power as renewable.

Three types of central used to generate electric power from geothermal energy: dry steam, flash, and binary. Dry steam plants take steam from cracks in the ground and used to directly drive a turbine that spins a generator. Flash plants take hot water, usually at temperatures above 200 ° C, land, and allows 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, water heat flows through heat exchangers, boiling an organic fluid that spins the turbine. The condensed steam and other geothermal fluid the three types of plants are injected back into the hot rock to pick up more heat.

Geothermal energy from the Earth's core is more near the surface in some areas than others. When the hot vapor or groundwater can be tapped and brought to the surface can be used to generate electricity. These geothermal energy sources exist in certain geologically unstable parts of the world such as Chile, Iceland, New Zealand, USA, Philippines and Italy. The two areas most important for this in the United States are in the Yellowstone basin and in northern California. Iceland produced 170 MW geothermal power and heated 86% all households in 2000 through geothermal energy. Some 8,000 MW of operational capacity in total.

There is also the potential for Geothermal hot dry rocks. Holes at least 3 km deep are drilled into the earth. Some of these holes pump water into the ground, while other holes pump hot water. The heat source is hot rocks underground radiogenic granite, heated when there is enough sediment between the rock and the surface of the earth. Several companies in Australia are exploring this technology.

commercialization of renewable energy

Costs

Fuente 2001 cost energy costs energy potential in the future

Electricity

Wind 8.4 ¢ / kWh 10.3 ¢ / kWh

Solar photovoltaic 25-160 ¢ / kWh 25.5 ¢ / kWh

Solar thermal energy from 12 to 34 ¢ / kWh 4.20 ¢ / kWh

Large hydro 10.2 ¢ / 10.2 kWh ¢ / kWh

Small hydropower 12.2 ¢ / kWh 10.2 ¢ / kWh

Geothermal 10.2 ¢ / kWh 1.8 ¢ / kWh

Biomass 12.3 ¢ / kWh 4.10 ¢ / kWh

Coal (comparison) 4 ¢ / kWh

Heat

Geothermal heat from 0.5 to 5 ¢ / kWh 0.5 to 5 ¢ / kWh

Biomass – Heat 6.1 ¢ / kWh 1.5 ¢ / kWh

Low temperature solar heat 25.2 ¢ / kWh 2.10 ¢ / kWh

All costs are U.S. $ 2001 cents per kilowatt-hour.

New generation of solar thermal power plants

The Tower of 11 megawatts of power PS10 solar in Spain produces electricity from the sun using 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats.

Aerial view of the SEGS plants.

Since 2004 there has been a renewed interest in solar thermal plants and two plants were completed during 2006/2007: the 64 MW Nevada Solar One and 11 MW PS10 solar power tower in Spain. Three plants of 50 MW across Spain were under construction in late 2007 with 10 plants of 50 MW provided. In the United States, utilities in California and Florida have announced plans (or contracted) at least eight new projects totaling over 2,000 MW.

In developing countries, three World Bank projects for integrated CSP / combined-cycle power gas turbines in Egypt, Mexico and Morocco were approved during 2006/2007.

There are several solar thermal power plants in the Mojave Desert which supply power to the grid. Generation Solar Energy Systems (SEGS) is the name given to nine solar plants in the Mojave Desert, built in the 1980's. These plants have a combined capacity of 354 MW, making it the largest solar power installation in the world.

world's largest power plants PV

Several large photovoltaic power plants have been completed in Spain in 2008: PV Park Olmedilla de Alarcón (60 MW), Parque Solar Merida / Don Alvaro (30 MW) solar plant in Fuente Alamo (26 MW), photovoltaic plant Lucainena de las Torres (23.2 MW), photovoltaic Park Opening Solar (23.1 MW), Parque Solar Hoya de Los Vincent (23 MW) solar park Calveron (21 MW), and the Planta Solar de La Magascona (20 MW).

First 40 MW solar photovoltaic array installed JUWI Waldpolenz Group, Germany

Waldpolenz Solar Park, which will be the world's largest photovoltaic thin flim (PV) power system is being built in a former military air base east of Leipzig in Germany. The power plant will be a solar energy system 40 megawatts using thin film technology state of the art, and should be completed in late 2009. 550000 First-film solar modules Thin is used, which will provide 40,000 MWh of electricity per year.

Topaz Solar Farm is a project of 550 MW of solar photovoltaic energy be built northwest of California Valley in the U.S. at a cost of over $ 1 billion. Built in 9.5 square miles (25 km2) of farms, the project will use Thin-film PV panels designed and manufactured by OptiSolar in Hayward and Sacramento. The project would provide approximately 1,100 gigawatt hours (GWh) annually of renewable energy. The project is expected to start construction in 2010, will begin power delivery in 2011 and be fully operational by 2013.

High Plains Ranch is a proposed 250 MW solar photovoltaic power plants being built by Sun's energy in the Carrizo Plain, northwest of California Valley.

However, when it comes to renewable energy systems and photovoltaic power, not just large systems that matter. Building Integrated Photovoltaic or "in situ" PV systems have the advantage of being tailored to the needs of final energy consumption in terms of scale. So the energy is supplied close to where needed.

Environmental and social considerations

While most renewable energy sources do not produce direct pollution, materials, processes, and construction equipment used to create them may generate waste and pollution. Some systems renewable energy actually create environmental problems. For example, older wind turbines can be hazardous to flying birds.

Earth area required

Other environmental issues, particularly with biomass and biofuels, is the large amount of land required to harvest energy that could otherwise be used for other purposes or left as undeveloped land. However, it should be noted that these fuels can reduce the need for collection of non-renewable energy sources, like the great band-mined areas and slag mountains for coal, safety zones around nuclear plants, and hundreds square kilometers of strip-mined it for the oil sands. These responses, however, do not account for the extremely high biodiversity and endemism of land used for ethanol crops, particularly sugar cane.

In the U.S., crops for biofuels are the most land and water-intensive of renewable energy sources. In 2005, approximately 12% of the corn crop in the nation (which covers 11 million acres (45,000 km ²) of farmland) was used to produce four million gallons of ethanol equivalent to about 2% of annual gasoline consumption in the U.S.. For biofuels to make a contribution much higher than the energy economy, the industry will have to accelerate the development of new raw materials, agricultural practices and technologies that are efficient land and water. Already, the efficiency of biofuel production has increased considerably and there are new methods to boost biofuel production.

Hydroelectric dams

The main advantage of hydro systems is elimination of the cost of fuel. Other advantages are a longer life than fuel generation, low operating costs, and provision of sports facilities water. Operation of pumped storage plants improves the daily load factor of the generation system. In general, hydropower can be much less expensive than electricity from fossil fuels or nuclear energy, and areas with abundant hydroelectric power attract industry.

However, there are several major disadvantages of hydroelectric systems. These include displacement of people living in the reservoirs are planned, release of significant amounts of carbon dioxide and construction of the reservoir, disruption of aquatic ecosystems and the birds, the negative impacts on the river environment, potential risks of sabotage and terrorism, and in rare cases catastrophic failure of the dam wall.

Hydropower is more difficult to place in developed countries because most major sites within these countries are already being exploited or not available for other reasons, such as environmental considerations.

Wind farms

Wind power is one of the sources more environmentally friendly renewable energy

A wind farm, when installed on agricultural land, has one of the most low environmental impact of all energy sources:

• It occupies less land area per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated than any other energy conversion system, apart from rooftop solar energy, and is compatible with grazing and crops.

• It generates the energy used in its construction in just 3 months of operation, however, life is 20-25 years.

• emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution caused by its construction are very small and decreasing. There are no emissions or pollution caused by operation.

• To replace the energy of base-load coal, wind power produces a net decrease in emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution, and a net increase of biodiversity.

• Modern wind turbines are almost silent and rotate so slowly (in terms of revolutions per minute) are rarely a danger to birds.

Studies of birds and offshore wind farms in Europe have found that there are very few bird collisions. Several sites of offshore wind energy in Europe have been in areas heavily used by seabirds. Improvements in the design of wind turbines including a much slower rate of rotation of the blades and a base of the tower without problems rather than perchable lattice towers, have helped reduce bird mortality wind farms worldwide. Age, however small wind turbines can be hazardous to flying birds. Birds are severely impacted by fuel energy fossils, including birds that die from exposure to oil spills, habitat loss from acid rain and mountaintop removal of coal mining, and mercury poisoning.

Other issues

Sustainability

Sustainable renewable energy sources in general in the sense that it can "run" and in the sense that their environmental impacts and society in general are more benign than those of fossil fuels. However, biomass and geothermal energy require wise management if they are to sustainably use. For all other renewables, almost any realistic use is unlikely to approach the rate of replenishment by nature.

Transmission

If renewable generation and distribution would become widespread transmission, electric power and distribution systems power might not be the main distributors of electricity, but would serve to balance the needs of the local electricity communities. People with excess energy sold to areas in need of "recharge." That is, network operation requires a change management " passive '- where generators are connected and the system is operated to get electricity' downstream 'to the consumer – to' active management ', where the generators are spread across a network and inputs and outputs must be constantly monitored to ensure an appropriate balance within the system occurs. Some Governments and regulators are moving to address this, although much remains to be done. One possible solution is the increased use of asset management electricity transmission and distribution networks. This will require significant changes in the way that networks are made.

However, lower scale use of renewable energy produced on site reduces burdens on the systems of power distribution. Current systems, while rare Once economically efficient, have shown that an average household with a solar panel array and a properly sized energy storage system needs electricity external sources of only a few hours a week. By adjusting the supply of electricity to end-use needs, advocates of renewable energy and energy path believe soft power systems will become smaller and easier to manage, not the reverse.

Controversy on nuclear energy as a renewable energy source

In 1983, physicist Bernard Cohen proposed that uranium is really endless, so it could be considered a renewable source of energy. He claims that the fast breeder reactors, fueled by uranium extracted from seawater, could supply energy at least as long as the sun is expected remaining useful life of five million years. Nuclear power has also been referred to as "renewable" by politicians George W. Bush, Charlie Crist, and David Sainsbury.

Included under the "renewable energy" classification could make nuclear energy projects eligible for development assistance in various jurisdictions. However, has not been established that nuclear energy is inexhaustible, and such issues as peak uranium and depleted uranium are ongoing discussions. No legislative body has not included nuclear power regardless of the legal definition "Renewable energy" for the provision of development support. Similarly, legal and scientific definitions of renewable energies are often exclude nuclear power. Definition Source commonly renewable energy sources often omit or explicitly exclude nuclear energy sources fission examples.Nuclear not considered as renewable for the U.S. DOE on the website "What is energy?"

There are also concerns environmental nuclear energy, including the dangerous environmental hazards of nuclear waste and worry that the development of new facilities can not happen fast enough to reduce CO2 emissions, so that nuclear energy is neither efficient nor effective in reducing CO2 emissions.

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY:

Not many energy sources today are very limited in supply. Some these sources include oil, natural gas and coal. It is a matter of time before they run out.

Estimates are that only meet our energy demands for another fifty to seventy years. Thus, in an effort to find alternative forms of energy, the world has gone to the sources renewable energy as the solution. There are many advantages and disadvantages of this.

Renewable energy sources consist of solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and biomass. The most common advantage of each is that they are renewable and can not be exhausted. This is a clean energy because it does not pollute the air, and not contribute to global warming or greenhouse effect. Since its natural sources is the cost of operations is reduced and also require less maintenance on their plants. A problem common to all is that it is difficult to produce large quantities of electricity their counterpart the fossil fuels are able to do so. Since they are also new technologies, the cost of starting is very high.

Solar energy uses the sun's energy. It is advantageous because the systems can be fit existing buildings and does not affect land use. But since the area of the collectors is large, more materials are needed. Solar radiation is also controlled by the geography. And is limited to daylight hours and days not cloudy.

Wind power uses wind power to produce electricity. Despite that is the largest producer of work, depending on winds. Wind turbines are large and, although you can use the area under them for farming, many consider them an unattractive appearance. They are also very noisy to operate. In addition, threaten wild bird populations.

Hydropower uses water to produce energy. This is the most reliable of all sources of renewable energy. On the negative side, it affects ecology and causes of the problems downstream. The decomposition of the vegetation along the riverbed can cause the buildup of methane. Methane is a gas that contributes to global warming. Dams You can also alter the natural river flow and affect wildlife. Colder, oxygen poor water can be released into the river, killing fish. And the release water from the dam can cause flooding.

Geothermal energy uses steam from the land of the earth to generate energy. Use small areas of land power plants. Can operate 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The disadvantages are that it is site specific and, together with the heat Earth, you can bring toxic chemicals when obtaining the steam. Drilling geothermal reservoirs and finding them can be an expensive task.

Biomass electricity is produced through the energies of wood, agricultural residues and municipal. It helps you save on waste disposal, but transportation can be costly and ecological diversity of the land may be affected. In addition, the process has to be simpler.

Energy Ocean is a clean and abundant energy. It does, however, have high costs. Ocean thermal energy also requires about a difference of degree Fahrenheit year-round forty in water temperature. In addition, construction and pipe laying can damage the ecosystem.

There many advantages of using renewable energy sources. There are also some disadvantages. The fact is that energy demand will increase. Through research and development, as well as new technologies, the hope is that many of the disadvantages of renewable sources of energy can be eliminated and can successfully integrate our power supplies.

About the Author