Alternative Energy Sources -The Panagora Blog

It is no longer news that the world is in ‘energy crisis’ and we need to reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy sources, and start generating renewable energy on a massive scale.
When you hear the term renewable energy, you may be surprised to also hear that there are many different types of renewable energy. In essence, renewable energy means energy that can renew itself indefinitely. Hence unlike non-renewable sources of energy, renewable energy sources will regenerate themselves indefinitely. For example, solar power is dependent on the sun and wind power is dependent on the wind.

Let us take a look at the various types of Renewable Energy Sources:

1) Wind Energy
2) Geothermal Energy
3) Hydro electrical Energy
4) Biomass energy
5) Wave Energy
6) Solar Power

As you can see, the types of renewable energy that be harnessed are quite diverse. Of these various renewable energy types; solar power, wind power and geothermal energy can be used individually to supply power for your home and small businesses. The emerging use of solar panels is a proof that renewable energy is here and needs to be made more available as the future of creating alternative means of Energy is here indeed.
Let’s take a look at some of the other sources of renewable energy.

Wind Energy: This is another good renewable source of energy. Due to plenty of wind farms installed worldwide, the energy needs of plenty of people are being satisfied. Basically, how this works is that the wind energy is used to rotate these huge blades which in turn rotate turbines located inside a generator. These turbines rotate and cause electricity to be produced. When many wind mills are situated at one place, which is called as a “wind farm”. The best place to place wind mills would be on at higher altitudes where there are winds with high speeds blowing. Wind is another clean, efficient and non-harmful renewable source of energy which helps in reducing the amount of pollution in the atmosphere.

Geothermal Energy: This is an important source of energy and comes from our very own earth. The core of our earth is very hot and gives out heat energy. There are some locations on the surface of the earth, such as “The Geysers” where this heat from the centre of the earth can be accessed. So this immense heat energy from the centre is then used to produce electricity.

Hydropower: These are normally set up along with dams and are located in big rivers, seas and other places where there is a good natural flow of water. Doing that helps immensely as the kinetic energy of water is very high and because water is almost 800 times denser than air, it has more potential to turn turbines and thus produce more electricity.

Biomass: Biomass is energy generated from plants. This is based on the idea that the plants use photosynthesis to convert solar energy into chemical energy to store it in them. This energy is liberated when the plants are burned which can then be implemented in an efficient manner to convert it into useful energy.

Wave Energy: Wave Energy also known as ocean wave power, is another type of ocean based renewable energy source that uses the power of the waves to generate electricity.

Solar Energy: Solar energy is of course the most widely used renewable source of energy in the whole world today. In fact, the photovoltaic cells technology is the fastest growing technology in the world.

Although not all of these technologies have been utilized to their full potential yet, it is expected that investment in alternative energy sources will continue to increase in the coming years. It is likely a combination of these technologies that will help lead us to a cleaner energy future.