Renewable Energy First Lecture
Introduction to Renewable Energy
What Are Renewable Energies? A Simple Definition?
Renewable energies (or renewables) are ways to generate energy from
(theoretically) unlimited natural resources. These resources are either available
with no time limit or replenish more quickly than the rate at which they
are consumed.
Renewable energies are generally spoken of as opposed to fossil fuel energies. The
fossil fuels’ stocks are limited and non-renewable in the human timescale. The
most known examples of these resources are coal, oil or natural gas. On the
contrary, renewable energies are produced from renewable sources. Here, we’re
talking about energy coming from solar rays, wind or water cycles – all
theoretically unlimited on a human scale time.
Renewable energies are also often referred to as “green energies” or “clean
energies”. Still, this doesn’t mean that these energies aren’t harmful to the
environment and have zero impact. Nonetheless, they have a low environmental
impact compared to fossil fuels.
There are several types of renewable energies that are produced by different
sources such as the sun, wind or water. In fact, these renewables’ power
consumption has been growing over the last year. They have provided 8% of the
world’s electricity in 2017 and they now cover 1/3 of the power mix in Europe. At
the same time, the energy grid gets 1/4 of the total energy in China and 1/6 in the
United States, India, and Japan. Let’s learn more about them below.
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
1 – Solar Energy
This type of renewable energy comes directly from the capture of solar radiation.
Here, the solar radiation is absorbed by specific sensors and rebroadcasted
following 2 possible operation modes:
• Capturing sun rays and directly converting them into energy through
photovoltaic solar panels;
• Capturing, collecting and turning the sunlight into heat that warms up water
or air.
Examples of Solar Energy in the World
It’s estimated that in 2017 1,6% of the worldwide generated energy came from
solar sources. At the same time, solar power also contributed to 20% of the total
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energy growth in this same year. Some of the most known sources of solar energy
are:
• The Kurnool Ultra Solar Park in India. It has a total generation capacity of
1000MW and over 4 million solar panels installed;
• The Longyangxia Solar Park in China that has a total capacity of 850MW
and covers around 25sq km.
• The Kamuthi Solar Facility in India: it has a total capacity of 648MV and
covers 10sq km.
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
2 – Wind Energy
Wind power is another renewable energy. Here, the wind’s kinetic energy makes
turbines spin and creates a mechanical movement. Afterward, a generator
transforms this mechanical energy into electricity. There are several types of wind
renewable energies: onshore wind turbines, off-shore wind turbines and even
floating wind turbines. But the operating principles are basically the same for all
these types of wind-generated energy.
Examples of Wind Power in the World
Wind power continues has also been growing, In fact, it provided 4.4% of global
power generation in 2017. The highest installed wind capacity belongs to China
(164GW). At the same time, in the EU, wind power provides 15% or more of the
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
energy generated in several countries such as Germany, Portugal or Lithuania.
Some of the most known sources of wind power energy are:
• The Gansu Wind Farm in China. It is still under construction and it will be
able to produce 20,000MV of power by 2020;
• The onshore Muppandal Wind Farm in India with a capacity of 1,500MW
and over 3000 turbines;
• The Alta Wind Energy Center in the U.S. with a total capacity of 1,548MW
that’s expected to reach 3,000MW by 2040;
• The Walney Extension in the UK. It has a total capacity of 659MW and it’s
the world’s largest offshore farm.
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
3 – Hydro Energy
Hydro-electric power consists in the transformation of the kinetic energy of the
water (from rivers, dams, marine currents or tides) into mechanical energy by
turbines.
Examples of hydro-electric power in the world
• The Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station in South Korea. This is the world’s
biggest tidal power installation and it has a capacity of 254 MW;
• The Rance Tidal Power Station in Brittany, France, has a 240 MW capacity;
• The Three Gorges Dam in China is the world’s largest power station in
terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW).
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
4- Biomass
Biomass is made up of organic materials from plants or animals that contain stored
energy. The combustion of these natural materials produces renewable energy.
Some examples of generating energy from biomass are:
• Directly burning solid biomass like garbage or wood to produce heat;
• Converting biomass into biogases such as methane or CO2 due to the
bacterial activity that happens in the absence of oxygen (as is the case in
landfills);
• Using sugar or corn crops to create biofuels such as bioethanol or biodiesel
and mixing them with fossil fuels afterward. As a matter of fact, the world’s
biofuels production increased by 3.5% in 2017.
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
Examples of Biomass Energy in the World
Some of the most known biomass power plants in the world are:
• The Iron Bridge power station in the UK, with a capacity of 740MW. It uses
wood pellets as the main fuel;
• The Alholmenskaft power station in Finland. It has a 260MW energy
generation capacity;
• The Polaniec power plant in Poland that uses mainly agricultural by-
products and wood residues. It has a 205MW capacity.
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Renewable Energy First Lecture
5- Geothermal Energy
The Earth generates and stores geothermal energy. In other words, radioactive
materials decaying inside the Earth are emitting energy. Electricity can be created
using directly or indirectly this energy, depending on the technology implemented.
There are three main ways to use geothermal energy:
• Generating electricity directly from the Earth’s heat;
• Producing heat directly from hot water boiling on the planet’s surface;
• Using pumps over the shallow ground to heat (and also to cool) buildings.
Examples of Geothermal Energy in the World
• The Darajat Power Station in Indonesia has 3 plants with a total capacity of
259MW;
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• The Malitbog Geothermal Power Station in the Philippines has a capacity of
232MW;
• The Hellisheidi Geothermal Power Station in Iceland has a capacity of
400MW of thermal energy;
• The Salton Sea Geothermal Plants in the U.S. have a capacity of 340MW.
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