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Renewable Energy: A Hot Environmental Topic
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past ten years or so, you have no-doubt heard about renewable
energy. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the concept of solar, wind, water and geothermal power should. At no other
time in our history has the concept of renewable energy been more important. Today, we are living in a society that
is desperate for healthy and economical alternatives to coal and foreign oil.
Renewable energy has been around for centuries. Wood was responsible for supplying up to 90% of the energy we now
rely on foreign oil for. Renewable fuels have been in the news lately, as fossil fuels that were once cheap to use,
have soared out of control.
Yet still, there is opposition. While most people agree that renewable energy is good for the environment, the
reality is that it is not good for big business, namely the oil companies. So, what can you do about it? Why not
try and start small, in the corner of your world? If everyone started at home, making small changes, change would
be inevitable. Let’s look at just some of the self-sustaining types of renewable energy that has been or is being
developed today.
Solar Electricity
When it comes to renewable energy, there is nothing more useful or more available than the sun. If you think about
it, the sun is available from sunrise to sunset everyday (with the exception of an eclipse) and produces an
unimaginable amount of energy each and every day. What solar collectors do is change the sun’s energy from
radiation to useable forms of energy such as heat or electricity. Solar cells in particular, are used to convert
the sun’s energy into electricity. If you have ever owned a solar calculator you will know what it is. Nowadays,
when technology is so far advanced, solar cells have been taken to a new level. There are recreational vehicles,
cell phones and even cars.
Solar Heat
How do you get heat from light? Solar heating systems rely on bright light, a surface or liquid that can absorb the
light and a storage device for the resulting heat. A greenhouse is a good example of this technique. As the topic
of renewable energy heats up, new inventions for utilizing solar heat are always coming to the forefront. Solar
heat is the cheapest and by far the most practical forms of renewable energy in the world. Just some of the
practical uses are water heaters, ovens and cookers, and home heating.
Wind Energy
Wind energy has been used for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Wind used to be the only way a ship could get
across an ocean. Likewise, it was the first method of pumping water and grains before modern technology. Today,
wind energy is being used as a clean source of electricity around the world. Wind farms, as they are often called,
can provide enough electricity for thousands of homes at a time. If you are unfamiliar with how they work, the
simplicity of it might make you wonder why it has taken so long for us to utilize it. In order for a wind turbine
to create electricity, the shaft of the turbine is connected to an electrical generator and the gearbox inside that
generator converts the energy of the spinning turbine shaft into electricity.
Water Power
Water power has been used for hundreds of years. The earliest machines were waterwheels, which back then, provided
power for grain mills and lumber cutting. Hydroelectricity, as it is called on a larger scale, produces over 60% of
the electricity in Canada today. That is impressive. Unfortunately, in the United States we have come nowhere close
to the 60% mark; we are still getting our feet wet on a larger scale.
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