Learning About Renewable Energy Sources

You will often hear politicians, environmentalists and economists – and everyday people – discuss the need to use renewable energy sources to meet our needs, stop rising prices and avoid exhausting the planet.  But what is a renewable energy source?  Is this any different from a sustainable energy source?

For everyday purposes, a renewable energy source and a sustainable energy source are pretty much the same thing.  A renewable energy source is something that humans can harness to provide electricity, transport, heating and lighting in our homes and businesses – and on our roads – and this source of energy won’t be used up.  

Technicalities of Renewable Energy

If you want to get technical, however, a renewable energy source is something that provides energy but the source of that energy is easily replaced.  A sustainable energy source, by contrast, is something that will provide energy for the foreseeable future.  Every renewable energy source is a sustainable energy source, but not every sustainable energy source is renewable, technically speaking.  Take solar energy, for instance.  While the sun is certainly a sustainable energy source (the sun will keep providing light, heat and electromagnetic radiation to the earth for quite a few million years to come, and even after that, it will make the planet unbearably hot and unliveable before it finally burns out).  However, the sun is not a renewable energy source, technically speaking – there is nothing humans can do to replenish or replace the sun (although this was the idea behind quite a few pagan rituals, the most notorious being the Aztec practice of “feeding” the sun fresh, still-beating human hearts as often as possible).

In this article, the term “renewable energy source” will refer to both sorts in the non-technical fashion.

Common Types of Renewable Energy

What are some examples of types of renewable energy?  

• solar power,
• wind power,
• hydro power (including tidal),
• geothermal energy,
• biofuels and biodiesel,
• wood (for firewood),
• methane/landfill gas.

Non Renewable Energy Sources

It’s also handy to realise what isn’t a renewable energy source.  A non-renewable energy source is something that the planet only has a finite amount of and once it’s gone, we can’t get any more.  This usually refers to the use of fossil fuels, whether that fuel is coal, natural gas or petroleum in its many forms.  Nuclear energy (uranium is a finite resource) and batteries (which use various minerals) are also non-renewable energy sources, although you could argue that rechargeable batteries are sustainable.

One renewable energy source that is often overlooked in discussions is food and muscle power.  This is one of the first steps anyone can take when shifting to a lifestyle of using renewable or sustainable energy: take some literal steps and walk more often (or bike).  The only thing that this burns is calories.