Renewable Energy Course

ME 301

Department of Mechanical
Engineering

Eng H Chingosho @2018

Renewable Energy Resources
Objectives
• Understand what renewable energy is and the resources and
best practices to make it sustainable.

• Understand the economic and community impacts of

renewable energy.
• Introduce Solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal energy
resources.
• Concept of supply sustainability and carbon-neutrality of
renewable energy sources and link to climate change
mitigation.
• Understanding how you can make an impact by altering your
energy demand and become a more efficient consumer.
Energy
• Any physics textbook will tell you energy is “the capacity to
do work”.
• Then it usually goes on to explain that “work” is the action of moving
something against a force. But isn’t this definition kind of
unsatisfying?.

The reason energy is so hard to define is because it’s an

abstract notion. In physics, the concept of “energy” is really
just a kind of shorthand, a tool to help balance the books.

• Energy is always conserved (or converted into mass) so is incredibly

useful in working out the results of any kind of physical or chemical
process.

• There is no physical “essence” of energy, and no such thing as “pure

energy”. Energy is always carried by something, usually in the form of
movement.
Energy
First Law
• Energy can neither be created nor destroyed.  This means that you can’t
make energy out of nothing— the total amount of energy in the universe is
a constant.

Second Law
• The second law refers to the state of energy and is reflected in a
measurement of the degree of disorder, (a measurement called entropy). 
When you burn a lump of coal, (a material in a very ordered state) a
change occurs which results in a more disordered state and you can never
combine the resultant products.  In summary when we use an energy
source it is not destroyed but enters a more disordered state. 

Third Law
• As we mentioned the universe is winding down.  The third law is that
everything does come to a stop only when the temperature is at −273.15°C
on the Celsius scale.[1] .This is called absolute zero and is where the
entropy measurement is 0, (Zero).
Renewable Energy
o Renewable energy is energy that is naturally occurring,
theoretically inexhaustible source of energy which is
generated from natural sources i.e. sun, wind, rain, tides
and can be generated again and again as and when
required.

o Renewable energy is energy that is collected from

renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on
a human timescale.

o “Renewable energy includes resources that rely on fuel

sources that restore themselves over short periods of
time and do not diminish” (Source: U.S. EPA)
• Most renewable forms of energy, other than geothermal and tidal
power, ultimately come from the Sun.
• Capturing renewable energy by plants, animals and humans does not
permanently deplete the resource.

• Fossil fuels, while theoretically renewable on a very long time-scale,

are exploited at rates that may deplete these resources in the near
future.

• Renewable energy resources may be used directly, or used to create

other more convenient forms of energy.

• Direct use are solar ovens, geothermal heating, and water- and
windmills.

• Indirect use which require energy harvesting are electricity

generation through wind turbines or photovoltaic cells, or production
of fuels such as ethanol from biomass.
• Solar energy comes directly from the sun, which
comes every day in most locations and does not
diminish appreciably over time.
• Wind gets its energy from the sun, so cannot be "used
up" either. Of course, the wind is variable - more in
some locations than others - but all wind will never
disappear as long as the sun shines and the earth is
spherical.
• Hydropower also gets its energy from the sun and is
even more consistent in most locations than the wind.
• All of these sources renew themselves over short
periods of time and do not diminish. Though
intermittent, none of these sources are going to
disappear in the foreseeable future.
• Biomass and biofuels also get their energy from
the sun (anyone sensing a pattern here?), and
plants are usually pretty good at regenerating
themselves.
• Take a minute to try to think about examples of
biomass and/or biofuels that might not be
"renewable," in the sense of the definition above.

Can you think of any examples of non-

renewable biomass?
• Nearly all forms of biomass and biofuels are renewable. Sugar-based ethanol is the
most-used source of bio-based energy in ZIM.

• Sugarcane can be grown in the same field year after year, so it is renewable. Nearly
all of Brazil's vehicles are able to use 100% sugarcane ethanol for fuel. Contrast this
with Zim, where automobile engines are only required to be able to handle up to 10/
20% ethanol.

• The "waste" from sugarcane ethanol production is called bagasse and is often used
for heating and electricity generation.

• There are many other biomass sources that fit our definition of renewable, including
animal dung, algae (for biodiesel), jatropha nut, soybean, switchgrass, and more.

• Wood is used around the world as a source of heat, particularly for cooking. Most
trees and shrubs regrow relatively quickly, so they are generally considered
renewable.

• Though most biomass sources are considered renewable, keep this in mind: if you
harvest a renewable resource faster than it regenerates, it will not be able to renew
itself over time.
• Most renewable energy sources are carbon-
free.

• This means that they do not emit any carbon

dioxide when they generate energy. Solar, wind,
and hydroelectric are carbon-free.

• Nuclear, though not renewable, is also

considered a carbon-free energy source, because
unlike coal and natural gas, it does not burn.

• Nuclear energy generates heat through fission,

not combustion.
Take a Bite!

• Biomass and biofuels are often considered

carbon-neutral because they emit carbon dioxide
when they are burned. So, why are they carbon
neutral?
Answer!!
• Remember that biofuels and biomass come from plants. To grow, plants
pull carbon dioxide from the air.

• When the biomass or biofuel is burned, the carbon dioxide released cannot
be any greater than the carbon dioxide it originally removed from the air.

• Therefore, the overall carbon emissions are balanced in the process, hence
the term carbon "neutral."

• Note that some people consider biomass/biofuel to be carbon-free, but

that is technically incorrect, even though the overall carbon impact is the
same.

• Biomass that is not used for energy is considered a carbon sink and
sometimes called carbon negative since it pulls carbon out of the air and
holds onto it.
World Total Primary Energy Supply
• Interesting thing to point out is that biofuels are lumped together with
"waste." In many parts of the world, if you burn garbage to produce
heat and/or electricity, it is considered a biofuel, and thus renewable.
• I'll leave it to you to think about whether or not that is
reasonable.?

• But note that biofuels (and biomass) constitute the majority of that
"slice" of the global energy pie.
• Hydro is at only 2.4%. But where are wind and solar?

• Wind and solar's contribution was so small that it was lumped into
the "other" category, at a measly 1.5%.

• This has improved since 2015 (and was 1.1% of the total in 2012), and
in fact has been growing at an all-time high rate, but there is still a
long way to go before they make a major dent in the global energy
regime.
Non Renewable Energy
• Non-Renewable energy is energy which is taken from
the sources that are available on the earth in limited
quantity and will vanish fifty-sixty years from now.
• “Non-renewable energy is energy that cannot restore
itself over a short period of time and does diminish. ”
(Source: U.S. EPA)
• Non-renewable sources are not environmental friendly
and can have serious affect on our health.

• They are called non-renewable because they cannot be

re-generated within a short span of time. Non
renewable sources exist in the form of fossil fuels,
natural gas, oil and coal. natural
• Non-renewable energy sources diminish over time, and
are not able to replenish themselves. In other words, they
are finite, and there is no known way for them to be
replenished on a human timescale.
• Four non-renewable energy sources: coal, oil, natural gas,
and nuclear.
• Coal, oil, and natural gas, are referred to as fossil fuels.
Fossil fuels were created from the remains of dead plants
and animals.
• The source material is renewable (it's biomass!), but since
they take millions of years to form, they are not
replenished over a "short" period of time, so are non-
renewable.
• Fossil fuels are forming somewhere under your feet right
now, but don't hold your breath waiting for them to finish.
• The nuclear energy we use comes from an isotope of Uranium
called U-235. Unlike fossil fuels, U-235 has cosmic origins: it was
formed by one or more supernovae around 6 billion years ago,
about 1.5 billion years before the Earth was formed (a supernova
is a collapsing star, "supernovae" is the plural form of supernova.

• To summarize: coal, oil, and natural gas are fossil fuels. Even
though they all get their energy from the sun, none of them are
renewable.

• Nuclear is also non-renewable, but not a fossil fuel. (Perhaps

confusingly, nuclear is often referred to as an alternative fuel.)

• Most importantly, for all intents and purposes,

whatever coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear exists today
is all that we will ever have.
Take a Bite!

• All of the carbon dioxide emitted from coal, oil,

and natural gas was originally pulled from the
atmosphere to make the plants from which it is
derived from. In other words, the amount of
carbon dioxide emitted is no more than the
amount of carbon dioxide it originally removed
from the air. Why are they not carbon-
neutral energy sources?
Answer!!
• Because the carbon dioxide that was absorbed
was from an ancient atmosphere, and is released
into the current atmosphere. Thus, the carbon is
not balanced. By burning fossil fuels, you are
effectively taking carbon from an ancient
atmosphere and dumping it into our current
atmosphere, so it does not "balance out."