Compare And Contrast Renewable And Solar Energy

Around the world are many different energy sources. There are two main types: renewable and nonrenewable. Renewable sources are sources we can use repeatedly without fear of running out. Some examples are water, solar, and wind. Nonrenewable have a short shelf life. They are slowly running out. Examples of these are coal, natural gas, and petroleum. The two I will be comparing are ethanol from corn and solar energy from the sun. Solar energy is self-explanatory. We harness the power of the sun for energy. Solar panels can be put on cars, calculators, houses, and space crafts. The sunlight hits the cell, loosens the electrons, and turns it into electricity. Because of emerging technology, the energy from the sunlight can be stored on a battery. This makes it sustainable and easy to use (Solar Energy, n.d.). Ethanol from corn is a renewable source of …show more content…
Solar energy will always be able to use the sun for power. It won’t leave any pollutant and, unlike wind, it can be used almost all the time. The downfall is that you can only get energy during the day unless you have a battery (Solar Energy, n.d.) . Installing solar panels is also very expensive, however, one would save quite a lot of money on their energy bill with solar panels. Solar panels require a lot of space to collect energy. Ethanol is a renewable source of energy, but it is not very sustainable because it needs to use nonrenewable energy to be produced. However, Econetwork says that, “The amount of fossil fuel used compared to the amount of solar energy captured by the ethanol feedstocks is referred to as the net energy balance.” It may balance out, but we won’t be able to make ethanol once we run out of fossil fuels. Ethanol would also be considered sustainable because it uses corn, one of the most widely used plants in the U.S. Both types of energy have their pros and cons, but all in all, they are quite