Renewable Energy News
Climate Change Drives Growth In New Renewable Energy Sector Worth Many Usd Billions In 10 Years
Renewable energy is the past Cinderalla now invited to the ball, and the rapid expansion in renewable energy will be, and needs to be, massive in order to help alleviate the worst effects of global climate change.
There are many sources of renewable energy. Some are obvious, such as biofuels made from vegetable oil crops already in consumption for food, and hydropower schemes using water in our rivers and high lakes.
But water power can also be taken from tidal currents and by placing dams in estuaries with high tidal ranges, and directing the flow through turbines.
Solar panels use the renewable energy of the sun.
There is even renewable energy in the organic waste (biological waste), such as food scraps, wood from sustainable forests, and paper/cardboard manufactured from trees grown in sustainable woodland, and sustainable materials in the rubbish we throw away at present. This energy could, and should, be re-used to provide energy, and recycling and in many nations separate collection of municipal (household) waste is being developed all the time to enable this to take place.
Looking at the investment potential for renewable energy from both the electricity, and road transport sectors, and adding the value of both from a recent report by Shell (UK), suggests that at a total of ?1300M (USD$2600M), investment is likely in the next 10 years in the transport biofuels and renewable electricity generation sectors in the UK, alone.
So it seems that a Renewable Energy News blog, will be in demand and there must be a need to report the great opportunities to be made for those that are “nimble” as being likely to arise in the renewable energy sector, in the next few years.
This is a sector which will also have to tackle many political and economic issues beyond the complexities of the environmental balance sheet.
So, there is likely to be a lot of interesting news and new developments within the technology used by the Renewable Energy industry and there is a need for a suitable web provider for this service.
So that is where we begin, as we start the Renewable Energy News Blog; a new blog, in a new and rising industrial sector.
Uses Of Wind Turbines
Wind is a powerful source of energy that has been harnessed for different uses for centuries. More and more scientists and researchers feel that wind can be used effectively as a renewable energy source and this can be done only when power within the moving air can be harnessed properly.
The Wind Energy Industry has grown rapidly since the 1990’s and is considered as one of the fastest growing sectors in the power generation industry. Some of the European countries have even installed wind turbines that have been in operation for almost 20 years now and this entire operation has been extremely successful as well. Using wind turbines to harness wind power to create energy have brought down the production costs and are viable option for the coal fired power stations.
According to a study, the UK has the largest potential wind energy resource in the entire Europe and hence wind is being regarded their most promising future source of renewable energy technologies. As of today the wind turbines in the UK are producing electricity that is being delivered to almost 390,000 households and reaching around 1 million people. A salient point of the use of wind energy is that it has reduced carbon dioxide emissions by almost 1.46 million tones per annum.
The question is how can wind be converted into energy? The answer is: by using a wind turbine. The wind turbine is basically a type of rotating device just like a huge fan that can convert the kinetic energy present in the wind into mechanical energy. When this mechanical energy is used by any type of machinery like a pump then such a machine is known as a windmill. If the same mechanical energy is converted to electricity then the machine that does the conversion is called a wind generator or a wind turbine. It is also known as a wind energy converter (WEC) or a wind power unit (WPU).
Surprisingly the first use of the wind machines was for grinding grains as early as 200 B.C in Persia. It was also introduced in the prosperous and powerful Roman Empire in 250 A.D. The year 1900 saw the maximum number of windmills being used in Denmark. Almost 2500 windmills were installed to provide the much needed mechanical load to pumps and gave a peak power of 30MW.
Why Wind Turbines should be used?
Wind turbines can effectively help in creating mechanical energy, which can be used for multiple purposes including assisting in the generation of power and electricity. Some of the other uses include:
* One of the salient points is that there is only a one time installation cost after which the electricity that is produced using a wind turbine will be free.
* It is a source of clean renewable energy that will not generate any greenhouse gases or emit carbon dioxide or even produce any dangerous wastes.
* Each unit of electricity produced by a wind turbine displaces one from every conventional power station. Wind turbines have been commissioned in the UK and have been extremely successful in prevent the emission of almost one and a three-quarter millions tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.
* Wind is a reliable and abundant source. UK being the windiest country in Europe has abundance of wind energy that can be used for making electricity.
* Wind power contributes significantly to the overall energy generation in any country. Denmark is one of the countries that gets almost 20% of its electricity from wind power
* Wind turbines use an extremely robust technology that is designed for operation locally as well as remotely and requires only periodic maintenance.
