Renewable energy is basically energy that comes from natural resources like water, sunlight and wind. There are a lot of renewable energy solutions that can be found in the planet however; there is a growing concern if they are as efficient has energy that comes from oil. Let’s face it, the oil reserves of the planet is dwindling while the demand for it is increasing especially in fast growing countries such as China and India.
The most common renewable energy solution today is wind power. It is said to be growing the rate of about thirty percent per year. Wind power is becoming very popular in Europe, The United states of America and in some parts of Asia. Wind power is a type of energy that is basically the conversion of wind energy to more usable form energy. They are converted by wind turbine to make electricity, wind pumps for water pumping and wind mills for mechanical energy. Wind power is becoming more attractive as an alternative to traditional fossil fuels because there is an abundance of it, it can be distributed to a lot of places and it does not produce any type of greenhouse gasses. One big disadvantage of wind energy is that it is aesthetically beautiful and they are said to have other effects on the environment.
Solar Energy is also becoming increasing popular as a renewable energy solution because there is also an abundance of it. The available technology for the conversion of solar energy to usable energy is still at its infancy both it is fast becoming the most economical solution for environmental problems. To be able to convert sunlight into usable energy one needs to have some solar panels or photovoltaics. There are some solar power plants that are being installed in some cities but one major drawback from using solar energy is that solar panels are still very expensive but they are slowly becoming much cheaper due to some innovations and some discoveries.
Geothermal energy is not as popular as the first two because it is limited to areas that are near volcanoes or tectonic plates however; there are some recent technological advances that have been able to expand the range of geothermal energy.
In conclusion, there are a lot of solutions for us to be able to prevent total disaster from happening in the planet. The only thing that is basically hindering us from total independence from fossil fuels is that most of these solutions are still very expensive and they are not accessible to a great number of people but in the coming years, there will be a lot of technological innovations that will enable us from benefiting from renewable energy.