Renewable energy Germany
Technology is always improving as we strive to build ground-breaking techniques to enhance how we actually produce energy since the latter is at the center of our civilization.
During the last decade, energy consumption has drastically increased, quickly raising fear and the need to look for renewable and inexhaustible energy sources not necessarily on the list of the traditional natural resources.
Traditional natural resources such as fossil fuel, has proved themselves to be a short-term strategy if we want to plan the future of energy totally relying on such a source.
How do we produce a clean energy that will not only help preserve the sanity of the planet but will also be inexhaustible?
Are traditional natural resources inexhaustible?
This question brings about a sense of urgency. Though the reserve of resources might still be relatively considerable and the probability of discovering new sites open, a sustainable strategy must at this stage be to figure out better means to produce power using imperishable resources.
What is renewable energy?
To make more sense of what renewable energy is, we should attempt to first shed some light on what a renewable resource is.
A renewable resource is a resource that tends to overcome depletion independently of human consumption. These types of energy are mostly being regenerated through biological reproduction or natural recurring processes of such.
Now, the renewable energy is energy that is obtained from renewable resources.
Renewable energy sources
Water, air and food according to Wikipedia are considered to be renewable energy sources. One can argue that the presence of biogas, natural fiber, bioplastic, winds and the like, roughly speaking can be derived from the three aforementioned sources.
List of renewable energy sources
Just to name a few, renewable energy sources can be listed as the following:
Water resources
Nonagricultural food
Sun
Wind
Air
Biogas
As mentioned at the beginning of this post, on the quest of producing energy from the inexhaustible resource we might have at hand, a crucial decision should also be made towards having the whole process harmless to the planet and to wildlife.
If we take as an example a wind farm that is producing energy using the power of wind, we can have a considerable number of drawbacks although not confirmed in my opinion.
The energy produced by a wind farm is of clean type but some studies have found that the presence of wind turbines can be a threat to wildlife. Wind turbines, in particular, can be harmful to flying creatures.
As of today, Wind, biomass and Sunlight have been the most common resources used in the production of clean and renewable energy, roughly speaking.
Type of renewable energy
Wind power
The movement of ventilation caused by the wind has long ago been converted to power and wind turbine comes as a result of that. The availability of this type of energy varies from one geographical positions to the other.
Hydropower
Water is 800 times denser than air, giving it a quite reliable means of producing a constant motion which can be easily converted into energy. The forms of water energy include dams, small hydroelectric installation and run-on-water hydroelectricity.
Solar energy
Solar energy is exploited using a variety of evolving technologies like photovoltaics, solar heating and artificial photosynthesis. Solar power is one of the most straightforward means to produce energy without moving parts.
Geothermal energy
Thermal energy in the form of heat that can be extracted from the earth. Earth's thermal energy comes from the radioactive decay of minerals and the original formation of the planet. Geothermal energy is not as widely used as Solar and Hydropower.
Bioenergy
Biomass is biological material derived from recently-living/living organism. This type of energy can be converted to other types of gas such as ethanol and methane gas. Biomass is burned to produce heat power thus releasing polluting gas into the atmosphere.
Energy storage
This term is often used to describe the number of techniques developed to store energy. Most time, it is required to produce a bit more energy at best conditions and store part of it for times when energy production is bound to drop due to the shortcoming of relying on an energy like water. An example of this is seen with the pumped-storage hydroelectricity.
Renewable energy in Germany
Renewable energy counted for about 34% of the German electricity sector in 2016. Most coming from wind turbines, biomass and solar Photovoltaic systems.
Germany has a considerable potential in wind power resources making it account for about 14% of the net generated electricity in 2016. The country is currently looking to build offshore wind farms though facing the challenge of developing sufficient network capacity to transport this energy from the production sites to the consumption sites.
Solar energy also makes a good part of the energy exploited to provide energy to the German population. One of the beauties of the solar power plant is that individuals can easily build such power plant on a small or micro level and even inject extra power into the power grid that will be considered as negative consumption.
Final words
Renewable energy is slowly becoming a major player in energy production around the globe and innovation are being made in this sector with a fast pace.
Countries like Germany are slowing transitioning from nuclear power to green energy which is an example develop countries, as well as developing country, should follow.
The private sector can be incentivized by government policies to help make the transition a priority, given these new technologies has been proven to be a win-win for nature and modern life. We need not to sacrifice one at the benefit of the other.
I would go as far as saying that we yet must discover new ways of producing energy more efficiently either by improving the existing technology or by discovering a new way to approach energy production.
Could finding new green Energy sources still be thought of?
