Renewable Energy Source

Renewable Energy is electricity that is produced from renewable sources of energy lsuch as: wind power, solar power, geothermal energy, and hydroelectric energy. Renewable energy sources are readily replenished by nature and are a cleaner, non-carbon polluting source of energy like oil, coal and natural gas. Renewable Energy sources are often referred to as emerging energy technologies.

In recent years, the cost of emerging energy technologies have decreased to the extent that renewable energy technologies are competing with traditional sources of energy. Investigate your options. Information is available from a range of sources, including renewable energy associations, consultants and vendors.
Renewable energy electricity production is expected to expand significantly over the coming years in the developed world. This represents an opportunity for developed countries (large electricity consumers) to develop and commercialize new and competitive technologies to the traditional "fossil fuel" based technologies and thereby manufacture products and offer services in support of a growing industry.

Renewable energy is generated from natural resources such as sunlight (through photovoltaic solar cells), wind (through wind turbines), water (through dams and hydroelectric power plants), came from renewable energy sources, In 2006, about 18 per cent of the world's electricity consumption came from renewable energy technologies, with 13 per cent coming from traditional biomass, such as wood-burning. Hydroelectricity was the next largest renewable source, providing 3 per cent (15 per cent of global electricity generation, followed by solar hot water/heating, which contributed 1.3 per cent. Modern technologies, such as geothermal energy, wind power, solar power, and ocean energy together provided some 0.8 per cent of total electricity generation.
The term renewable energy is not always synonymous with what is often called “green” energy. Typically, green energy refers to energy from renewable sources that leave smaller environmental footprints than does conventional large-scale generation, including some renewable energy sources. For instance, although they utilize renewable energy and do not contribute to air pollution, some large-capacity hydroelectric projects require huge dams and reservoirs, which flood thousands of hectares of wilderness and disrupt the migration patterns of fish and wildlife. In contrast, some low-capacity, run-of-the-river hydroelectric projects use the flow of the water as it runs downstream to generate electricity and may result in little disruption to the environment or to local ecosystems.
There are two other important points about renewable energy. First, although quickly replenished, some of these forms of energy are intermittent on either a daily or a seasonal basis. There are days when the sun does not shine or the wind does not blow, and certainly it’s rare that sunshine and wind are consistent throughout the day. In some instances, the technology requires a way of storing the power that is created. In most cases, the electricity generated from these intermittent renewable sources is supplemented by electricity generated by other, more dependable means, such as storage-based waterpower.
This leads to the second point. When renewable energy is used to create electricity, it often flows into a provincial or territorial power grid to become part of the pool of electricity generated from several sources, including non-renewable energy. Governments, utilities hope to increase the amount and overall proportion of electricity generated by low-impact renewable energy as an important way to protect human health and the environment.
Governments and energy experts are taking a new interest in renewable energy for several reasons. First, electricity from renewable energy produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions, which are associated with a changing climate, than electricity produced from burning fossil fuels. Similarly, renewable energy generally adds fewer other pollutants to the air, including the following:

• sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides that form acid rain;
• particulate matter, which along with ground-level ozone forms smog on hot, sunny summer days; and,
• mercury, which can be transformed in the environment to become highly toxic to people and animals.

When we use low-impact renewable energy, we help to protect the land and water. When large-scale energy projects are developed, they have the potential to drastically alter watersheds, migration routes, and wildlife and fish habitats. And, although many electric power utilities have made major improvements in their practices and technologies, the effects on the environment can still be quite large.
Further, the supply of renewable energy is not only virtually unlimited (at the right price), it also offers the possibility of relatively stable prices. In the late 1990s and early years of the 21st century, developed countries watched as the prices of oil and gas soared, plummeted and then soared again, in part because of the weather and in part because of world politics. Increasing the use of locally generated renewable energy can help protect us from dramatic price swings.