What is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy is a major buzzword in the world today. It's the future of power, but what does that mean?
Renewable energy means that you can use the sun's rays to charge your phone and other devices. It also means that you can harness water to make electricity, and it even means that you can generate power from wind turbines.
Renewable energy is a great investment for your home. It can help you save money on your monthly bills, and it also helps the planet by reducing carbon emissions.
It is a type of energy that can be replenished, this includes solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectricity, and these sources do not pollute the environment and are considered "sustainable."
So how do we create renewable energy?
Solar energy is the conversion of sunlight into electricity through panels. It is also known as photovoltaic (PV) power or solar electricity. Solar panels are made up of semiconductors that absorb light energy from the sun and convert it into electrical current.
Some PV systems use large-scale solar thermal installations which concentrate sunlight onto pipes containing a fluid that generates steam to drive turbines that generate electricity.
Wind power is the conversion of wind's kinetic energy into electrical power by using turbines. The wind turns blades on a rotating axis which turns magnets inside a generator to produce electricity.
Wind turbines can be used to generate electricity in remote locations where there is no access to an electricity grid or other conventional sources of power generation like fossil fuels or nuclear power plants. You will usually find them in the desert, out at sea, or in valleys.
Hydroelectric dams use falling water from rivers to turn turbines that generate electricity for homes nearby or even across the entire country. These can be found all over the world already most famously the Hoover Dam which can power up to 1.3 million homes each year over three states!
Geothermal systems draw heat from deep within the Earth's crust through pipes called wells. These are drilled into bedrock formations filled with hot water or steam that has been tapped by drilling operations usually at temperatures above 300 degrees Fahrenheit (150 Celsius). The heat is then extracted using technology similar to conventional oil.
All of these processes are effective and used today in the way we create and store new sustainable energy.
They won't harm or drain the planet of essential materials as we are using resources that are provided without technology by the planet and nature.
Moving Forward
Continuing to generate energy that produces no greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels and reduces some types of air pollution is the only way to move into sustainable energy.
Diversifying our energy supply and reducing dependence on imported fuels and even making the smallest changes in our daily lives make massive changes.
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