What is Renewable Energy?
Renewable energy uses energy sources
that are continually replenished by
nature the sun, the wind, water, the
Earth’s heat, and plants. Renewable
energy technologies turn these fuels into
usable forms of energy—most often electricity, but also heat, chemicals, or
mechanical power.
Why Use Renewable Energy?
Today we primarily use fossil fuels to heat
and power our homes and fuel our cars.
It’s convenient to use coal, oil, and natural
gas for meeting our energy needs, but we
have a limited supply of these fuels on the
Earth. We’re using them much more
rapidly than they are being created. Eventually, they will run out. And because of safety concerns and waste disposal problems, the United States will retire much of
its nuclear capacity by 2020. In the meantime,
the nation’s energy needs are
expected to grow by 33 percent during the
next 20 years. Renewable energy can help
fill the gap.
Even if we had an unlimited supply of fossil
fuels, using renewable energy is better
for the environment. We often call renew-
able energy technologies “clean” or
“green” because they produce few if any
pollutants. Burning fossil fuels, however,
sends greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, trapping the sun’s heat and contributing to global warming. Climate
scientists generally agree that the Earth’s
average temperature has risen in the past
century. If this trend continues, sea levels
will rise, and scientists
predict that floods,
heat waves, droughts,
and other extreme
weather conditions
could occur more often.
Other pollutants are
released into the air,
soil, and water when
fossil fuels are burned.
These pollutants take a
dramatic toll on the
environment—and on
humans. Air pollution
contributes to diseases
like asthma. Acid rain
from sulfur dioxide
and nitrogen oxides harms plants and fish.
Nitrogen oxides also
contribute to smog.