What is renewable energy?
Renewable energy can be defined as anything that is used to make electricity without using non-renewable fuels and which doesn’t make a net contribution to the carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. Types of renewable energy wind, tidal and solar power, geothermal energy and biomass. Although nuclear power is low-carbon, because it uses uranium which is a finite fuel it can’t be considered renewable.
The leading technologies:
The UK Government has committed to producing 15 per cent of its energy using renewable sources by 2020 and has massive resources in wind and wave energy. The UK has made major steps in the development and installation of more projects and by 2007 had 2 gigawatts of turbines installed. The British Wind Energy Association (BWEA) has said there will be 9GW of offshore wind turbines installed by 2015, producing more energy for the country than nuclear power.
Also, according to the Centre for Alternative Technology, wave power could end up supplying around 10 per cent of the UK’s total energy requirements. However this technology is at a much earlier stage and while Britain is at the forefront of technological development, commercially usable designs have not yet been produced.
Solar power technology has been becoming more and more popular over recent years. These include photovoltaics that use direct sunlight and thermal energy from the sun to produce electricity. The most common uses of these are to heat water in homes and generate small amounts of electricity for the homes but solar power plants focus sunlight using hundreds of mirrors to superheat water to create steam that turns turbines and generates electricity.
Geothermal energy is another one of the main renewable sources and involves accessing heat that is naturally stored deep underground in either pockets of steam or hot water. Methods of utilising this natural energy require drilling deep into the Earth, pumping water into the hole allowing the fracture rocks that have been heated by the earth to heat the water being pumped down.
What is happening now?
At the moment, the UK only gets 1.8 per cent of its energy from renewable sources while EU figures show that Scandinavian countries such as Sweden’s renewable energy share is as high as 40 per cent. However, green energy investment last year overtook that of fossil fuels. Over a third of the world’s investment was in the UK and Europe whilst China and India showed the largest growth.
