Getting To Know Renewable Energy

The Incredible Ways Renewable Energy Is Made

People use fuel in some form nearly every single day. When you’re out of gas for your car, you just go to the gas station and get more, right? While today that is true, one day there will be no more fossil fuels for people to use, so scientists everywhere have been hard at work to find other sources of energy to use. Renewable energy has emerged—and here’s everything you need to know to navigate a future powered by it!

What Is Renewable Energy?

There are two main types of energy sources in the world, generally speaking. The first includes fossil fuels such as gas, coal, oil, and peat. These formed over millions of years when sea creatures and plants rotted away, became fossilized, and then cooked by the pressure and heat of the earth to produce fossil fuels. Fossil fuels currently fuel 80 to 90 percent of the energy used by the world. The problem is that this fuel will eventually run out one day.

The other source of energy is renewable energy. This type of energy harnesses the energy created by the wind, the sun, the water, and by biomass—plants that are grown especially to produce energy. They are renewable because they are self renewing and will never run out. Currently, they only account for about 10 to 20 percent of the world’s energy supply, but that is sure to be changing soon.

Solar Power

The sun should blaze high in the sky for about another four to five billion years. Solar panels capture the heat and light from the sun, and then that energy is converted to the electricity used in homes and businesses. This is sometimes called photovoltaic power. It is a powerful energy source, but a little less reliable than others since the sun is not always shining brightly.

Wind Power

Wind turbines are popping up everywhere. No doubt you’ve probably spotted them as you’ve driven down the highway in recent years. They are currently dotting the landscape all over North America and Europe.

A wind turbine is a machine that uses a moving liquid or gas to convert the kinetic energy of the wind into usable power. Large rotating blades spin in the wind and turn a generator mounted behind the turbine. It takes several thousand wind turbines to create as much power as a fossil fuel power plant, but this energy doesn’t have the harmful effects on the environment or create greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

Hydroelectric Power

Hydroelectricity uses water to create power. The kinetic energy of a moving stream or river gets captured much like the kinetic energy in a wind turbine, except it’s through a water turbine. This type of energy dates back hundreds of years, since humans used milling machines in medieval times.

Biomass

Biofuels are a great example of a type of renewable energy that you may not have heard of. Biomass is relatively new in the renewable energy club. In this process, a crop is grown to make energy. Another way biomass creates energy is by burning animal waste to generate electricity, though this form of biomass does spark controversy since it’s being burned just as fossil fuels are. However, this process is much cleaner and more efficient.

Renewable energy is the future, so get to know it well and expect to see more of it very soon.