RENEWABLE ENERGIES

We explain what renewable energies are, the importance they have and the types there are. Its advantages and non-renewable energy.

Renewable energies are capable of recovering over time.

What are renewable energies?

When we talk about renewable energy o sustainable we refer to those that can be used sustainably over time without risk (or with a minimum risk) that they are exhausted or extinguished.

They usually refer to natural sources of energy capable of replenishing in time, so they are also known as alternative energies, or in some cases, as energy. as green or ecological energy, because they can imply lower environmental impacts than traditional energy sources.

In the contemporary world, humanity's demand for energy is extremely high, both for industrial, commercial, transportation or basic livelihood purposes for homes.

Since the Industrial Revolution, when this growing demand began, different methods have been used to satisfy it, usually at the expense of the environment: pollution, destructive mining, felling, burning, etc.

Renewable energies are in that sense safer, but generally less efficient and not always profitable, since they depend on the specific geography of the region. For example, wind energy requires large plains or windy coasts; the solar large areas of land under the sun; and hydroelectric large water falls.

So far the known renewable energies are:

Tidal energy, which takes advantage of the movement of the tides.
Solar energy, which will collect thermal and light radiation from the Sun.
The energy energy, which uses turbine fields with blades as mills to take advantage of the thrust of the wind.
The hydroelectric energy, which mobilizes turbines with the force of natural or artificial water falls.
Geothermal energy, which takes advantage of the high temperature of the earth's subsoil to evaporate water and generate electricity or heat.
Wave energy, which takes advantage of the force of the waves on the sea coast.
Biomass or biofuels, organic fuels developed from waste organic matter.

It can serve you: Conservation of the Environment.

Importance of renewable energy

Renewable energies are more environmentally safe than others.

In view of the complicated climate landscape that the 21st century faces, renewable energies become vitally important in reducing the emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that pollute water and the atmosphere, thus generating greater global warming.

Since energy consumption cannot be limited in a hypertechnological and industrialized world, its sources could at least be replaced as much as possible with more environmentally safe ones.

However, there is no method of obtaining energy that is 100% safe for the environment and has no impact on it.

On the other hand, the depletion of combustible resources (coal, oil, uranium) would in the long term be a global economic problem, which would justify wars and cause humanitarian catastrophes, since goods are limited and scarce in the face of an increasingly global population big.

Types of renewable energy

Renewable energies are classified into two types:

Pollutants Energy sources such as biomass, biofuels or organic fuels, are completely renewable but not therefore safer environmentally. In fact, the combustion process to which they are subjected generates gases as toxic and harmful to the atmosphere as traditional fossil fuels
Non-polluting Although its installation and operation generally has a minimum of ecological impact, whether in the transformation of natural spaces, lake dams, etc., there are other forms of renewable energy whose exploitation does not systematically damage the environment, such as solar, wind, geothermal or tidal power, since its base phenomena (sun, wind, terrestrial heat, tides) would continue to occur, harnessed by the human being or not.

Advantages of renewable energy

Renewable energies use resources that occur equally, take advantage or not.

The advantages of renewable energy are clear:

They do not depend on a raw material whose market can fluctuate and make acquisition more expensive.
They generally have less long-term environmental effect than traditional energy.
They take advantage of resources that occur equally, take advantage or not.
They allow low-income countries to obtain energy by taking advantage of their own geography instead of buying raw materials or, worse, electricity.

Non-renewable energy

On the contrary, there are numerous non-renewable energy sources that take advantage of mineral and organic resources whose formation took thousands of years, such as oil, coal No mineral or uranium. Despite being very powerful and effective, these methods have their days counted, since their raw material is not generated at a fast enough rate.

The non-renewable energies are: