Related topics: energy , fossil fuels , electricity , solar power , megawatt
Renewable energy
hideRenewable energy is energy generated from natural resources—such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat—which are renewable (naturally replenished). In 2006, about 18% of global final energy consumption came from renewables, with 13% coming from traditional biomass, such as wood-burning. Hydroelectricity was the next largest renewable source, providing 3% of global energy consumption and 15% of global electricity generation.
Wind power is growing at the rate of 30 percent annually, with a worldwide installed capacity of 121,000 megawatts (MW) in 2008, and is widely used in European countries and the United States. The annual manufacturing output of the photovoltaics industry reached 6,900 MW in 2008, and photovoltaic (PV) power stations are popular in Germany and Spain. Solar thermal power stations operate in the USA and Spain, and the largest of these is the 354 MW SEGS power plant in the Mojave Desert. The world's largest geothermal power installation is The Geysers in California, with a rated capacity of 750 MW. Brazil has one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world, involving production of ethanol fuel from sugar cane, and ethanol now provides 18 percent of the country's automotive fuel. Ethanol fuel is also widely available in the USA. While most renewable energy projects and production is large-scale, renewable technologies are also suited to small off-grid applications, sometimes in rural and remote areas, where energy is often crucial in human development. Kenya has the world's highest household solar ownership rate with roughly 30,000 small (20–100 watt) solar power systems sold per year.
Some renewable energy technologies are criticised for being intermittent or unsightly, yet the renewable energy market continues to grow. Climate change concerns coupled with high oil prices, peak oil and increasing government support are driving increasing renewable energy legislation, incentives and commercialization. New government spending, regulation, and policies should help the industry weather the 2009 economic crisis better than many other sectors.
For more information about Renewable energy, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with renewable energy
Study expects rising interest in energy saving
Dec 16, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Energy-efficient technology for batteries, grids and power storage will be trendy in 2010, according to a study released Wednesday on clean energy technology.
STEM gets greener: Promoting critical thinking using renewable energy technology
Dec 17, 2009 |
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Can building model cars really help create the next generation of electric vehicle designers and engineers? Researchers at North Carolina State University think so. Through a recent grant, they will develop a curriculum that ...
Blood Enzyme Could Help Realize Clean Coal
Dec 03, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- An enzyme in our blood that enables our lungs to exhale carbon dioxide could be the key to isolating carbon dioxide emissions from coal plants in order to store them safely underground. A ...
Using nanoparticles to increase the effiiciency of thin film solar cells
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Jun 12, 2009 |
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Germany is one of the leading countries when it comes to efforts related to renewable energy sources. Therefore, it is no surprise that the Institute of Condensed Matter and Solid State Optics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität ...
Easing Atmospheric CO2 Levels Using Nanotubes and Sunlight
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Feb 16, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at The Pennsylvania State University have determined a way to use arrays of nanotubes in a solar-based process to convert carbon dioxide and water into methane and other hydrocarbon ...
How a Solar-Hydrogen Economy Could Supply the World's Energy Needs
Aug 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- As the world's oil supply continues to dry out every day, the question of what will replace oil and other fossil fuels is becoming more and more urgent. According to the World Coal Institute, ...
Harnessing the power of salt, Norway tries osmotic power
Nov 23, 2009 |
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After wind, sun, currents and tides, a company is preparing to make clean electricity by harnessing another natural phenomenon, the energy-unleashing encounter of freshwater and seawater.
NREL Uncovers Clean Energy Leaders State by State
Nov 24, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- That California and Texas still lead the United States in generating renewable energy probably is no surprise. But, NREL's 2009 State of the States report shows that several smaller states ...
Taiwan plans massive growth in solar energy
Dec 04, 2009 |
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Taiwan plans to boost its use of solar panels by a factor of 200 over the next decade and a half in an effort to increase clean energy, a ranking official said Friday.
Obama unveils historic power grid reform
Oct 27, 2009 |
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President Barack Obama Tuesday announced the largest modernization of the US electricity grid in history, in a 3.4-billion-dollar bid to launch a new era of renewable energy consumption.
Liquid battery big enough for the electric grid?
Nov 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- There's one major drawback to most proposed renewable-energy sources: their variability. The sun doesn't shine at night, the wind doesn’t always blow, and tides, waves and currents fluctuate. ...
China solar panel makers see boost from Copenhagen
Dec 03, 2009 |
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In Trina Solar's brilliant white factory in eastern China, masked workers in lab coats turn silicon wafers into solar power cells capable of harnessing the sun's clean and limitless energy.
Algae may be secret weapon in climate change war
Oct 22, 2009 |
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Driven by fluctuations in oil prices, and seduced by the prospect of easing climate change, experts are ramping up efforts to squeeze fuel out of a promising new organism: pond scum.
NREL Breaks Down Walls for Biofuels
Nov 30, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and ethanol producers are racing to come up with ways to make ethanol from cellulosic biomass that are cheaper and easier to ...
Galician waves are best for producing energy
Nov 30, 2009 |
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The best coastal areas in the Iberian Peninsula in terms of harnessing wave energy are the Costa da Morte and Estaca de Bares, in La Coruña, Galicia, according to two pioneering studies by researchers from ...
