Renewable Energy

Energy is one of the major inputs for the economic development of the country. Any sustainable energy source that comes from the natural environment is a renewable energy source. Renewable energy is inexhaustible and a clean alternative to fossil fuels. In this article, we will learn about the types and sources of renewable energy.

Table of Contents

What is Renewable Energy?

Renewable energy is energy that is produced from natural processes and continuously replenished. A few examples of renewable energy are sunlight, water, wind, tides, geothermal heat, and biomass. The energy that is provided by renewable energy resources is used in 5 important areas such as air and water cooling/heating, electricity generation, the rural sector, and transportation.

According to a report in 2016 by REN21, the global energy consumption by the use of renewable energy resources contributed to 19.2% in 2014 and 23.7% in 2015. Many countries have started to invest in these renewable energy resources as these resources will help in maintaining sustainable development. The amount of investment in 2015 was about 286 billion dollars and major sectors were biofuel, solar power, wind, and hydroelectricity.

The existence of renewable energy resources is spread over a wide geographical area in comparison to the conventional energy resources which are often concentrated in a limited number of countries like the oil and gas are mostly concentrated in the Middle East countries. The use of renewable energy resources in energy generation is resulting in less pollution and has a significant effect on economic benefits and energy security.

Examples of Renewable Energy

We can define renewable energy as those energies which can never be depleted. The importance of renewable energy is invaluable. These types of energy sources are different from fossil fuels, such as oil, coal, and natural gas. Some examples of renewable energy sources are:

  • Wind energy
  • Solar energy
  • Geothermal energy
  • Hydropower
  • Biomass energy

Sources of Renewable Energy

The sources could sustain for a longer period of time and can easily be renewed often. Sustainable sources are biomass, nuclear power, geothermal, wind energy, solar power, tidal power, and wave power.

Renewable energy

The sources of renewable energy are known to be less polluting and therefore the whole world is looking forward to new carbon emission norms, where carbon will play a major role in developing new factories and industries. They will be rated according to the carbon emission and the products that they are producing will be rated accordingly.

Types of Renewable Energy

  1. Solar Energy: The radiant light and heat energy from the sun is harnessed with the use of solar collectors. These solar collectors are of various types such as photovoltaics, concentrator photovoltaics, solar heating, (CSP) concentrated solar power, artificial photosynthesis, and solar architecture. This collected solar energy is then used to provide light, heat, and different other forms of electricity.
  2. Wind Energy: The energy we get from winds is known as wind energy. For this, windmills have been used for hundreds of years to pump out water from the ground. We use large tall wind turbines that allow winds to generate electricity. The natural airflow on the surface of the earth is used to run the wind turbines. The modern-day wind turbines range from about 600 Kilowatt to 5 Megawatts, for commercial purposes these are rated with an output power of 1.5 to 3 Megawatts. The most preferred locations for these wind turbines to be installed are the areas which and strong and have constant airflows on offshore and sites that are at high altitudes. The power generated from wind energy in 2015 met 4% of global energy consumption.
  3. Hydroelectricity: According to statistics, hydroelectricity generated around 16.6% of the global energy resources and constituted about 70% of all renewable electricity. This energy is another alternative source of energy that is generated by the construction of dams and reservoirs on the flowing water, the kinetic energy from the flowing water is used to run the turbines which generate electricity. Tidal power converts the energy of tides and Wave power which captures the energy from the surface of the ocean waves for power generation. These two forms of hydropower also have huge potential in electric power generation.
  4. Geothermal Energy: It is the energy that is generated from the thermal energy which is stored in the earth. The heat energy is captured from sources such as hot springs and volcanoes and this heat is directly used by industries for heating the water and other purposes.
  5. Biomass Energy: This type of energy is derived from biomass which is a type of biological material derived from living organisms and plant-derived materials which are called lignocellulosic biomass. Biomass can be directly used via combustion to produce heat and indirectly it can be used to convert to biofuels. Biomass can be converted to other usable forms of energy such as transportation fuels like ethanol, biodiesel, and methane gas.

Important Questions Asked From Renewable Energy

Q.1) What are the 7 types of renewable energy?

  • Solar energy
  • Wind energy
  • Hydroelectric energy
  • Biomass energy
  • Hydrogen and fuel cells
  • Geothermal power
  • Tidal energy

Q.2) What are the examples of renewable energy?

[Refer to Question Number 1]

Q.3) What is considered renewable energy?

Energy from a source that is not depleted when used, such as wind or solar power.

Q.4) Is renewable energy efficient?

Renewable energy is 100% efficient.

Q.5) What are the benefits of renewable energy?

There are various environmental and economic benefits of renewable energy. They do not produce any greenhouse gas and reduce some types of air pollution.

Q.6) What are the renewable sources of energy?

[Refer to Question Number 3]

Q.7) Why we should use renewable energy?

[Refer to Question Number 5]

Q.8) What is bad about renewable energy?

One disadvantage of renewable energy is that it is difficult to generate quantities of electricity that are as large as those produced by fossil fuel generators.

Q.9) What are the advantages and disadvantages of renewable energy?

[Refer to Question Number 5 and 8]

Q.10) Is renewable energy good?

[Refer to Question Number 5]

Q.11) Is renewable energy sustainable?

All renewable energy sources like solar, wind, geothermal, hydropower, wave and tidal power are forms of sustainable energy.

Q.12) What is the importance of renewable energy?

[Refer to Question Number 5]

Stay tuned with BYJU’S to learn more about various forms of energy along with interesting video lessons.

Also, Read:

Energy: The Property Of Objects Forms Of Energy
Non-Renewable Energy Natural Sources Of Energy

 

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