How does it work

What is
renewable
energy?

Solar power
for water
heating

Renewable energy resources are

those
run

whom will never

out. They are

defined as resources
that
get naturally
replenished. They come in many types like; solar, wind, tidal,
wave, geothermal, hydroelectric, biomass and wood.
Wind: turbines turn wind
energy into electric

Solar power
for electricity

Tidal: the tidal

movement
of the sea moves
the turbines
Wave: the
compression of air
by inwards

caused

and outwards movement of the water makes the turbines

move.
Geothermal: it is the process when water is pumped down in
areas with natural underground heat changing it to steam.
Hydroelectric: the harnessing of energy through control in
water speed and pressure in river

Solar energy
In my opinion the best most efficient source of renewable
energy would be solar. The sun is seething that we have a lot of
and seems that it wont run out any time soon. Its been
providing energy for over 4 billon years. To me that seems like
its not going to run out any time soon. It provides enough
energy in a minute to supply the entire population for a year.
The strength off the sun makes it capable to be one of the
world most used source of renewable energy.
Solar energy was first discovered from all other renewable
energy, it was first used for heat. In 1767 the first ever thermal
solar collector was built by Swiss scientist Horace de Saussure.
It was later on used to cook food and heat water.

Advantages
Solar energy is a renewable energy resource.
Solar energy has the potential to become the sole
electricity
provider over the whole world.
No fuel costs.
No harmful polluting gases are produced.
It is relatively discrete.
Solar energy is environmentally friendly, which means no
pollution and helps reduce the risk of global warming
getting worse.

 There is an endless supply of solar energy because it

come from the sun. There is an estimated 3.5x10 ^4
billion watts of energy from the sun.

Disadvantages
The initial cost of purchasing and installing solar panels is
always one of the major drawbacks. And although
governments may lower the prices to some extent in order
to promote the use of solar panels we are still not likely to
buy many of them if they are expensive. However, as new
technologies emerge, the cost of solar panels is likely to
decrease and then we can see an increase in the use of
solar cells to generate electricity. Moreover, despite
rapidly falling prices the cost of manufacturing solar panel
is still very high.
The reliability of solar panels can also be questioned,
although only a little. This is because of the climate that
they may be in, for example, in a very cloudy country the
effectiveness of solar panels is reduced because therefore
is less light reaching the panels, meaning that the energy
output by the panels is also reduced.
Energy storage can cost a lot of money. Also buying the
technology to store huge amounts of energy can cost a
lot.

Solar Energy Statistics

Data

Average solar panel size

needed to power the average

600 sq ft.

home
Average cost of installing a 600
sq ft solar system

$55,000

Solar energy share of global

energy consumption
Average annual growth rate of
global solar energy capacity
Amount of solar energy that hits
the earth each year
Total quads currently used by
the entire globe annually

0.7 %
102 %
8.2 Million Quads
400 Quads

Percent of earth that would need

to be covered with solar panels

0.0005 %

to power it
Barrels of oil saved annually by
all solar energy users

75 Million Barrels

Tonnes of carbon dioxide saved

annually by all solar energy

35 Million Tonnes

users
This table gives a platform to show how wide spred solar
energy really is. We can tell that there is big potential in the
fuure of solar energy. The amount f light and heat energy we
receive form the sun is astonishing. It seems quite odd why the
whole world is not using the most efficient renewable energy
source. He following table was recorded by U.S. Energy
Information Administration: