Technological breakthroughs have made renewable energy cheaper than coal and fracked gas. This is key to realizing the 1.5°C ambition of providing affordable, reliable, clean energy.
Renewable Energy Sources
Renewable energy sources are natural resources that replenish faster than they are consumed. They include wind, solar, bioenergy (organic matter burned as fuel), hydropower, and tidal power.
These renewable energy sources are far less polluting than the fossil fuels currently dominating our world’s energy supply. They take a much shorter time to form and produce lower emissions when burned compared with the carbon dioxide produced by burning non-renewable fossil fuels.
While there is a finite amount of coal and oil on the planet, an unlimited amount of sun and wind can be harnessed for clean green electricity. The hope is that renewable energy will eventually replace fossil fuels, which are expensive, scarce, exhaustible, and polluting.
Solar and wind energy are the fastest-growing forms of electric generation. Following them are hydropower and biomass, which supply 16 and 11% of the world’s energy. To accelerate the global energy transition, eight sets of actions are needed. These cover both the demand and supply side of the energy system.
Many technologies that generate renewable energy can also be considered zero-carbon, such as nuclear power, which emits no greenhouse gases at all.
Energy Efficiency
The energy sector is transforming rapidly as innovation drives down costs and starts to deliver on the promise of a clean future. With solar and wind as its two primary sources, the United States is the world’s top producer of renewable energy. It is increasing the reliability of the national electrical grid while integrating these sources.
Renewable energy, commonly called green or clean energy, is created by replenishing natural processes.
They include sunlight, geothermal heat, wind, tides, water, and various forms of biomass. Some of these sources are intermittent, and their availability varies with the time of day and weather conditions, but they do not produce harmful emissions or cause other environmental impacts.
Hydropower is the most popular renewable energy source for power generation, which uses relatively consistent rainfall patterns to create electricity from falling or descending water.
Small-scale hydro is a cleaner alternative, but the infrastructure needed for large dams can adversely affect ecosystems. Other forms of renewable energy are less disruptive to the environment, including technologies that harness the kinetic and thermal power of ocean waves and currents to create electricity and other forms of energy.
Energy efficiency is vital to the renewables revolution, allowing us to make the most of these clean and green sources. This can be done by using renewables more efficiently or integrating them into the existing grid with more intelligent infrastructure. The goal is to help communities achieve a clean energy future while minimizing the environmental impact and people’s quality of life.
Energy Storage
As renewable energy sources become cheaper, they are becoming more common in electricity generation. The hope is that they will eventually replace fossil fuels, which have a finite supply and cause harmful greenhouse gases when burned.
Renewable energy includes solar, wind, and geothermal power. It also encompasses hydropower, which uses fast-moving water to generate electricity. Renewable energy resources are constantly replenished, unlike non-renewable resources such as coal, oil, and natural gas, which will run out or take millions of years to regenerate.
The most abundant renewable energy source is sunlight, and it is often referred to as clean or green energy. However, it is essential to note that not all forms of renewable energy are sustainable. Nevertheless, solar and wind power are considered clean, green energy sources.
To maximize the benefits of renewable energy, it must be paired with new technologies that increase flexibility in our grids. One solution is electricity storage (which combines batteries and demand response programs). It allows power generation to be adjusted based on the availability of renewable energy and helps balance out variations in supply and demand on our aging electricity grids. It also contributes to reducing the cost of renewables by “firming” them and making them more valuable to the grid.
Electric Vehicles
In addition to providing a clean alternative to fossil fuels, renewable energy provides greater energy security and reduces greenhouse gases. It is a vital component in the worldwide effort to combat climate change, which has already resulted in significant environmental changes such as global warming, more frequent extreme weather events, and the destruction of natural habitats.
The primary renewable energy sources include wind, solar, bioenergy (organic material burned as a fuel), hydroelectric, and tidal power. Many of these technologies are displacing traditional energy sources such as coal, oil, gas, and nuclear.
Unlike fossil fuels, which are finite and rapidly depleting, renewable energy sources are constantly replenished by nature through solar radiation, biomass growth, geothermal resources, ocean tides, waves, wind, and rainfall. The renewable energy industry is booming, with technological advances enabling its development at various scales, from large-scale hydropower projects to rooftop solar panels on homes.
