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Renewable Energy

Renewable energy is energy produced from a source that is naturally repleniched such as:

• Sunlight
• Wind
• Rain
• Tides
• Geothermal heat

Wind Power

Wind power as the term suggests is power generated from wind or airflow. Air flow can be used to run wind turbines which are used to produce electricity. Most wind turbines produce between 600kW and 5MW of rated power, but the most common wind turbines produce between 1.5 and 3MW of power.

Wind power does however have its issues:

• Wind turbines are huge structures and can be aesthetically unfriendly
• They kill many birds a year
• The wind does not blow all day and all night in many parts of the world and can be unpredictable

Solar Energy

Solar energy refers to the process of converting energy received from the Sun in the form of sunlight into a usable form such as electricity or heat. Solar energy can be converted into electricity using solar photovoltaic panels (also known as PV panels). Solar PV as a technology is advancing but the efficiency of PV panels are still relatively low and costs can be rather high especially on a large scale.

Solar water heating is the process of converting sunlight into heat energy which is used to heat water for use in a variety of applications such as homes, hotels, hostels and factories.

Water Power

Energy in water – in the form of kinetic energy, temperature differences or salinity gradients – can be harnessed and used. Since water is about 800 times denser than air even a small flow or sea swell can yield large amounts of power.

There are may forms of water energy including:

• Hydroelectric energy is a form of alternate energy – a term used to refer to large scale hydroelectric dams
• Micro hydro – small hydroelectric systems which typically produce up to 100kW of power
• Damless Hydro – systems which generate power from rivers or the sea without the use of a dam
• Ocean Energy – all forms of energy derived from the oceans
• Osmotic Power or salinity gradient power – is the energy derived from the difference in concentration of salt in river and sea water