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

climate change concerns, coupled with high oil prices peak oil and increasing government support are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and leaders commercialization.European Union reached an agreement in principle in March 2007 that 20 percent of the energy of their nations should occur from renewable fuels by 2020, as part of its campaign to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, blamed in part for global warming. Investment capital flowing into renewable energy increased 80 billion dollars in 2005 to a record $ 100 billion in 2006.

In response to the G8 call on the IEA for "guidance on how to achieve a clean energy future, clever and competitive ", the IEA reported that the replacement of current technology to renewable energy could help reduce CO2 emmisions by 50% in 2050, what they say is crucial because current policies are not sustainable.

Energy Wind power is growing at a rate of 30 percent annually, with an installed capacity of over 100 GW and is widely used in several European countries and the United States. The manufacturing photovoltaic industry reached more than 2,000 MW in 2006, and photovoltaic (PV) power stations are especially popular in Germany. stations solar thermal operating in the U.S. and Spain, and the greatest of these is the power plant 354 MW SEGS in Mojave Desert. The world's largest facility Geothermal energy is the Gevsers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production fuel ethanol from sugar cane and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the U.S..

While there are many large-scale renewable energy projects and production, renewable technologies are also suitable for small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the highest global rate of solar homes property with about 30,000 small (20-100 watt) 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.

Main renewable energy technologies

Three energy sources

Most renewable energy technologies are directly or indirectly fed by the sun. The earth-atmosphere system 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 can almost be described as "Earth's climate." The hydrosphere (water) absorbs a significant fraction of the incoming radiation. Most of the radiation is absorbed at low latitudes close to Ecuador, but this energy is dissipated around the world in the form of winds and ocean currents. Movement wave can play a role in the process of transferring mechanical energy between the atmosphere and the 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 heat deep in the earth. Included in the definition is electricity and heat generated by solar, wind, ocean, hydropower, biomass, geothermal resources, and biofuels and hydrogen from renewable resources. "

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

Wind Energy

Vestas V80 wind turbines

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

Because wind speed is not constant, the output of a wind farm annual energy is never so much as the sum of the scores generator nameplate, multiplied by the total hours in a year. The relationship between productivity real in a year to this theoretical maximum is called the capacity factor. Typical factors are 20-40% capacity, with values in the upper end sites particularly favorable. For example, a 1 megawatt turbine with a capacity factor 35% will not produce 8760 megawatt hours a year, but only 3066 MWh = 0.35x24x365, 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 actual total world energy production, or 40 times the demand electrical current. This could require large amounts of land to be used for wind turbines, especially in the areas of greatest wind resource. Offshore experience resources mean wind speeds of ~ 90% higher than that of land, resources on the high seas could contribute to substantially more energy. This issue also could increase with increasing altitude, wind turbines on land or in the air.

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

Hydropower

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

One of three P-750 pelamis Energy engines of ocean waves in the port of Peniche, Portugal.

There are many forms of energy for water:

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

· The micro hydro systems are hydroelectric installations that typically produce up to 100 kW of power. They are often used in areas rich in water as a power source for remote areas (PAR). Many of these facilities around the world, including the delivery of several around 50 kW in the Islands Solomon.

· Damless hydro systems to obtain kinetic energy from rivers and oceans without using a dam.

· Ocean energy describes all the technologies for harnessing energy from the ocean and the sea:

Current marine or power. Like tidal current power, use the kinetic energy of ocean currents

or ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) uses the difference in temperature between the hot surface of the ocean and the colder lower recesses. To this end, it employs a cyclic heat engine. OTEC not has been field-tested on a large scale.

tidal energy or capture energy from the tides. There are two different principles of power generation the tides are used at this time:

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

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

· Power uses the energy wave of the waves. Wave energy machines usually take the form of structures floating or neutrally buoyant to move relative to each other or a fixed point. Wave power has come to the market.

· Power salt gradient, or osmotic power, recovered energy is the difference in the concentration of salt from seawater and river water. Reverse electrodialysis (RED) and pressure retarded osmosis (PRO) is under investigation and testing.

· Lake Deep water cooling, although technically is not a method of generating energy, can save a lot of energy in summer. It uses submerged pipes as a heat sink for climate control systems. The lake water is a year of fund local constant value of about 4 ° C.

Using solar energy

Monocrystalline solar cells

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

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

• Generating electricity in geostationary orbit using solar power satellites.

• Generating electricity with cells solar photovoltaic.

• Generate electricity using concentrated solar energy.

• 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 space heating needs using solar panels.

• Air Conditioning solar

Biofuels

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

Liquid biofuels

Information on pump, California.

Liquid biofuel is usually a bio-alcohol as fuel ethanol or bio-oil such as biodiesel and straight vegetable oil. Biodiesel can be used in modern diesel vehicles with little or no modification to the engine and can be made from waste and virgin vegetable oil and animal 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 of corn, corn stalks, sugar beet, sugarcane, and switchgrass grown specifically to produce ethanol (also known as alcohol grain) a liquid that can be used in internal combustion engines and fuel cells. Ethanol is being phased out in the energy infrastructure Current. 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 a mounting international criticism on biofuels from food crops on issues such as food safety, 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, the biogenic portion of municipal solid waste, or the unused portion of field crops. Cropping may or may not be deliberately cultivated as energy crops and the remaining plant byproduct used as fuel. Most types of biomass contain energy. Even cow manure still contains two-thirds of the original energy consumed by the cow. Energy harvesting via a bioreactor is a cost effective solution to waste disposal problems faced by the milk producer, and can produce enough biogas to run a farm.

With technology current is not ideal for use as transportation fuel. Most transportation vehicles require power sources with high power density, such as predicted by the internal combustion engine. These engines generally require clean burning fuels, which are usually in liquid form, and to a lesser extent, compressed gas phase. Liquids are more portable, because they have high energy density and can be pumped, which makes handling easier. This is why for most transportation fuels are liquids.

Do not transport applications can usually tolerate the low power density motors external combustion, which can be run directly on the combustion of less expensive solid biomass for combined heat and power. One type of biomass is wood, which has been used for thousands of years in various amounts, 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 an important contributor to the warming of global anthropogenic climate change. Soot black being carried from Asia to polar ice caps is causing them to melt faster in the summer. In the 19th century, the wood-fired steam engines were common, 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 non-renewable fuel and highly polluting fossil fuels.

The wood and its derivatives can now be converted through gasification process as in biofuels, such as wood gas, biogas, methanol or ethanol, although development may be necessary to make these methods affordable and practical. waste sugar cane, wheat straw, corn cobs and other plant matter can be and are, burned quite successfully. Net emissions of carbon dioxide that added to the atmosphere by this process are only from the fossil fuels consumed to plant, fertilize, harvest and transport of biomass.

Processes for biomass crop short rotation poplars and willows, and perennial grasses such as switchgrass, phalaris, and miscanthus, require less frequent cultivation and less nitrogen than from typical annual crops. Pelletizing miscanthus and burning to generate electricity is being studied and may be economically viable.

Biogas

Biogas can be produced easily from existing waste streams, such as paper production, sugar production, sewage, animal waste and so on. These various waste streams have to be dissolved together and allowed to ferment naturally occurring methane gas. This can be done conversion of existing wastewater plants in biogas plants. When a biogas plant has extracted all the methane it can, the remains are sometimes more suitable as payment of the original biomass.

Alternatively biogas can be produced via advanced waste treatment such as mechanical biological treatment. These systems recover the recyclable items of household waste and process the biodegradable fraction in anaerobic digesters.

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

Geothermal energy

Krafla geothermal Station in northeast Iceland

Geothermal energy is energy obtained using the heat from the earth itself, usually miles 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 derives from heat in the Earth's core. The government of Iceland states: "Note that the geothermal resource is not strictly renewable in the same sense as the hydro resource. "It is estimated that Iceland's geothermal energy could provide 1700 MW for over 100 years, compared with the current production of 140 MW. Radioactive elements in the crust of continuous decline, replacing the heat. The International Energy Agency classifies as renewable geothermal energy.

There are three types of power plants used to generate power from geothermal energy: dry steam, flash, and binary. Dry steam plants take steam cracks in the ground and use it to directly drive a turbine that spins a generator. Flash plants take hot water usually at temperatures above 200 ° C, land, and allow to boil as it rises to the surface then separates the steam phase in steam / water separators and then running the steam through a turbine. In binary plants, hot water flows through heat exchangers, boiling an organic fluid that spins the turbine. The condensed steam and remaining geothermal fluid from all three types of plants are injected back into the hot rock to pick up more heat.

Geothermal energy from the core of the Earth is closer to 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 United States, Philippines and Italy. The two most important areas for this in the United States are in the Yellowstone basin and in northern California. Iceland produced 170 MW geothermal power and heated 86% of all households in the year 2000 through geothermal energy. Some 8,000 MW of capacity is operational in total.

There is also the potential to generate geothermal hot dry rocks. Holes at least 3 km deep are drilled in the land. Some of these holes pump water into the ground, while other holes pump hot water out. The heat resource consists of hot underground rocks 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

Power costs 2001 energy potential cost of future energy

Electricity

Wind 8.4 ¢ / kWh 10.3 ¢ / kWh

Solar photovoltaic 25-160 ¢ / kWh 5.25 ¢ / kWh

Solar thermal 12-34 ¢ / kWh 4.20 ¢ / kWh

Large hydropower 2-10 ¢ / kWh 2.10 ¢ / kWh

Small hydropower 12.2 ¢ / kWh 2.10 ¢ / kWh

Geothermal 10.2 ¢ / kWh 1.8 ¢ / kWh

Biomass 3.12 ¢ / kWh 4.10 ¢ / kWh

Coal (comparison) 4 ¢ / kWh

Heat

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

Biomass - Heat 1-6 ¢ / kWh 1.5 ¢ / kWh

The low temperature solar heat 2.25 ¢ / kWh 2.10 ¢ / kWh

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

New generation of solar thermal power plants

The 11-megawatt PS10 tower solar energy in Spain produces electricity from the sun through 624 large movable mirrors called heliostats.

Aerial one of the SEGS plants.

Since 2004 there has been renewed interest in solar thermal power plants and two plants were completed during 2006/2007: the 64 MW Nevada Solar One and 11 MW PS10 in Spain. Three plants over 50 MW were under construction in Spain in late 2007 with 10 additional 50 MW plants planned. In States United 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 plants for gas turbine power in Egypt, Mexico and Morocco were approved during 2006/2007.

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

world's largest photovoltaic power plants

Several large photovoltaic power plants have been conducted in Spain in 2008: PV Park Olmedilla de Alarcon (60 MW), Solar Park Merida / Don Alvaro (30 MW), Planta solar Fuente Alamo (26 MW) photovoltaic plant Lucainena de las Torres (23.2 MW), Solar photovoltaic Park Opening (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 PV JUWI installed in Waldpolenz Array Group, Germany

Waldpolenz Solar Park, which will be the world's largest thin flim photovoltaic (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 technology using 40 megawatts thin film of the prior art, and should be completed in late 2009. 550,000 First Solar thin film modules is used, which will provide 40 000 MWh of electricity year.

Topaz Solar Farm is a proposed 550 MW solar photovoltaic power plant to be built northwest of the Valley of California in the U.S. to a cost more than $ 1 billion. Built on 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 begin construction in 2010, will begin power delivery in 2011 and be fully operational by 2013.

High Plains Ranch is a proposed 250 MW solar plant PV to be built by Sun's energy in the Carrizo Plain, northwest of California Valley.

However, when it comes renewable energy systems and photovoltaic power, it is not only large systems that matter. Building-integrated photovoltaic, or "in situ" PV systems have the advantage of being tailored to the needs of end-use energy in terms of scale. So the energy is supplied close to where needed.

Environmental and social considerations

While most renewable energy sources produce no direct pollution, the materials, industrial processes, and construction equipment used to create them may generate waste and pollution. Some renewable energy systems actually create environmental problems. For example, older wind turbines can be hazardous to birds in flight.

Land area required

Another environmental issues, particularly with biomass and biofuels, is the large amount of land needed for the harvest of energy which 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 harvesting non-renewable energy sources, as the great strip-mined areas and slag mountains for coal, safety zones around nuclear plants, and hundreds of square miles of strip-mined oil sands. These responses, however, do not account for the extremely high biodiversity and endemism of land used for ethanol crops, particularly sugarcane.

In the U.S., crops for biofuels are the most land and water-intensive renewable energy sources. In 2005 approximately 12% of the corn crop in the U.S. (covering 11 million acres (45,000 km ²) of farmland) was used to produce four million gallons of ethanol which is equivalent to about 2% of annual gasoline consumption in the U.S.. For biofuels to make a much greater contribution to the economy of energy, industry will have to accelerate the development of new raw materials, agricultural practices and technologies that are more 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 hydroelectric systems is the elimination of the cost of fuel. Other benefits include a longer life than the generation diesel, low operating costs and the provision of facilities for water sports. Operation of pumped-storage plants improves the daily load factor of the system generation. In general, hydropower can be much less expensive than electricity generated from fossil fuels or nuclear power, and areas with abundant hydroelectric power attract industry.

However, there are several disadvantages of hydroelectric systems. These include: dislocation 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, the potential risk of sabotage and terrorism, and in rare cases catastrophic failure dam wall.

Most hydroelectric power is now more difficult to place in developed countries due to important sites within these nations are already being exploited or may be unavailable for other reasons such as environmental considerations.

Wind farms

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

A wind farm, once installed agricultural land, has one of the lowest environmental impact of all energy sources:

• It occupies less land area kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity generated than any other energy conversion system of others, 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 pollution of air caused by its construction are very small and in decline. No emissions or pollution produced by its operation.

• In energy replacement base-load coal, wind power produces a net decrease of emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution, and a net increase of biodiversity.

• Wind turbines modern ones 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 birds marinas. 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 instead of lattice towers perchable, have helped reduce bird mortality in wind farms worldwide. However older smaller wind turbines may be hazardous to flying birds. Birds are severely impacted by fossil fuel energy, and includes birds that die from exposure to oil spills, habitat loss from rain acid and mountaintop removal coal mining, and mercury poisoning.

Other issues

Sustainability

Renewable and sustainable energy sources in general in the sense that it can "run out" and and in the sense that their environmental and social impacts are generally more benign than those of fossil fuels. But both biomass and geothermal energy require sound management if they are to sustainably use. For all other renewables, almost any realistic use, it is unlikely to approach his recovery pace by nature.

Transmission

If renewables and distributed generation were to become widespread, electricity transmission and distribution systems of electric power may no longer be the main distributors of electricity, but would serve to balance the electricity needs of local communities. People with excess energy sold to the areas needed "recharge." That is, network operation requires a shift from "passive management" - where generators are connected and the system is operated for electricity "Downstream" to the consumer - for "active management", where the generators are spread across a network and inputs and outputs need to undergo constantly monitored to ensure proper balancing occurs within the system. Some governments and regulators are moving to solve this problem, although much remains done. One possible solution is the increased use of active management of electricity transmission and distribution networks. This will require significant changes in the way networks in which they are made.

However, on a smaller scale, the use of renewable energy produced on site reduces the load on distribution systems electricity. Current systems, while rarely economically efficient, have shown that an average household with a solar panel array of suitable size and system energy storage electricity needs from external sources only a few hours a week. By matching the supply of electricity to end-use needs, Advocates of renewable energy and energy soft path believe that the electricity systems will become smaller and easier to handle, and not otherwise.

Controversy over nuclear energy as a renewable energy source

In 1983, physicist Bernard Cohen proposed that uranium is truly inexhaustible, so that could be considered a renewable source of energy. He claims that the fast breeder reactors, fueled of uranium extracted from seawater, could supply energy at least as long as the sun which is expected remaining useful life of five million years. Energy nuclear has also been referred to as "renewable" by politicians from 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 issues such as uranium and depleted uranium peak are ongoing discussions. No legislative body has yet included nuclear energy regardless of the legal definition of "renewable energy" for the provision of development support. Del Similarly, legal and scientific definitions of renewable energies usually exclude nuclear energy. Commonly definitions were derived from energy sources renewable often omitted or explicitly exclude nuclear energy sources examples.Nuclear fission is not considered as renewable for the U.S. Department of Energy on the website "What is Energy?"

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

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF RENEWABLE ENERGY:

There are many energy sources today are extremely limited supply. Some of these sources are oil, natural gas and coal. It is a matter of time before it is exhausted.

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

Renewable energy sources include solar energy, hydro, wind, geothermal, marine and biomass. The most common advantage is that they are each renewable and can not be depleted. This is a clean energy because it does not pollute the air, and do not contribute to global warming or greenhouse effect. Since natural sources are the cost of operations is reduced and also require less maintenance on their plants. A common disadvantage to all is that it is difficult to produce large amounts of electricity their counterparts in the fossil fuels are able to do so. Since they are also new technologies, the cost of initiating them is high.

Energy uses solar energy from the sun. It is advantageous because the systems can fit into existing buildings and does not affect land use. But since the collector area is larger, materials are required. Solar radiation is also controlled by geography. And is limited to daylight hours and days not cloudy.

The Wind power uses wind power to produce electricity. Although it is the largest producer of work depends on strong winds. Wind turbines are large and, although you can use the area under them for farming, many consider them unsightly. They are also very noisy to operate. In addition, endanger wild bird population.

Hydropower uses water to produce energy. This is the most reliable of all energy sources renewable. On the down side, it affects ecology and causes downstream problems. The decomposition of the vegetation along the riverbed can cause the accumulation methane. Methane is a gas that contributes to global warming. Dams 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 of water from the dam can cause flooding.

Geothermal energy uses steam from the soil of the earth to generate energy. Small areas of land uses that power plants. They can operate 24 hours a day, every day of year. The disadvantages are that it is very site specific and, along with the heat of the 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, waste agricultural and municipal. It helps save on landfill waste but transportation can be costly and ecological diversity of the land may be affected. Moreover, its process has to be simpler.

Ocean energy is a form of clean and abundant energy. It does, however, have high costs. energy ocean thermal also requires about a difference of one degree Fahrenheit in the fortieth year water temperature. In addition, construction and pipe laying may cause damage to the ecosystem.

There are 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 drawbacks renewable sources of energy can be eliminated and can successfully incorporate it into our power supplies.

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