Top 5 Renewable Energy Sources
19 May 2009 | Alternative Energy | No Comments
The main interest regarding to alternative energy comes from the undesirable effects of pollution both from burning fossil fuels and from radioactive waste by-products.Renewable energy sources are environmentaly friendly energy sources that capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water and geotermal heat flows.
Taking into account several aspects of costs and efficiency I have created a top of the main renewable energy sources:
1. Solar energy.
Solar energy is viewed as the clean and renewable source of energy for the future.The Sun will exist for a long time, but at any given place on the Earth’s surface the amount of sunlight recived is limited.And at night, or with overcast skies, or in high latitudes where winter days are short and for months there are may be no daylight at all, the sunlight recived is very limited at times.Most solar energy used today is harnessed as heat or electricity.Technologies that enable the use of solar energy may be grouped as below:
-Solar cells or photovoltaic cells;
-Solar heating systems;
-Solar design(is the use of architectural features to replace the use of grid electricity and fossil fuels with the use of solar energy and decrease the energy needed in a home or biulding with insulation and efficient lighting and appliances).
2.Wind energy.
Wind power is another alternative energy source that could be used without producting by-products that are harmful to nature, even if it is noisy.Like solar power, harnessing the wind is highly dependent upon weather and location.The best inland windfarm sites tend to be where air funnels through passes in the hills that are also commonly flyways for birds.The bird kills have caused the Aubudon Society to file law-suits in some areas to prevent wind energy installations.Wind can produce some electricity and can be a significand aid in the total demand, with electricity as the end product.
3.Water energy.
Hydroelectric power comes from the damming of rivers and utilizing the potential energy stored in the water.As the water stored behind a dam is released at high pressure, its kinetic energy is transferred onto turbine blades and esed to generate electricity.This system has enormous costs up front, but has relatively low maintenance costs and provides power quite cheap.
4.Geothermal energy.
Geothermal energy is an alternative energy source, altough it is not resourceful enough to replace nore than a minor amount of the fututre’s energy needs.Geothermal energy is obtained from the internal heat of the planet and can be used to generate steam to run a steam turbine.This in turn generates electricity, which is a very useful form of energy.Geothermal energy can be only a minor contributor to world energy supplies, and the end product is electricity, the limitations of which have already been described.
5.Biomass.
Biomass is organic non-fossil material.In other words biomass comprises the mass of all biological organisms, dead or alive, excluding biological mass that has been transformed by biological processes into substances such as coal and petroleum.
Tags: Free Energy, Renewable Energy