Would you even want to imagine a world where you will have to live without electricity? That means no electricity, no phones, and certainly no internet. Scary, right? Resources like petrol and coal are going to exhaust soon. Just so our generations don’t have a dreadful future, environmentalists and scientists are tapping into renewable energy sources to generate power and electricity.
What is a renewable energy source?
Renewable energy is inexhaustible form of energy that can be generated continuously in the environment. Renewable energy is the most reliable because it decreases our dependency on exhaustible sources like coal, petrol which will take a millions years to replenish.
What makes the most efficient renewable energy source?
There are a number of factors that are used to contribute the score of energy source:
- Cost of materials used to install the production unit
- How much of energy is translated into electricity
- How much environmental cleaning is required after setting up the units
Levelized Cost Energy or LEC is a net value that is denoted as the lifetime cost of the installation divided by the estimated total energy produced. This value is used to assess the scope or profitability of a renewable energy source project.
Which are some renewable energy sources?
Here are 5 renewable sources of energy in the increasing order of the efficiency:
5. Solar Energy
What makes solar energy one of the best renewable energy sources is that it does not add to the earth’s total heat burden. It is abundance in supply and cause no water or air pollutants. This is why its use has increased in a past few years. However, it is a bit too much expensive but the engineers are trying to make it a more economically viable option.
4. Nuclear Energy
Another contender in the leagues of best renewable energy source is Nuclear energy. It is clean, sustainable, and reduce the dependency on oil. The energy is extracted from controlled nuclear reactions between atoms which is then converted into mechanical energy to generate electricity or propulsion. But if something goes south with utility reactors or nuclear fissions, it can cause a great catastrophe to the environment.
3. Hydro Energy
One of the most widely used renewable energy, hydro energy uses the gravitational force of gushing water to convert it into electricity. While it is an increasingly popular alternative energy source, it comes with a few environmental baggage like water logging and siltation at the project site, loss of biodiversity, and displacement of local people.
2. Geothermal Energy
As the name suggests, geothermal energy is produced using the heat from earth. Wherever the hot water does not find its way above the surface, holes are drilled into the earth from where hot water gushes out in high pressure. This is then converted into electrical or mechanical energy. It is clean and sustainable.
1. Wind Energy
Have you ever seen those giant windmills on the farmlands? These windmills convert wind into electrical and mechanical energy. Though it has lowest environmental impacts and highest returns which makes it the best renewable energy source, the cost of establishing a windmill is huge and it is highly reliable on the velocity of winds.
The future is possible with renewable source of energy. More we become reliant on these renewable sources of energy, more secure our future is.
Feature Image Courtesy: pexels.com
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