What Is Renewable Energy? How Does It Work? Is It Affordable? Is It Really Good For The Environment?

All good questions, there are many ads in all kinds of media today that shout the virtues of "Green Power" and promise that if you do you will save money, help decrease global warming, save the planet, and just be an all around better person. Are they right?

Renewable energy, in many of its forms has been around and used in some cases for hundreds if not thousands of years, in fact as long as our planet and the sun have existed, they will be here as long as our planet and the sun continue. So if this is true, why are they not used more often? The simple answer is that finding and using fossil fuels is easier and cheaper, however fossil fuels do pollute our environment, and they will be depleted at some point in the future.

The first uses of the sun by early man were probably for passive light and solar heat, he may have lived in a cave whose opening was oriented to take advantage of the heat of the sun and the light it provided, he may even have placed a large rock at the opening that would heat all day, and then give off radiant heat at night. Much the same way that free radiant heat from the sun is used today. Someone, unknown to history, found a clear crystal of some sort and found that by letting the sun shine through it heat was created, and now man was able to create fire at will.

For about the last 100 years man has studied and been trying to perfect the conversion of the suns energy into cheap, usable electricity. 100 hundred years is a very short time, and this experimentation has, and is, making fantastic gains, however it is still far more expensive to produce solar panels and other parts needed for solar power generation than it is to just purchase the cheap power from our local electric utility.

Power from the wind has also been around forever early sailing ships were powered by the wind, which of course allowed early man to discover many other parts of our world. In days past we did not have clothes dryers everyone hung their laundry outside and let the wind and sun do the job. For centuries windmills have been used to grind grains, pump water and many others uses. Of course the sun is also partly responsible for the creation of wind.

Water power, commonly referred to as hydro power has also been around a long time doing such things as moving logs downstream to the mill which used water power to cut them up, powering the mills that ground grains for food, and still do today. Hydro electric power plants are true marvels of technology, and have been used for many years. As long as the sun evaporates water, then deposits it at higher elevations in the form of rain or snow and gravity moves it downstream, there will be hydro power.

Geothermal power has been available as long as the earth has been here. The earth is a huge furnace, producing temperatures in excess of 9000 degrees Fahrenheit at its core. There are places in the world where this heat comes very close to the surface, making it very easy to harness. Geothermal power is not restricted to just hot mineral baths, parts of the western US, in most of the country of Iceland make extensive use of geothermal power for heating, and to power turbines to produce electricity. Home heating and cooling, and the provision of hot water are easily and very cost effectively accomplished by the use of geo heat pump technology.

Bio energy, the use of energy from recently living things, such as wood, grasses, corn etc. is quickly becoming a more important part of the energy puzzle. Think ethanol to supplement gasoline and reduce harmful emissions. The home fireplace is another example of using bio fuels.

Research and development of these and other yet to be discovered sources of renewable fuels continues nonstop and will help mankind answer its energy need now and in the future.