What Is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy is generally defined asenergy that comes from resources which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat….
Still in many countries, coal, oil/petroleum and natural gas are being predominantly used for energy. These resources, which are also called as fossil fuels, are not renewable. These resources are both limited by virtue of being depleted one day and also tend to be expensive in parallel with the shortening of reserves. With the increase in their production, the environment will be damaged further.
Hydrogen, just like water, is found in most of organic compounds. It is the most abundantly found element in our earth. But, it is not gaseous in its natural state. As it combines with oxygen in order to form water, it is always compound with other elements. When resolved from its other elements, hydrogen energy may be also used as a fuel or transformed into electric power. All renewable energy resources are not originated from the sun; included energy is extricated from for a variety of uses such as heating and cooling of buildings. Tidal energy of oceans is resulted from the gravitational attraction of the sun and moon. In fact, ocean power originates from lots of sources. In addition to tidal energy, there is ocean power which ocean waves are generating in concurrence with winds and tides. Since the sun is heating ocean surface more in comparison to ocean deeps, temperature difference occasionally occurs and this difference can be used as a source of energy. All these types of ocean energy may be also used in electric power generation.
| Yenilenebilir Enerji Kaynakları |
Kaynak veya Yakıtı |
| Solar Energy |
The Sun |
| Wind Energy |
Wind |
| Wave Energy |
Ocean and Seas |
| Biomass Energy |
Bioresearch Waste |
| Geothermal Energy |
Ground waters |
| Hydraulic Energy |
Rivers / Streams |
| Hydrogen Energy |
Water and Hydroxides |
Why Is Renewable Energy Important?
Renewable energies are important by virtue of the benefits they ensure. Their essential benefits are those:
Environmental Benefits
Renewable energy technologies affect the environment lesser than the fossil energy technologies; because, they do not include any contaminant. Depletion of its source is beside the point. It will always exist. Only, it is required to be paid attention, by reason of greenhouse effect and issues related to global warming.
It is an energy type which our grandchildren will also use in the future.
Whereas the other energy resources are finite and limited, renewable energies are never exhausted.
Business and Economy
Instead of high cost energy importations, most of the renewable energy investments are made in supplies and manpower required to build up plant and/or facility. Investments made for renewable energy remains in the related locality and constitute the source of energy for business and local economies. Renewable energy technologies have considerably advanced in time; thus, most countries producing energy are trying to close their trade gaps by selling their renewable energy sources and technologies.
Energy Security
In the early 1970s, following the difficulties in petroleum/oil procurement, some countries had made an attempt to reduce their dependency on foreign petroleum. But, some countries had sustained their foreign dependency by increasing it, instead of reducing. Both cases had become highly effective on the energy policies in countries.
Why Is Energy Efficiency Important?
Energy efficiency means using less energy to carry out the same work. Also, using energy more efficiently means that the homeowners, schools, government offices, business and industrial environments pay less money to energy resources. The surplus money paid may be spent for consumer needs, production and/or manufacturing, education and also other services. An economy having efficient energy can also develop without using excess energy. If it uses less energy, this economy will have produced fewer pollutants; because pollution and energy are closely interdependent. It has been reported that the rate of greenhouse gases emission resulted from energy use up to the year 1999 is higher 13% when compared to the level in 1990. Within that period, the increase in energy use has also realized in almost the same percent value. Energy efficiency in terms of your house or small-scale working place and also for other buildings means less energy use for heating, cooling and lightening of these buildings. As well, purchasing energy-saver devices, such as computers and other related equipments required for the building, increases energy efficiency. On the side of homeowners or job owners (i.e. employers), paying less for energy stands for earning money. Energy departments should offer a number of certain model implementations and the list of energy efficiency projects for homeowners with the aim of saving energy.
For automobiles and other vehicles, energy efficiency means enabling more advanced technologies used in auto manufacturing and providing support to the manufacturers in these matters. Here, the two examples for energy efficient vehicles: the use of fuel cells and the use of hybrid gas-electric engines. The consumers should be regularly provided with the opportunities for choosing more appropriate technologies along with the fuel economy guidelines and motor vehicle technology programs.
What is gained by the use of clean energy?
As a homeowner, by using renewable energy and energy-saver technologies at your home or in your automobile, you will have made a significant contribution to the protection of the environment and will save on and/or economize further in long term usages. As the owner of a small-scale business, by using renewable energy and energy-saver technologies, you will have reduced the amount of your electric bill and the environmental impact you will make. Moreover, there are also small business opportunities in the area of clean energy. If you are an electrical manufacturer, a wide range of renewable energy technologies is available for generating power. By this means, you and your customers will have gained from energy efficiency by your savings. As a small farmer or farm owner, you will have saved on the costs/money, by making use of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency. You can also benefit from the agricultural business opportunities in the area of renewable energy. Also as an inventor, various opportunities are available in terms of your uses related to renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency.
