Renewable energy is revolutionizing how we power our world, offering sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels and reducing environmental impacts. As engineering students and faculty, understanding the nuances and potentials of renewable energy is crucial. This blog post and our in-library display delve into various renewable energy sources, their benefits, and their implications for the future.
What is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy is derived from natural sources that replenish at a faster rate than they are consumed. Unlike fossil fuels, which take millions of years to form, renewable energy sources such as sunlight and wind are constantly being replenished. This makes renewable energy a key player in mitigating the climate crisis and ensuring sustainable energy for future generations.
Types of Renewable Energy Solar Energy
Description: Solar energy harnesses sunlight through photovoltaic panels or mirrors that concentrate solar radiation to generate electricity. Benefits: Solar energy is abundant and can be harnessed even in cloudy weather. The rate of solar energy intercepted by the Earth far exceeds human energy consumption needs. Solar panels have become more affordable, with a lifespan of approximately 30 years. Applications: Solar energy can provide heat, cooling, lighting, and fuels for various applications.
Wind Energy
Description: Wind energy utilizes large turbines to convert the kinetic energy of moving air into mechanical energy, which can be used to generate electricity. Benefits: Wind energy has a vast technical potential and can be harnessed both onshore and offshore. Offshore wind power, in particular, offers tremendous potential due to strong wind speeds. Applications: Wind energy can be used to power entire communities, particularly in regions with strong wind conditions.
Hydropower
Description: Hydropower harnesses the energy of moving water from high to low elevations. It can be generated from reservoirs and rivers.
Benefits: Hydropower is a reliable source of renewable electricity and has been used for centuries. Small-scale hydropower can be an environmentally friendly option for isolated communities. Applications: Hydropower plants provide energy, drinking water, irrigation, and flood control.
Geothermal Energy
Description: Geothermal energy utilizes heat from the Earth's interior, extracted from geothermal reservoirs. Benefits: Geothermal energy is a reliable and constant source of power, with hydrothermal reservoirs being used for over 100 years. Applications: Geothermal energy can be used for direct heating and electricity generation.
Biomass Energy
Description: Biomass energy is derived from organic materials that are burned or converted into liquid or gaseous forms, such as ethanol and biodiesel. Benefits: Biomass can be a renewable and sustainable source of energy when managed properly. Applications: Biomass is used for heating, electricity generation, and as a fuel for transportation.
Ocean Energy
Description: Ocean energy captures the kinetic and thermal energy from seawater through waves or currents to generate electricity. Benefits: Ocean energy has the potential to exceed current human energy requirements significantly. Applications: Still in the prototype stage, ocean energy devices show promise for future large-scale applications.
Advantages of Renewable Energy
Environmental Benefits: Renewable energy sources produce significantly lower emissions compared to fossil fuels, helping to combat climate change. Cost Efficiency: Renewable energy technologies are becoming increasingly cost-effective, with lower operational and maintenance costs. Sustainability: By utilizing the Earth's natural processes, renewable energy can theoretically meet global energy needs indefinitely.
Renewable fuels, in the present times, have become important to curb emission of greenhouse gases, which are causing damage to the environment and leading to climatic changes. Ideally, their utilization can be a zero carbon operation. Planting suitable trees on all waste lands and agro forestry on a large scale can fulfil the needs of timber, fuel, fruits, etc. All kinds of lignocellulosic biomass can be converted by several methods to useful liquid fuels like alcohols, biodiesel, methane, renewable diesel and renewable gasoline. Hydrogen can be used as a renewable fuel because of its desirable characteristics and properties for its use as a green fuel.
This book assesses how low-carbon generation, the advance of energy storage and consumer-based models can help decarbonise electricity supplies at a national level. This book is built around developing a decarbonised electricity mix for Britain which reduces fossil fuels from 50% of supply in 2018 down to levels within 2030 carbon targets. Crossland explores the idea of a future energy storage mix which blends domestic batteries, vehicles, thermal stores and pumped hydro to provide a flexible, responsive electricity system. He then goes on to look at how much storage can contribute to decarbonisation in a multitude of contexts - from domestic to national electricity. This book also discusses how efficiency and self-sufficiency can bring about a decarbonised electricity use within our homes today. Britain is used as the main example, but the themes and conclusions are applicable to a global audience, and each chapter draws on practical case studies from around the world to illustrate key ideas. Drawing on the author's experience in delivering and analysing low-carbon energy projects in the UK, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Oceania, this book will be of great relevance to students, scholars and industry specialists with an interest in energy technology, policy and storage.
Concern for the environment and the impacts of pollution have brought about the need to shift from the use and reliance on hydrocarbons to energy-power sources that are pollution neutral or near pollution neutral or renewable. Moreover, the impact of 200 years of industrialization and surging population growth threatens to exceed the future supply of hydrocarbon power sources. Therefore, the implementation of green energy sources is surging. The Science of Green Energy presents technologies and techniques, as well as real-world usage of and operation of today’s green energy-based applications. This practical book is designed to be used as an information source for the general reader, or for a course in energy, chemistry or in renewable energy engineering fields where green energy is becoming a key player. It is intended to fill a wide gap of missing information in published texts dealing with the green energy revolution currently in progress; it specifically provides information involving the many different sources of energy.
Green Energy Materials Handbook gives a systematic review of the development of reliable, low-cost, and high-performance green energy materials, covering mainstream computational and experimental studies as well as comprehensive literature on green energy materials, computational methods, experimental fabrication and characterization techniques, and recent progress in the field. This work presents complete experimental measurements and computational results as well as potential applications. Among green technologies, electrochemical and energy storage technologies are considered as the most practicable, environmentally friendly, and workable to make full use of renewable energy sources. This text includes 11 chapters on the field, devoted to 4 important topical areas: computational material design, energy conversion, ion transport, and electrode materials. This handbook is aimed at engineers, researchers, and those who work in the fields of materials science, chemistry, and physics. The systematic studies proposed in this book can greatly promote the basic and applied sciences.
This book discusses aspects of policy and techno-economic analysis of renewable energy in developing countries. Renewable energy technologies have been one of the most important strategies in addressing sustainable energy development and climate change. The roles of renewable energy in developing countries are vital, which include the accessibility of modern energy services in rural areas, climate change mitigation, energy security, green job creation and eventually improvement of quality of life. Part I of this book focuses on policy and strategy, while Part II focuses on technology development and feasibility. Chapters are contributed by leading experts from the ASEAN Center of Energy, government agencies, industries, and universities from five developing countries, including Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam and Bangladesh.
For further exploration on this topic, you can search the library's catalogue and online databases to discover a wealth of additional resources.
References
Da Rosa, Aldo Vieira, and Juan Carlos Ordóñez. 2022. Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes. London, United Kingdom: Academic Press.
Holden, John, Patrick Robinson, and Establishment Building Research. 2014. Renewable Energy Sources: How They Work and What They Deliver. Part 3, Electrically Driven Heat Pumps. Digest (Building Research Establishment); Dg 532-3. Garston, Watford: IHS BRE Press.
Hossain, Eklas, and Slobodan Petrovic. 2021. Renewable Energy Crash Course: A Concise Introduction. Cham: Springer.
Usher, Bruce. 2019. Renewable Energy: A Primer for the Twenty-First Century. New York: Columbia University Press.
able Fuels by
Decarbonising Electricity Made Simple by
The Science of Green Energy by
Green Energy Materials Handbook by
Renewable Energy in Developing Countries by