Renewable Energy Types and Applications

Renewable Energy Sources and Systems    

What is the renewable energy?

Renewable energy is the energy generated from natural sources like solar energy from the sun, wind, geothermal, and tidal. As these sources are replenished and not drained, the generated energy also does not run out or end.

What are the advantages of renewable energy?

Availability

The most significant advantage of renewable sources is the availability where you can find sources like sunlight, water, and wind where coal, oil, and gas are available in certain places but not available when or where you want to use them. 

Never run out.

Opposite the traditional energy sources such as coal mining, oil, and natural gas wells which are normally determined by a certain quantity and will run out in the end, renewable sources will never run out over time as it comes from natural sources. these natural sources will not end. 

Easy to get

No need for heavy or special equipment to extract the sources and you don’t need to transport it from country to country or from one continent to another. like solar energy which exists anywhere and wind which is available around us. 

 zero-carbon emission.

traditional energy sources have a significant bad effect on the surrounding environment but in renewable energy sources, the driven energy is very clean and friendly to the environment where the energy production process has zero-carbon emissions or greenhouse gases. 

Operation Cost saving.

Looking at the growth of using renewable energy in electricity as consumption, the electricity generated from sun and wind is cheaper than that from traditional sources where the traditional need extra cost for heavy equipment and transportation. for example, solar panels need zero maintenance except cleaning a few times per year  

New jobs

Another social advantage can be added to the previous advantages by opening new projects using renewable energy, it opens the way for new jobs in solar panel and wind turbine fabrication and installation as well as their maintenance plus all their related supportive processes

What are the disadvantages of the renewable energy resources?

High initial cost

Although renewable is available and continues, the amount of power generated from renewable sources is very small, which is why it needs large-scale projects and large infrastructure which needs large investments. Despite this disadvantage, the research and development (RAD) in all stages of the uses of renewable energy has a significant improvement and decrease of the initial cost. 

Low energy generated

For example, the maximum solar cell efficiency (the sun’s energy converted to electricity) reached 39.46% by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). this value is under (RAD) at all times.
Unreliability
As the renewable sources are natural, sometimes the generated energy (electricity from solar for example) will be affected by the clouds and shadows. The wind turbines will be effective only on windy days and will not produce any energy in calm weather. 

Complication.

As renewable energy depends on natural sources, the power generation system using renewable sources needs other systems working together like an energy storage system or another renewable system to be used (like the hybrid energy system) in case of the absence of one or more sources because of the bad weather or shading (in case of solar energy)

What are the applications of renewable energy?

Because of the nature of renewable energy, it is used in many applications such as: 

Electricity generation.

The common form of energy that is produced from renewable energy is where all renewable energies are converted to electricity. Most renewable energy sources like solar, hydro, and wind generate electrical power directly like the home solar power system while others use the heat energy from the renewables in power generation like biomass. The generated electricity could be converted to other energy forms. 

Cooling and heating houses and buildings.

It uses direct heat from sources like sun radiation and the heat and steam generation from geotherms or the electrical power generated from renewable energy in heating or cooling the buildings

Buildings lighting.

Direct sunlight is used to light up houses and offices by using a Sola-tube device which is a device that uses its internal mirrors to reflect the sunlight over buildings to the entire rooms. it also may use the power generated from renewable energy.

Water desalination. 

It could use both the generated electricity in the desalination station that uses electrical power in the desalination processes or the direct heat in the steaming and condensation processes in the desalination station

What are the types of renewable energy sources?

Solar energy source.

It uses the photovoltaic effect to convert sunlight to electricity through solar cells and solar panels and uses the heat in the solar energy in the steam turbines to generate electricity.  The generated electricity is directly proportional to the amount of sunlight absorbed by the solar panel. also, solar energy is used in home activities like cooking.

Wind energy source.

It uses the mechanical power of the wind in wind turbines to generate electricity in wind farms through generators or uses the direct mechanical obtained from windmills in grain grinding and water pumping from the ground. 

Hydropower source

Where used the power of water dropping from a higher level to a lower surface level like the one which is used widely around the world in river dams. It could be used in electricity production by using the generators to convert the mechanical power to electricity. 

Biomass energy source.

It uses the organic material derived from plants like trees and crops as well as human and animal manure to be directly burned to produce heat. The biomass could be converted to other forms of fuel like gases, solids, and liquids through certain processes like pyrolysis and gasification. 

Geotherm energy source.

In geotherm energy source, the thermal energy of the magma being in the earth’s core produced by the radioactive particles slow decay in rock at the planet earth’s center. The hot water or steam vents can be harvested at the surface of the earth. 

Tidal energy resource.

Tidal energy is generated when the ocean water tides are moving up and down. The power generated from tidal movements is considerably small. Turbines are used to convert the tidal energy to electricity in the fluid stream, barrage, or tidal lagoon. 

Wave energy source

It uses Wave Energy Converters (WEC) to catch the wave energy at the ocean surface. The movement of the ocean surface with the wave up and down. A magnet rod is attached to a floater at the surface and also moves up and down inside a generated coil. The induced current in the generated coil is transferred through cables to the shore.