Renewable Energy Sources & Applications

By: EconomyWatch   Date: 30 April 2010

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Renewable energy sources have been used for a long time. One of the major advantages of renewable energy sources is that renewable energy can be replenished quickly. Moreover there is not much scarcity of these energy sources.

The major sources of renewable energy are –

  • Solar
  • Wind
  • Hydropower
  • Geothermal
  • Biomass
  • Photovoltaic

In 2006, energy from renewable sources constituted around 7% of the total energy consumption in the United States of America. Consumption of energy from renewable resources has been encouraged in the United States by the Energy Policy Acts of 2002 and 2005.

One of the major advantages of renewable energy economy is its impact on the environment. The emission of greenhouse gasses does not take place in the case of renewable energy sources. Moreover use of renewable energy sources also reduces the demand of fossil fuels which are scare in nature.

Significant initiatives have been undertaken in the United States of America in relation to renewable energy economy. In 2006, the gross revenue from the economic applications of renewable energy in the United States was nearly 40 billion US dollars. More than 450,000 jobs were created in the renewable energy industries in the US during this year. These jobs were constituted both direct and indirect ones and included technical, scientific, professional, and skilled workers. The private industries comprised more than 90% of these jobs.

In 2007 (mid-year estimates), there were 140 renewable energy companies operating across the globe. This also included renewable energy wings of big global companies. The aggregate market capitalization of the renewable energy companies was more than 100 billion US dollars (mid 2007 estimates).

Some of the major economic applications of renewable energy are –

 

 

  • Wind Power Market - According to reports of Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) capacity of installed wind power increased by 15,197 megawatts (MW) in 2006.
  • Solar Thermal Plants – The largest solar thermal power plant is being built in Nevada. The plant is expected to meet the electricity requirements of 40,000 households. California has undertaken a solar initiative with a target to produce 3,000 megawatts of solar electricity by 2017.
  • Photovoltaic Power Plants - Photovoltaic Power Plant initiatives have been undertaken in Portugal and in the Saxon region of Germany.
  • Transportation – Use of renewable sources of energy for transportation has been increasing in the United States of America.
  • Wave Farms – The Agucadora Wave Park has been established in Portugal in 2006. It is the first commercial wave farm of the world.
    Some of the major renewable energy companies in the world are –

    Wind Power Companies –

  • Gamesa (Bilbao, Spain)
  • Enercon (Germany)
  • Vestas
  • GE Energy
    Photovoltaic companies -
  • Sharp Solar
  • Q-Cells
  • Kyocera
    Other Companies –
  • SunOpta

 


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