Renewable Energy Resources



Since the very beginning of the human kind men constantly tried to control the development of nature, and man has become so good in this activity that now we are going to destroy nature forever if we won't become good enough to respect the globe we live in. The indiscriminate exploitation of all the natural resources has brought the earth to its limit, its break point, some scientists call it Point Of No Return (PONR). This is going to be the most important problem we are going to face in the next decade, together with the potable water distribution. Pollution is due to various factors and it can be catalogued in order to these factors. We are going to talk about the chance that the renewable energy could give us in the near future. Renewable energy is generated from natural resources (such as: sunlight, wind, rain, tides and geothermal heat) which are almost 100% renewable. In 2006, about 18% of global final energy consumption came from these kind of power. The main renewable energy are:

    1)Hydro power: Energy in water can be harnessed and used. Since water is about 800 times denser than air, even a slow flowing stream of water, or moderate sea swell, can yield considerable amounts of energy.
    2)Wind power: Airflows can be used to run wind turbines, that's why the areas where winds are stronger and more constant, are the preferred locations for wind farms. Wind power is renewable and produces no greenhouse gases during operation, such as carbon dioxide and methane.
    3)Solar energy: In this context, "solar energy" refers to energy that is collected from sunlight. Solar energy can be applied in many different ways: you can use solar energy directly for with solar cell it becomes electricity of you can gain a good afford in various heating processes like the extremely easy request of the hot water in houses as well as for industry proposals.
    4)Geothermal energy: Geothermal energy is energy obtained by tapping the heat of the earth itself, usually from kilometres deep into the Earth's crust. It is expensive to build a power station but operating costs are low resulting in low energy costs for suitable sites. Ultimately, this energy derives from heat in the Earth's core.
My hope is that human kind recognises the fact that is not postponable any more, the moving to these new sources of energy. Though it seems to be far away from our chance to do something about it, we could just start to live our lives taking in account this problem and try not to waste “things” as we are used to do nowadays. It easy to say, but it is so hard to do, because, as matter of fact, our kind of life has spoilt us so much. Like the drug to a drugged or the alcohol to a heavy drinker. But at the end it could be a very good beginning, maybe the right one, maybe the only one left. Anyway keep in mind that it could be too late.

Written by: Matteo Bassi free1@itcgbianchi.it