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What is Renewable Energy?
Renewables are made from natural resources on our planet, like wind, water, and sunlight. They are incredibly valuable energy sources, also known as “clean energy” as they do not pollute the environment.
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Renewables come from our planet’s unlimited sources of energy, like wind, sunlight, waves, and the earth’s internal heat. Here are 5 main sources of renewable energy and why they are so important to us.
5 Main Sources of Renewable Energy
Solar Energy
This is energy produced directly from sunlight through smart solar panels placed outside of buildings facing the sun. Solar can be used to heat up buildings, water, and be turned into electricity.
Wind Energy
The blades of large windmills are moved by the power of the wind. These blades spin a turbine inside a generator to produce electricity. There are over 341,000 wind turbines on the planet spread across 83 countries.
Hydroelectric Power
Water from dams and rivers can be used to spin powerful turbines and generate what we call hydroelectricity. Several provinces in Canada produce over 90% of their energy through hydropower and the country is one of the largest global consumers of this energy source along with China and Brazil.
Geothermal Energy
Huge pumps extract the heat and steam from below the Earth – mainly from volcanoes and geysers – and use these to heat up homes and buildings as well as to generate electricity. About 25% of the total electricity of Iceland is produced by geothermal energy, thanks to the country’s several hot springs.
Biomass Energy
This is the oldest source of renewable energy on the planet. With biomass, we refer to all organic matter that has stored energy through the process of photosynthesis. Think wood, crops, seaweed, and animal wastes. This energy is converted to electricity and heat. In the United States, the majority of biomass energy comes from wood.
Fun Facts About Renewable Energy
- In 2020, around 29% of the global energy came from renewable technologies.
- Some countries like Albania, Paraguay, and Iceland obtain all of their energy from renewable sources. Norway relies nearly 97% of its electricity from hydropower.
- Some renewable energy sources can have environmental impacts, but they are a less polluting and more environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.
- Solar is the most abundant energy source on Earth.
- An hour and a half of sunlight that reaches the planet’s surface can generate enough power to meet all of humanity’s energy consumption for an entire year.
- One wind turbine can produce enough electricity to light up almost 600 homes.
- Wind turbines are very complicated machines that can have as many as 8,000 different components.
Why Is Renewable Energy so Important?
Renewables are an essential source of energy for the future and one of the world’s most important allies in the race to stop global warming and reach net-zero emissions. They are much cleaner sources and have a very minimal environmental footprint than fossil fuels like coal and natural gas. Another good thing about renewables is that they are endless: while resources of coal and gas are finite, the wind will never stop blowing and the sun will never stop shining! This is amazing news, as we can rely on these energy sources for a very long time.
Check This Out Next: What is Nuclear Energy?