Energy is essential for any function. Just as our body needs food to move, any human activity requires an energy flow to be able to be carried out. Today, we have inherited an energy system that comes from the industrial revolution, based on fossil fuels and, later, nuclear energy. However, these energies will become increasingly scarce and, on the other hand, they have a great impact on the environment.
Renewable energy was born as an inexhaustible alternative to these energies that may disappear, but this does not mean that they have to be clean energies. Do renewable energies pollute the environment ? What are renewable energies? How does each one pollute? In the following article from Green Ecology we explain it to you.
What are renewable energies?
Renewable energy is understood to be energy of natural origin whose source is hypothetically inexhaustible, either because it regenerates itself or because its quantities are unlimited, that is, as it is used, its resources do not run out. Some clear examples of these unlimited natural sources are the sun or the wind.
Alternative energies are also sometimes referred to, but they do not refer to the same thing. Alternative energies are those that can serve as a replacement for traditional energy sources, in this case renewable energies are one of them, but that does not mean that all alternative energies are renewable.
Below we explain what renewable energy sources are :
- Tidal energy , from the tides.
- Geothermal energy , from the heat of the earth.
- Hydraulic energy , from reservoirs.
- Wind energy , from the wind.
- Solar energy , from the Sun.
- Biomass energy , from vegetation.
Renewable energy: examples
Tidal energy
This energy can be obtained using the same procedure but in two different ways. On the one hand, the energy left by the movement of large masses of water when the tides rise and fall can be collected, but the force of the waves on the sea surface as a result of the action of the wind can also be used.
Geothermal energy
Geothermal energy is energy that can be obtained by harnessing the heat that is released from the Earth’s interior. Various sources can be used for this, such as hot springs and their vapours or magma. However, at present the technological resources are not yet available to be able to exploit it industrially. Even so, it can be used as heating for homes or to generate electricity.
Hydropower
As its name indicates, this energy is produced by water, but unlike tidal energy, hydraulic energy is produced by water that accumulates in swamps or reservoirs. How is this energy produced? Easy, when the water falls to a lower level it creates energy that is converted into electricity in the hydroelectric power station.
Wind energy
In this type of energy, the natural source is the wind, which is harnessed by windmills, technically known as wind turbines. Did you know that you can make homemade windmills ?
Solar energy
Solar energy is that which reaches us from the Sun through electromagnetic radiation, which can be in the form of heat, light or ultraviolet rays that have been created in the star after a process of nuclear fusion. Within solar energy we can distinguish between:
- Photothermal solar energy : they convert this energy into heat and use it to heat buildings, water or any other product.
- Photovoltaic solar energy : convert solar energy into electricity.
Biomass energy
We speak of biomass as the energy obtained from organic matter of animal or plant origin, for example organic waste after combustion or transformation into oil, alcohol or methanol.
Are renewable energies clean or polluting?
Before answering whether renewable energies are polluting, it must be made clear that any energy source has an impact on the environment. Of course, there are some that do so more than others, for example, non-renewable sources, in their irrational and disproportionate use, cause harm to nature, ecosystems and the planet in general. In this sense, renewable sources are a good substitute because their impact is less, but they can still be polluting. Below we will talk about how renewable energies pollute the environment :
- Geothermal energy can be very dangerous if toxic gases and metals are carried to the surface.
- Wind turbines create visual pollution in normally natural landscapes. At the same time, they can become traps for thousands of birds that die in their blades.
- Within hydraulic energy , mini-hydropower is that which produces a lesser impact, however, large water dams create great losses in the biodiversity of the area, generate methane gas if the plant matter is not removed, can cause pandemics, can be located in areas of natural or scenic value, and make river beds more saline.
- The main problem with tidal energy is the high costs involved in its installation, which rarely makes it viable. On the other hand, it has a significant visual impact on coastal landscapes, i.e. visual pollution.
- Biomass produces environmental pollution, since its combustion generates nitrogen dioxide and other pollutants. In addition, if land is cultivated for its development, it is no longer used for other types of more productive crops .
- Solar energy is certainly the least polluting in every sense, however, the time it takes to pay for itself is very long.
