With gas prices and electricity costs soaring across the United States, renewable energy is no longer the Utopian fantasy of a few committed environmentalists. If we wish to maintain our society’s comfort in the future, renewable sources of energy will have to make up a significant proportion of our power generation capacity.
Whereas traditional energy sources are known to be finite–for example, although some undiscovered oil resources still exist on Earth, the substance takes millions of years to form and thus once the planet’s supply of oil has been completely discovered and consumed, the resource will have been exhausted–renewable energy comes from sources which are infinite. These take many different forms, the most popular being solar, wind, and hydroelectric power.
Each of these technologies, all of which are constantly being refined and improved, employs a different feature of our environment to generate electricity. Solar power uses the sun’s powerful rays to heat special receptors called solar panels and convert that energy into electricity. Wind power is even more straightforward, so simple in fact that it has been used in one form or another for thousands of years: rotating blades catch the wind and spin, powering an electric motor that generates electricity at all hours of the day. Hydroelectric systems operate much like wind generators, using the power of falling water to turn motors that constantly produce electricity. Indeed, the Hoover Dam, one of the United States’ iconic landmarks, is simply a giant power generator.
As improvements in efficiency and energy storage technology continue to be made at breathtaking rates and more windmills and solar panels dot the landscape every year. We each must ask ourselves, with respect to our energy consumption habits: do we want to be part of the future, or do we want to cling to the past?