Different Kinds of Renewable Energy

  • Solar energy which comes from the sun can be turned as electricity and heat. Solar panels on the roofs of houses, building and other establishment are use to store the solar energy. The sun's energy harnessed by the panels runs generators which provide electricity. There are stand-alone solar panels that you can put in your yard to save the sun's energy in a generator.
  • Geothermal energy is an energy that comes from the heat inside the earth. It's simple technology that involves boring a hole into the ground to take the heat from the earth's crust. The heat that comes off is used to heat water and make steam to power generators to make electricity.
  • Biomass energy is from the plant and trees. This energy alternative makes use of husks that come off rice after it is harvested and the waste from the corn. This "biomass" can be burned in a power station built for such a purpose. It emits less pollution than if the waste was left to rot, because it would produce a lot of methane.

Sources: Wood (most common source), plants, agricultural waste, industrial waste, even methane gas from community landfills.

Uses: fuel for transportation or to manufacture product that would otherwise use fossil fuels.

  • Water Energy - the natural evaporation/precipitation cycle makes water a renewable source of energy. The heat of the sun causes water in lakes and ocean to evaporate and form clouds. The water then falls back to earth as rain or snow, and goes to the rivers and streams that flow back to the ocean. Moving water can be used to power water wheels that drive mechanical processes. Water Wheels are useful for generating mechanical energy to grind grain or saw wood, but are not practical for generating electricity because it is bulky and slow. Water energy emits about 30 times less greenhouse gas than modern natural gas power plants and 60 times less than coal-fired plant, which makes it a clean source of energy.
  • Wind Energy is captured by wind turbines and used to generate electricity. The costs of wind energy are going down as mass manufacture of turbines becomes more accepted. It costs the same as setting up a new coal or nuclear power station. More importantly, external cost to health care and the effects of acid rain are 50times less than when using coal.

Renewable Energy - Benefits

The most obvious benefits of renewable energy are that it is far less polluting than conventional energy and will not run out. Renewable energy can also be produced more locally. This means that it can help local and national economies by using local resources and creating jobs. It will also help reduce the country’s dependence on overseas countries that may be politically unstable. This will help ensure supply and avoid price fluctuation.

Renewable energy is also much safer than nuclear energy which some people regard as ‘clean’. Accidents in nuclear plants can be catastrophic and there is the added problem of having to deal with nuclear waste.

One of the most important benefits of renewable energy is the fact that it’s non-polluting. And of course as the name tells us it is renewable and does not use resources that can never be replaced. Renewable energy has a much lower environmental impact than conventional sources of energy. But there are other advantages to using renewable sources of energy.

There are many benefits of renewable energy to the ordinary citizen and business owner. Homeowners will reap rewards from using renewable energy and energy-efficient appliances by saving money in the long run and reducing environmental impacts. It also renders us able to fuel our homes independently in many cases. Using renewable fuels makes us less dependent.

Benefits of Renewable Energy Source:

* Renewable energy sources offer clean alternative to fossil fuels.
* RE produces little or no pollution or greenhouse gases.
* RE will never run out