Why is Renewable Energy Important?

Historically, both households and businesses have largely used fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas to generate power, usually in form of electricity and heat. We all rely on this energy to keep the lights on, warm our homes as well as to power many other processes.

So why can’t we carry on as we have been doing and dig the fuel out of the ground?

There are 2 main reasons why we have to look to renewable energy sources. These are:

Efficient use of Natural Resources

Ultimately, there is only a limited amount of fossil fuels available and at some point it will run out, so we will have to use an alternative at some point anyway. During the latter part of the 20th century, Western Economies have had access to the majority of those resources available. However, Asia is now catching up. They quite reasonably want the same standard of living that we in the West have. Therefore, the demand for these resources is increasing significantly beyond the increase in supply. It therefore, stands to reason that there could well be future significant increases in our energy costs as a result of the economic laws of supply and demand. There is also the small matter that, many of those populous countries have large budget surpluses. In the West, we have large budget deficits. Those available resources will go to the highest bidder.

Global Warming

We are all being told that human activities are causing changes to the climate and environment. These activities are our everyday use of energy. Coal has to be burnt at the power station to generate electricity, so that we can turn on the lights. That process of burning coal releases carbon into the atmosphere which was previously locked away in the ground. Carbon Dioxide is proven to be a gas that warms the atmosphere. But is human activity significant enough to cause changes to the climate? Or as some people will argue, it is just part of natural variations and therefore we shouldn’t worry? The science is undoubtedly complex and the debate is perhaps difficult to prove beyond reasonable doubt either way. But the climate sceptics have not been able to prove their arguments, and only appear to be able to question the validity of the Global Warming arguments. Perhaps this is like saying that the gun might not be loaded. It might not be, but it might be. Can we afford to take this risk?

Therefore pulling these 2 arguments together, it would seem sensible to use renewable energy, which is limitless and free. The only costs are in capturing that energy.

What forms does renewable energy come in?

There are a number of sources, some of which have been summarised below:

Sun

The Sun is the most abundant form of energy available on Earth. Energy arriving at the Earth’s surface by way of solar radiation over a period of 40 minutes is the equivalent of the power used by the entire population of the Earth in 1 year.

Wind

The UK is one of the windiest countries in Europe. This is a substantial energy source, subject to harnessing it effectively.

Residual Heat

There is a huge amount of heat energy in the ground. The temperature of the ground below the immediate surface is constant and is unaffected by the weather. This heat can be extracted using a heat pump. The same principal is also applicable to lakes and rivers.

Hydroelectric

There are a number of ways energy can be harnessed from the movement of water. The current most successful technology is hydroelectric dams, although this can cause issues in the surrounding area as flooding a basin in order to store the water and release it through the dam at a constant rate means altering the local ecosystem. Alternatively, river turbines, in the right geological environment can harness some of this energy, but their downside is the flow of water is not going to regulated and constant.

Twice a day the tides ebb and flow. Clearly it takes a huge amount of energy to move this water. For a number of years, there have been discussions about utilising this tidal power in the Severn Estuary.

Wave power is also a technology under development.

Woodchips

This is the use of trees or other crops to produce fuel. This comes in a number of forms. For example, the use of wood pellets to power wood burning stoves. However supplies do need to be sourced within about 20 miles of the point of use, otherwise the carbon footprint generated in transporting the fuel will outweigh the benefits. There is also a political argument about using land to grow fuel instead of food. There is also the controversy in destroying rain forests for the purposes of using that land to grow fuel, as is happening in a number of countries.

If you require any information with about which renewable energy technologies might be suitable for your own uses, please feel free to contact us