Renewable Energy Articles

Solar, wind, geothermal, biomass,wave, tidal energy articles

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Geothermal heating pros and cons

Term geothermal heating refers to the direct use of heat stored in the Earth's core to heat our homes, offices, or for any other heating application. The popularity of geothermal heating systems continues to grow though on global scale it still accounts for only around 0.07% of global primary energy consumption.

Geothermal heating systems have lot more pros than cons but let me first explain the working principle of geothermal heating system. Geothermal heating systems use geothermal heat pumps to force the transfer of heat from the ground to the desired heating application. Each geothermal heat pump is equipped with an outdoor unit called condenser and an indoor unit that's called an evaporator coil. In order for heat to be successfully transferred we also need refrigerant, usually in form of highly pressured liquid. This refrigerant circulates underground, absorbs heat from the ground, and on its return, the now warmer fluid passes through the heat pump which uses electricity to extract the heat from the fluid, and the re-chilled fluid is sent back through the ground to continue this cycle. This extracted heat is then used to heat our homes and offices.

Last Updated on Friday, 18 May 2012 06:21 Read more...
 

The benefits and drawbacks of using solar energy

Solar energy is not a perfect energy source but nonetheless using solar energy has lot more benefits than drawbacks as you'll see by further reading this article.

The benefits of using solar energy:

Solar energy is renewable source of energy. Our sun is the most abundant form of energy available on our planet, and solar energy will be available throughout the entire lifespan of our Sun (next 5 billion years). On the other hand, the currently dominant fossil fuels are expected to be depleted within the next 100-200 years.

Last Updated on Thursday, 17 May 2012 05:51 Read more...
 

Solar and wind need cheap energy storage solutions

The popularity of solar and wind grows rapidly worldwide. These are the two fastest growing renewable energy sectors in the world but nonetheless they are yet to find the adequate energy storage solution.

These two sources are intermittent energy sources which means that they are not available all the time (the sun doesn't shine during the night and wind also doesn't blow entire time) and are therefore in need of one or more energy storage solutions.

Last Updated on Wednesday, 16 May 2012 06:29 Read more...
 

Planning large scale solar power plants to become easier?

Solar energy industry is one of the fastest developing industries in the world. The global solar power market continues to grow rapidly and many energy experts believe that solar power will eventually become the most important energy source in the world.

Many countries have already started planning large-scale solar power plants spanning several square kilometers. Since these solar power plants are connected with very high construction costs they need to be very carefully planned.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 15 May 2012 05:30 Read more...
 

Is wind energy environmentally friendly source of energy?

Wind energy is generally considered an environmentally friendly source of energy because it does significantly smaller damage to our environment when compared with currently dominant fossil fuels.

The environmental issues connected with wind turbines mostly refer to excessive noise and bird killings.

Last Updated on Monday, 14 May 2012 09:07 Read more...