RENEWABLE ENERGY

Sources Of Energy other than Fossil

Fuels
 Different Sources Of Renewable
Energy

• Solar Energy
• Wind Energy
• Geothermal Energy
• Tidal/Hydro Energy
• Biomass
 Solar Energy
• Solar energy is one of renewable energy source.
• Advantages:
• Solar energy is free - it needs no fuel and
produces no waste or pollution.
• In sunny countries, solar power can be used
where there is no easy way to get electricity
to a remote place.
• Handy for low-power uses such as solar
powered garden lights and battery chargers
 Solar Energy
• Disadvantages:
• Doesn't work at night.
• Very expensive to build solar power stations.
• Can be unreliable unless you're in a very
sunny climate.
 Solar power

Solar energy from the

sun is used for power
generation.

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Solar electricity power plant

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 Solar collectors for active solar heating
A solar collector gathers solar radiation and converts the energy to
heat. In its simplest form, it can be a surface that is exposed to the
sun. The light that is absorbed by the plate is converted into heat.
The plate has channels where water or another heat transfer
medium circulates. The medium is then distributed to the space
where heat is needed.
 The production of electrical power
– solar cells
To convert solar energy directly to electricity by means of
the photoelectrical effect we use photocells.
A solar cell consists of a semi-conductor primarily.
 Solar Roof tiles

Roof mounted solar

panels (Solar century)

Integrated solar tiles installed by Solar Century on a current

development in Milton Keynes by English partnership and
Bloor homes
Innovative SunSlates installation
Hydropower

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Hydroelectric power plant

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Wind Energy Sources
• Wind Energy is defined as the “power
generated by harnessing the wind, usually by
windmills.”
• Advantages:
• Wind energy is fueled by the wind, so it's a clean
fuel source.
• Wind energy relies on the renewable power of
the wind, which can't be used up.
• Wind energy is one of the lowest-priced
renewable energy technologies available today,
costing between 4 and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour .
 Minimum Plant Requirement
• An average speed of 13 miles per hour is
necessary for proper working of wind power
plant.
 How it works?
• The Sun heats our
atmosphere unevenly, so
some patches become
warmer than others.
• These warm patches of air
rise, other air blows in to
replace them - and we feel
a wind blowing.
• We can use the energy in
the wind by building a tall
tower, with a large
propellor on the top.
• Disadvantages:
• Although wind power plants have relatively little
impact on the environment compared to other
conventional power plants, there is some concern
over the noise produced by the rotor blades, and
sometimes birds have been killed by flying into the
rotors.
• Good wind sites are often located in remote
locations, far from cities where the electricity is
needed.
• The major challenge to using wind as a source of
power is that the wind is intermittent
 Geothermal Energy

• The centre of the Earth is around 6000 °C

hot enough to melt rock. Even a few
kilometres down, the temperature can be
over 250 degrees Celsius.
• In volcanic areas, molten rock can be very
close to the surface.
• The name "geothermal" comes from two
Greek words: "geo" means "Earth" and
"thermal" means "heat".
Uses of Geothermal Energy

There are three main uses of geo thermal energy.

 Direct use and district heating system
 Geothermal heat pump
 Electricity generation power plant
How Geothermal Energy can be used?
• Hot rocks underground heat water to
produce steam. We drill holes down to the hot
region, steam comes up, is purified and used
to drive turbines, which drive electric
generators.
 Geothermal Energy
• Advantages:
• Geothermal energy does not produce any
pollution.
• No fuel is needed.
• Once you've built a geothermal power station,
the energy is almost free.
It may need a little energy to run a pump, but
this can be taken from the energy being
generated.
Natural steam from the production wells power the turbine generator. The steam is condensed
by evaporation in the cooling tower and pumped down an injection well to sustain production.
 Geothermal Energy
• Disadvantages:
• The big problem is that there are not many places
where you can build a geothermal power station. You
need hot rocks of a suitable type, at a depth where
we can drill down to them. The type of rock above is
also important, it must be of a type that we can
easily drill through.
• Hazardous gases and minerals may come up from
underground, and can be difficult to safely dispose
of.
 Tidal Energy
• Tidal energy is a form of hydropower that
exploits the movement of water caused by
tidal currents or the rise and fall in sea levels
due to the tides. Although not yet widely
used, tidal power has potential for future
electricity generation and is more predictable
than wind energy and solar power. In Europe,
tide mills have been used for over a thousand
years, (since prehistoric ages) mainly for
grinding grains.
 Tidal Energy
• Advantages:
• Once you've built it, tidal power is free.
• It produces no greenhouse gases or other waste
• It needs no fuel
• It produces electricity reliably
• Not expensive to maintain.
Tides are totally predictable.
• Offshore turbines and vertical-axis turbines are
not expensive to build and do not have a large
environmental impact.
 Tidal Energy
• Disadvantages:
• A barrage across an estuary is very expensive
to build, and affects a very wide area - the
environment is changed for many miles
upstream and downstream. Many birds rely on
the tide uncovering the mud flats so that they
can feed. There are few suitable sites for tidal
barrages.
• Only provides power for around 10 hours each
day, when the tide is actually moving in or out.
 Bio Energy
• Bio energy is a common term meaning energy
related to the exploitation of biomass.
• Biomass exists in many different forms with
different qualities.
• The common feature of each form is that they
their energy content is derived from
photosynthesis, which uses the energy of
sunlight.
• The net reaction can be described with the
following reaction equation:

• The final products are sugars, which the plant

uses as building blocks, energy storage, and
oxygen which is released to the atmosphere.
The combustion of biomass is the opposite of
the photosynthesis:
 Types of Biomass
• We use four types of biomass today—wood
and agricultural products, solid waste, landfill
gas and biogas, and alcohol fuels.
• Most biomass used today is home grown
energy. Wood—logs, chips, bark, and
sawdust—accounts for about 49 percent of
biomass energy. But any organic matter can
produce biomass energy. Other biomass
sources include agricultural waste products
like fruit pits and corncobs.
 Solid Waste
• Burning trash turns waste into a usable form
of energy. One ton (2,000 pounds) of garbage
contains about as much heat energy as 500
pounds of coal. Garbage is not all biomass;
perhaps half of its energy content comes from
plastics, which are made from petroleum and
natural gas.
 Bio fuels
• Ethanol is an alcohol fuel (ethyl alcohol) made
by fermenting the sugars and starches found
in plants and then distilling them. Any organic
material containing cellulose, starch, or sugar
can be made into ethanol.
• Biodiesel is a fuel made by chemically reacting
alcohol with vegetable oils, animal fats, or
greases.
 Biogas/Landfill Gas
• When organic material is decomposed by
microorganisms in the absence of oxygen, a
gas consisting of methane (approximately 40-
50 per cent), carbon dioxide and other gases
in smaller amounts is generated.
• This process called anaerobic digestion, occurs
spontaneously in nature, for example at a
landfill. The product gas is often called landfill
gas. If nothing is done to collect the gas, it
leaks out into the atmosphere and contributes
to the greenhouse effect.
Impact on Environment
from Biodiesel

• Reduces hydrocarbons
• toxic compounds,
• CO, particulate matter,
• Reduction in global
warming gases
One of the main reasons for switching to hydrogen
is to prevent global warming caused by fossil fuels.
When it’s made from natural gas, nitrogen oxides
are released, which are 58 times more effective in
trapping heat than carbon dioxide. Coal releases
large amounts of CO2 and mercury.