Our society has enormous energy needs since for almost daily activities we need the use of the energy. We need energy to power the dryer, the iron, the microwave, the mobile phone, the laptop, to use the transport. But just stop and think about an ordinary day in your life.
It is clear that we need this energy but there are different ways to generate it: one way is the use of fossil fuels such as gas, petrol and coal that increase highly atmospheric CO2 emissions. For this reason, they also cause an increase in the temperature of the planet. In addition, the burning of fossil fuels helps to the depletion of these resources that, how we all know, are limited resources, i.e they have expiration date. Data confirm that the use of fossil fuels is the main responsible for the global GHG emissions. The more alarming is that this use tends to increase.
Another form of generating energy in an ecological way, no damaging the environment, is the use of renewable energies. By means of using them, we are avoiding CO2 emissions linked to the burning of coal in an electric power central. If we used renewable energies in a suitable way the global energetic needs would be satisfied. Renewable energies are: solar energy, wind power, hydropower, ocean energy, geothermal energy and bioenergy.
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Wind power is a way to generate electricity by means of wind turbines using the Sun which is a renewable source of energy. Only a small proportion of the solar radiation (electromagnetic energy) reaches the surface of the Earth and is converted into kinetic energy due to differences in temperature gradient. These differences in temperature gradient create wind.
The ocean has an enourmous amount of energy in form of kinetic or thermal energy. This energy is offered by ocean waves,tides, salinity and ocean temperature differences. The movement of the water in the oceans creates a huge store of kinetic energy which can be harnessed to generate electrical energy.The thermal gradient and salinity gradient could be also used to generate electricity.
- Tidal energy
- OTEC (Ocean thermal Energy Conversion)
- Wave energy
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Geothermal energy consists on the use of thermal energy from the Earth’s interior. This energy is stored in both rock and trapped steam or liquid water. The geothermal energy of the Earth’s crust has its root in the original formation of the planet and in radioactive decay of minerals. The geothermal gradient is the rate of increase in temperature per unit depth in the Earth. It varies from place to place; it varies from 25 to 30 °C/km The geothermal gradient drives a continuous conduction of thermal energy in form of heat from the core of the Earth and its surface.
Hydropower is a renewable energy that is generated from water moving in the hydrological cycle. Hydropower uses the energy of water moving from higher to lower elevations on its way back to the ocean, driven by the force of gravity. The primary source of energy is the sun since the water movement is produced by solar radiation.
Bioenergy is a renewable energy that uses biomass to produce energy.
Biomass is the biological material derived from living, or recently living organisms. It can be used in two ways: directly to produce heat or turning it into biofuels.