Quick summary: Learn about the differences between renewable and nonrenewable energy resources, the production details behind each type of renewable energy, and the advantages and disadvantages of these renewable resources.
The terms alternative energy, clean energy, green energy, and sustainable energy are common buzzwords these days. You may even note a sense of urgency around them. The reason you hear these common phrases so often is that they are used in reference to renewable energy resources.
Why has renewable energy become increasingly relevant?
Read on to get the answer to that question and more. We’ll cover what renewable sources of energy are available, the pros and cons of renewable power generation, and how practicing sustainability by using renewable energy affects you financially.
What Makes Energy Renewable?
Renewable energy is energy we derive from Earth’s natural resources, including wind, water, and the sun. We call these energy sources renewable because they are inexhaustible.
What Is the Difference Between Renewable and Nonrenewable Resources?
First, let’s explain nonrenewable energy to discuss the difference between renewable and nonrenewable resources.
The primary energy sources in the United States are fossil fuels, such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Each of these fossil fuels is a natural resource, created over millions of years far beneath Earth’s surface.
So, are fossil fuels renewable energy sources or nonrenewable energy sources? There is a limited amount of them, so they are nonrenewable. When these finite resources are gone, they’re gone.
The rate at which we’re using fossil fuels is too fast. If we don’t make a drastic, immediate change, these energy sources could be depleted within our children’s lifetime.
Renewable energy sources, however, are inexhaustible. Using renewable energy sources allows us to conserve and extend the lifespan of our nonrenewable energy sources.
However, burning fossil fuels emits greenhouse gasses and causes global warming, so they have a negative impact on the environment. The top cause of carbon emissions in the U.S. comes from electricity generation produced by burning fossil fuels.
Oil spills are a risk that comes with the continued use of crude oil, also known as petroleum, which is a liquid fossil fuel. Burning it to produce energy results in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to climate change. The effects of climate change include:
- Acid rain
- Air and water pollution, including smog, soot, and toxic emissions
- Congenital disabilities
- Cancer
- Heart and lung diseases
- Increased frequency of extreme weather
- Droughts
- Hurricanes
- Melting glaciers, which cause sea levels to rise
- Wildfires
This is why it’s common for the conversation about renewable energy vs. fossil fuels to use the terms nonrenewable or fossil fuels to mean any resource that emits carbon and contributes to climate change.
It just so happens that the nonrenewable resources we use to generate electricity and power our lives are finite and produce the most carbon dioxide.
So, to recap, if someone asks if natural gas, oil, or coal is renewable or nonrenewable, the answer is that they are nonrenewable resources.
Renewable energy, meanwhile, has a much lower carbon footprint than coal and other fossil fuels do. Switching to renewable energy sources can positively impact the environment because renewable energy does not contribute to climate change.
How Do You Conserve Nonrenewable Energy Sources?
Even though switching to renewable energy resources is a critical move for our future, conserving our nonrenewable energy resources is also important.
Did you know that Americans wasted two-thirds of the total energy used in 2018? Think of how much longer our fossil fuel would last if we could avoid such waste.
6 Simple Steps Towards Energy Conservation at Home:
- Turn off the lights when you leave a room.
- Unplug unused chargers, electronics, and appliances.
- Upgrade to energy-efficient appliances and switch to LED lightbulbs.
- Repair plumbing issues like leaky faucets and running toilets.
- Weatherize your home to keep cold air inside during the summer and heat inside during the winter.
- Lower the hot water temperature setting on your boiler.
Why Is Energy Conservation Important?
In the United States, fossil fuels produce 80% of all energy consumed. Our dependence on fossil fuel is too high to risk a rapid depletion rate.
We are working toward replacing fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas with renewable alternatives, but it takes time to build renewable energy projects and modernize the power grid so that it can incorporate renewable energy sources.
The more energy we can conserve, the longer we will have nonrenewable resources available to assist us with our energy needs. Just as important, energy conservation helps to slow global warming.
Critical Achievements That Can Be Accomplished Through Energy Conservation:
- Delay substantial rise in the cost of natural gas and other nonrenewable energy sources
- Lower utility bills
- Provide an opportunity for tax credits and other savings
- Reduce airborne allergens
- Protect fragile ecosystems like coral reefs
- Improve mental health
What Are Renewable Resources and Renewable Energy?
In its early stages, the costs and limitations of alternative energy didn’t make it as practical for widespread commercial use as it is now.
Fortunately, our renewable energy source options are steadily growing and improving.
Plus, with the increasing demand for improved energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, it’s becoming easier and more beneficial for consumers to go green.
Let’s take a look at some renewable resources that we’re using to fulfill our energy needs:
- Solar energy
- Hydroelectric energy
- Geothermal energy
- Wind energy
- Bioenergy
- Nuclear power
- Hydrogen energy
- Tidal energy
- Wave energy
What Are Different Ways To Generate Renewable Power?
We now know that we use the Earth’s naturally occurring resources like the sun, wind, and water to source our energy needs. But how does that work?
Here, we’ll look at some of the ways we use alternative energy to generate renewable power.
Is Solar Energy Renewable or Nonrenewable Energy?
Solar energy technologies are systems that capture radiant energy from the sun and convert it into electrical or thermal energy. Solar energy includes solar power for electricity generation, passive solar systems, and solar-thermal systems for space heating and heating water.
There are two main types of solar power systems.
The first is photovoltaics (PV), which is the technology used in solar panels. Here, direct sunlight is converted by the PV system into electricity with solar cells.
The other type is called a concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) system, which converts sunlight to heat using mirrors and receivers and then uses that heat to produce or store electricity. CSP can also be used to deliver heat to industrial applications, like water desalination, enhanced oil recovery, and food processing.
Solar energy may be the best among renewable and nonrenewable resources we have today. As technology has improved, costs have plummeted. Solar energy is the most cost efficient form of electricity for most places on Earth.
What Is Hydroelectric Power?
Hydroelectric power, or hydropower, uses the natural flow of moving water to generate electricity. Humans have been using it for thousands of years.
Dams are commonly known as hydropower facilities. As water flows through a dam’s turbines, it produces electricity or pumped-storage hydropower. Run-of-river hydropower uses a channel to funnel the water through instead of a dam.
The most commonly used renewable power source globally is hydropower, claiming over 54% of the world’s renewable power generation capacity in 2018.
China is home to a facility named the Three Gorges, the biggest hydropower plant in the world. Brazil, Canada, the United States, and Russia also boast some of the world’s largest hydropower facilities.
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How Do Geothermal Heat Pumps Work?
Geothermal heat is heat that lies beneath Earth’s crust. Occasionally, heat will naturally escape in large quantities, resulting in volcanic eruptions or geysers—and the regions where these occur are great locations for geothermal power plants.
Geothermal power plants capture geothermal heat by creating underground reservoirs and pumping water through rocks deep below the surface. Then the steam generated by the heated water rises to the surface, where it spins a turbine connected to a generator that produces electricity.
Heat pumps work differently, transferring heat by pumping water or a refrigerant through pipes that are just below Earth’s surface. All heat pumps move hot air from one place to another, cooling, heating, and providing hot water for homes and buildings. Geothermal heat pumps do this without burning coal (a solid fossil fuel) or polluting the earth’s atmosphere.
There are many types of geothermal heat pump systems. There are horizontal, vertical, pond or lake closed-loop systems, and the open-loop system, plus hybrid systems. They all use Earth’s consistent temperature as the exchange medium rather than the air temperature outside.
How Is Electricity Generated With Wind Power?
Did you know that windmills and wind turbines are not the same things? Windmills were the first method used to harness wind energy. They can be used for pumping water, crushing and shredding rocks, grinding grains, and other agricultural purposes, as well as for electricity generation.
When it comes to mass electricity generation, wind turbines are more advanced but less versatile than windmills, since a wind turbine’s sole function is to produce electricity. Wind farms—clusters of turbines arranged across large plots of land—are used for bulk electricity generation. Small businesses and homes can also harness wind power to generate electricity with small-scale wind turbines.
Wind turbines are massive mechanical devices that produce electricity by harnessing the wind’s kinetic energy. Most turbines have three propeller blades that rotate when the wind blows. The blades’ rotation turns a rotor, which connects to a part called the main shaft. When the blades spin, an electrical generator creates electricity.
Not all of these turbines are on land. Offshore wind farms are renewable energy projects that exist in bodies of water, and they’re generating electricity, too, although the International Energy Agency reports that the offshore wind market produces just 0.3% of global power generation.
Still, offshore wind has the potential to generate more than 18 times the amount of electricity the current global market demands. Europe, China, Denmark, Germany, and the U.K. are the current leaders in the offshore wind market.
Wind energy is one of our best sources of clean energy because it doesn’t produce harmful emissions. It is also one of the cheapest and fastest-growing energy sources globally.
Thanks to larger wind turbines, onshore wind energy ranks as the cheapest source of new bulk electricity generation throughout all of North America.
What Are the Different Types of Bioenergy?
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Biomass energy, or bioenergy, is renewable energy derived from organic matter like dead plants, wood, algae, waste from paper mills, and food waste (biomass). We can generate energy by burning biomass or harnessing the methane gas produced when organic material in ponds or landfills naturally decomposes.
We use biomass energy for generating electricity, thermal energy, and biofuels. More than 98% of U.S. gasoline contains ethanol, which is made from corn and sugarcane; biodiesel is made from rapeseed, soy, and palm oil.
As renewable resources go, biomass feedstock is extremely versatile, because it can be made into products, electric power, heat, and fuel.
Although burning biomass produces carbon dioxide emissions, plant regeneration consumes an equal amount of carbon dioxide, which we believe balances the atmosphere.
In fact, sustainable aviation fuels made from biomass and waste resources have the potential to deliver the performance of jet fuel but with a fraction of its carbon footprint.
Which Sources Are Cheaper: Renewable or Nonrenewable Energy?
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) published a report in 2020 that shows renewable power is becoming increasingly cheaper than fossil fuel for electricity generation. In fact, onshore wind power and solar photovoltaics are now the most affordable options in energy production.
Products that were once too costly to be practical for consumer use have been plummeting in price. This new affordability is accredited to developers gaining more experience in the field, improved renewable technologies, enhanced energy-efficiency capabilities, increased demand, and competitive supply chains.
Using solar PV and onshore wind to replace coal could save up to $23 billion in annual power system costs and reduce yearly carbon dioxide emissions by 1.8 gigatons. Solar PV costs are now one-fifth lower than the least expensive fossil-fuel source, and onshore wind power offers even greater savings.
Nuclear, hydropower, geothermal, and biomass energy are making their way into the financially competitive spotlight as well, based on location.
So, how does renewable energy save you money? In addition to lowering your utility bills, many states and utility providers offer various green energy plans, incentives, credits, and discounts. Contact your local energy provider to learn about your options.
Consider combining multiple energy technologies to create your own customized renewable energy system and save big on your utility bills.
What Are the Pros and Cons of Using Renewable Resources?
Each alternative energy source has its advantages and disadvantages. Here, we’ll look at the positives and negatives of renewable resources as a whole.
We already covered many of the major pros of using renewable energy: We can never deplete these natural resources, they will prolong the lifespan of fossil fuels, they don’t emit greenhouse gasses, they help clear the air for future generations and reduce environmental impacts, and they will save you money on your utility bills.
That sounds pretty great already, but there’s more.
Renewable energy jobs are on the rise worldwide. China is the clean energy employment leader, providing more than 4 million jobs in the industry, while the United States is making tremendous strides. Clean energy jobs increased in every state and grew 3.9% nationally from 2021 to 2022.
The number of Americans working in the wind industry now doubles that of coal mining.
What Are the Disadvantages of Renewable Energy?
While each sustainable energy option is unique, there are areas of concern.
- Large-scale renewable energy power plants can be expensive, making the upfront investment greater.
- Wind turbines located within particular habitats and migratory paths pose the threat of injury or death to flying birds and bats. However, large windows and skyscrapers are equally hazardous.
- Several renewable resources carry the concern of intermittency, which is a disruption caused by the inconsistency of the resource itself.
- For example, the wind blows at various speeds, and the sun doesn’t always shine. However, our increased ability to store energy using batteries has improved renewable energy reliability. Some batteries have the capacity to store up to 100 megawatts, which is equal to 100,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh). The average U.S. household used around 877 kWh per month in 2019.
- Wind turbines can be noisy, although most wind farms are in rural, non-residential areas or offshore, where the noise isn’t a problem. Newer designs have proven to be much quieter, resulting in fewer noise complaints.
- Hydroelectric power can disrupt waterways and has the potential to negatively affect wildlife by changing migration paths, water levels, and currents.
- Withdrawing steam to harness geothermal energy causes rocks to contract, which can induce earthquakes.
- The large machinery necessary to capture ocean energy can disturb delicate ecosystems, although the process of capturing ocean energy is clean.
- Nuclear power plants produce low-carbon renewable energy, but they come with concerns about radioactivity and safe disposal of nuclear waste.
How Do You Switch To Renewable Energy?
Most will agree that when choosing between renewable and nonrenewable resources, the benefits of using renewables far outweigh the drawbacks, not to mention that improved technology is regularly emerging to address and eliminate the negatives.
You now know why making the switch to renewable energy is vital to our future. But how can you go about making the change?
Ask your energy provider about the renewable energy product and plan options available, and get started on your new sustainable lifestyle today.
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