According to Erik Lyses in a Renewable Energy World Magazine article in 2003, “The surface of the Earth receives an amount of solar energy equivalent to roughly 10,000 times the world energy demand.”
Even though the world population has continued to rise steadily since 2003, that fact has not changed. As long as the sun continues to shine, it will provide a renewable source of energy, and it will continue to vastly exceed the world’s energy demand.
Gas, oil, coal, and all fossil fuels, are limited. They all have to be taken from the ground…dug, mined, pumped, cleaned, processed and then most of them must be shipped somewhere…a long way from where they were discovered. The processing of fossil fuels creates environmentally damaging by-products as they are converted into energy. Greenhouse gases and other environmental hazards are produced.
Solar energy is clean, and produces no negative by-products. It can be captured and used on site…directly from the sky to the oven that bakes your pie.
Hydroelectricity, captured water energy, also has a price tag. We’ve created dams that have changed the natural flow of water, and therefore the natural order for fish. Dams also create a larger and larger potential for disaster when they age and fail.
Once it’s been captured, there’s no more payment for solar energy…it’s free. Capturing it won’t end in a downstream disaster, nor will there be a subsequent upstream battle that destroys the natural order and flow for fish life.
Then, of course, there’s atomic energy. Not only does atomic energy require natural resources such as uranium, it has proven volatile and demonstrable unstable even in the most secure environs. And its proven capacity to maim and disfigure not only human life, but all life on Planet Earth can…and does…strike fear into the hearts and minds of most people.
Solar energy’s been around since…well…forever. It’s getting easier and easier to harness its power. Best of all, solar energy is friendly, safe, and effective.
There are, of course, other renewable energy sources that are evolving.
Biomass energy is considered a renewable energy. Biomass energy, which consists of energy derived from living or recently living organisms, such as garbage, wood, landfill gases, and waste, are incinerated to create energy. There is a positive end result in the creation of energy from most of these sources. However, our reliance on wood for energy must be tempered. Trees have been cut, chopped and burned to create energy. We’ve destroyed a major portion of our natural forests already to satisfy our insatiable need for energy. We’ve diluted our watershed and polluted our air. Although viewed as a balance, biomass energy also creates a by-product, CO2, which is released into the air, creating the same pollution risk and environmental hazard as fossil fuels.
Solar energy pollutes nothing, dilutes nothing.
Coming on board quickly is another very promising renewable energy source…wind power. This is another great, totally awesome, gift from nature that is being harnessed and used more throughout the world. With more variability and less dependability, wind power doesn’t, however, have the same benefits as solar power.
Wave power is another renewable energy source that is still in its infancy. Capturing the surface waves of the ocean, and using that power for electrical generation and water desalination, however, is expected to be used very effectively as the technology is advanced.
Another source of energy with potential is geothermal power, or power extracted from heat stored in the earth. Geothermal power plants exist worldwide, but exist almost exclusively on the edges of world tectonic plates, where high temperature geothermal resources are close to the surface. Certainly a resource to be expanded and not ignored, but also one that requires substantial development cost, and depending on its operation, can produce greenhouse gases. Although creating a lower per energy unit pollution cost than fossil fuels, it is still not as environmentally friendly as solar energy.
If solar energy had been the fuel source that was researched, expanded, and exploited for use, rather than fossil fuels, we would undoubtedly now be living in a much friendlier place.
However, that certainly doesn’t mean that all is lost. Every day…somewhere…the sun shines on. It continues to wait for us…waiting to befriend and care for us…in a way no other energy source can.
Learn more about solar power advantages. Stop by Timothy Peters’s site where you can find out all about home solar power and what it can do for you.
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