Renewable Energy

Renewable energy has turned into one of those buzzwords that gets thrown around constantly. Yes, it seems to be on everyone’s mind and it seems to hold a lot of promise for the future of energy, but nailing down the details of what it is and if it can actually work is really what is still up in the air.

What we traditionally know as sources of energy is usable only once. Coal is burned, nuclear material is spent and leaves an incredible amount of waste and oil disappears into the air in the form of exhaust. Not only are these sources of energy easily spent and then are gone forever, the methods by which we get them are often expensive in terms of manpower, capital spent and energy used. Oil must be drilled after all, and as Deepwater Horizon demonstrated, it can often be disastrous.

Worse yet, we only have a limited supply of coal, oil, natural gas and other sources of traditional energy. At some point the earth will simply be tapped out and it begs the question of what will humanity do once it’s all gone.

Renewable energy on the other hand is a source of energy that can constantly be replenished. It never runs out and is also associated with low impact methods of gathering the energy. These include very popularly known energy sources such as solar and wind power as well as more recent advances such as biofuel and geothermal energy as well.

What makes these sources of energy renewable is that they are constantly available. As long as there is an earth, there will be wind; as long as there’s a sun, there’s a chance to extract energy from it; and as long as the earth continues to have a molten core, there will be a source of geothermal energy. Biofuel on the other hand, takes advantage of fuel produced from plants. Though it might be said that there is a limit to how many plants there are in the world, plants can be continually grown.

These sources are also popular because they have very little environmental impact. Though it isn’t required for a renewable energy source to environmentally friendly, it’s a positive benefit that much of what is renewable is also low impact on the ecosystem and often harnesses its natural functions.

Though, these are exciting resources that could very well transform the landscape of the world, much of the technology needed to harness these energy sources to the level of current energy demands is still being developed.