PV Gap

Mattie Said:

Can anyone give me all the examples of renewable energy resources?

We Answered:

Solar Cell - Makes energy from the sun's photons forcing electrons out of a cell's silicon core.

Solar Panel - Uses the sun's energy to heat water; the steam produced makes a turbine turn to generate electricity.

Wind Power - The power of the wind turns a turbine, which uses a generator to generate electricity.

Hydroelectric - The power of massive amounts of water being released in a place (usually a dam) creates huge amounts of electricity. Countries such as Norway are powered almost 100% by Hydroelectric power.

Geothermal - Pipes underground full of water are heated up by volcanic activity underneath the earth crust. The steam created again makes a turbine turn... and you know what happens after.

Biomass - burning specific sources such as wood or animal/human feces releases vast amounts of energy. - Note that burning feces releases methane, a greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming. Hence, identity as a renewable source of energy is debatable.

Tidal - The power of the waves generates electricity much like hydroelectric power.

Nuclear Power - Uranium atoms are split in a nuclear reactor in a reaction which is called nuclear fission. Countries such as France are powered almost entirely by this. It has no direct effect on the environment, however it produces large amounts of radioactive waste. Most people consider Nuclear power as being renewable, however it must be brought up that the supplies of Uranium and Plutonium will eventually run out.

All these sources of energy are renewable, as the source they come from will never finish. A lot of these also create hardly any waste and require few maintenance, hence they are plausible alternatives to the polluting manner of generating electricity mostly used today (namely coal powered power stations).

Eleanor Said:

The most viable method for using renewable energy resources to totally replace the dependence on fossil fuels?

We Answered:

Using Hydrogen

Alex Said:

Mitigate the climate change effects through using renewable energy resources?

We Answered:

A meteorologist colleague of mine told me 10 years ago that fossil fuel use contributes a few hundredths of a degree centigrade to global temperatures, it may reinforce natural warming or mitigate natural cooling by some fraction of a degree. Recent publications suggest that man's contribution to the 0.6C 20th century warming is 10 - 20%, that means 0.06C - 0.12C, so it looks to me that he was spot on.

BritWord is quite wrong about plant growth and CO2 concentration, it is the critical rate limiting factor in photosynthesis. Optimum is 1000ppm and at 200ppm photosynthesis stops all-together. At the present level of 380ppm, we are comfortably above the minimum, but plants are still stressed at this low level - I worked in a laboratory researching the biochemistry of photosynthesis.

Amber Said:

Positive and negative aspects to renewable and non-renewable Energy resources?

We Answered:

non-renewable energy sources such as coal and such is cheaper but it causes a greater amount of pollution and greenhouse gases. Renewable energy sources do not pollute anywhere near as much but they are, for the most part, more expensive. Both of these types of energy production have undesirable effects on certain types of wildlife, non-renewable energy resources more-so.

Hilda Said:

A few questions about Renewable Energy Resources?

We Answered:

Biomass energy
Geothermal energy
Hydrogen
Hydropower
Ocean energy
Solar energy
Wind energy