Renewable energy is one of the primary sources nowadays. There are several possible sources including geothermal, solar, wind, hydroelectricity and biomass. Biomass has the biggest contribution with 50%, followed by hydroelectricity at 26% and wind power at 18%. Geothermal energy is generated by harnessing the Earth's natural heat.
In 2015, renewable energy accounted 10% total energy consumption. It is also represented as 13% of total electricity generation. Half of the developed nations uses renewable sources as a production house for generating electricity.
Measuring the efficiency of renewable energy sources
Geothermal Energy : It is the heat from the Earth. It's clean and sustainable. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma.
- Our planet contains 1031 Joules of heat energy.
- This energy flows at a conduction rate of 44.2 terawatts.
- According to 2016 annual report, the global geothermal energy is expected to reach 18.4 GW by 2021
Wind Energy : It is the most efficient renewable sources of energy. It is estimated that by 2050 the wind energy could make up 35% of total energy consumption and can helpful to 25-30% of people to generate electricity across home and industries.
Offshore wind energy is 90% more expensive than fossil fuel generator and 50% more expensive than nuclear energy. The power of wind is measured by wind power density classes.
A small-sized wind machine has rotors between 8-25 feet in diameter and 30 feet upwards that can supply the power needs of all electric home or small business.A large machine can produced sufficient electricity to power of around 1400 homes approx. It is a 20 stories tall, and blades are length of like a football field (120 yards)
Solar Energy : It is a basic unlimited sources of energy which we can generate via sunlight, as either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly via concentrated solar energy. It's stated that by 2050, solar thermal energy and photovoltaics (PV) systems will take 25% of energy market. The rising demand of renewable sources especially of Solar power will replace traditional method of electricity consumption. Solar Panels are highly used nowadays to generate electricity which comes at very low costs.
Hydo-electricity Power : It is an energy that use to receive by rotating water at high speed through turbines or large scale generators. It is usually made with dams that block a river to make a reservoir or collect water that is pumped there. It has low operational and maintenance costs but high investment costs. It is going to get 7% of total energy production.
Conclusion
Renewable energy is now an requirement for every industry for large scale production at a low cost. We can find out which one of these renewable energy sources is the most efficient by calculating the costs of the fuel, the production, and the environmental damages. Until mid 1800 woods are the primary sources of energy for cooking, heating, light etc. From late 1800's coal, petroleum takes places to generate electricity. Due to scarcity of fossil fuels, renewable energy sources takes place which play important role in reducing greenhouse gas emission.
