Ever since the effects of global warming and the scarcity of fossil fuels have been noticed, the world has made a push towards alternative energy. Some are still non-renewable, like nuclear energy, but are much cleaner for the atmosphere than fossil fuels, while most of them are renewable and clean. The most common renewable energies are wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and hydro energies. Renewable energies produced about 16.6% of the world’s energy in 2010, and this number is expected to rise by 42% of their total in the decade from 2010-2020 (Pazheri et al., 2014). Renewable energies are currently being used the most in electricity production and are expected to increase their production of electricity by 2.7 times from 2010-2035. Making
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Hydroelectricity is the utilization of flowing water to create electricity, usually through the use of a dam. Wind energy is classified as the use of wind to turn a turbine blade in order to produce electricity (Ellabban et al., 2014). Among all the renewable energies, hydroelectricity is the most widely used as it makes up 85% of the renewable energy market, has a capacity of 970 GW, and produced 3500 TWh of electricity in 2011. This is due mainly to the fact that hydroelectricity produces the cheapest electricity, because of its long history of use and low cost implementation. Wind energy is second among renewable energies with a total capacity of 238 GW. It is one of the fastest growing renewable energies as it grew by 28% each year from 2001-2011 (Pazheri et al., 2014). Wind and hydro energy are by far the most popular renewable energies, but the others have bright futures in the market as the share of renewable energy increases in the energy …show more content…
According to Nelson and Emmott (2013), solar energy could deliver about 100 times the world energy demand. This capacity is much higher than the other renewable energies. Solar energy also has plenty of different scales of deployment ranging from residential to commercial plants, making solar the most dynamic option. When comparing the recent growth among all renewable energies, solar has the largest recent growth. Over the decade from 2003-2013, there was an increase in photovoltaic use by more than 40% every year (Benda, 2014). This number shows a strong future for solar energy as it is continuing to grow every year. However, the most promising aspect of solar energy is the fact that solar technology efficiencies haven’t even been maximized yet, so the potential for this solar energy in the future is tremendous. This can happen faster the more money that’s invested into solar energy, so many governments, such as the US government, have been providing renewable energy
Hydroelectricity is the utilization of flowing water to create electricity, usually through the use of a dam. Wind energy is classified as the use of wind to turn a turbine blade in order to produce electricity (Ellabban et al., 2014). Among all the renewable energies, hydroelectricity is the most widely used as it makes up 85% of the renewable energy market, has a capacity of 970 GW, and produced 3500 TWh of electricity in 2011. This is due mainly to the fact that hydroelectricity produces the cheapest electricity, because of its long history of use and low cost implementation. Wind energy is second among renewable energies with a total capacity of 238 GW. It is one of the fastest growing renewable energies as it grew by 28% each year from 2001-2011 (Pazheri et al., 2014). Wind and hydro energy are by far the most popular renewable energies, but the others have bright futures in the market as the share of renewable energy increases in the energy …show more content…
According to Nelson and Emmott (2013), solar energy could deliver about 100 times the world energy demand. This capacity is much higher than the other renewable energies. Solar energy also has plenty of different scales of deployment ranging from residential to commercial plants, making solar the most dynamic option. When comparing the recent growth among all renewable energies, solar has the largest recent growth. Over the decade from 2003-2013, there was an increase in photovoltaic use by more than 40% every year (Benda, 2014). This number shows a strong future for solar energy as it is continuing to grow every year. However, the most promising aspect of solar energy is the fact that solar technology efficiencies haven’t even been maximized yet, so the potential for this solar energy in the future is tremendous. This can happen faster the more money that’s invested into solar energy, so many governments, such as the US government, have been providing renewable energy