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Renewable energy and household energy


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[top] [end]What is RENEWABLE AND NON-RENEWABLE energy?

Life on our planet is an endless exchange of energies among living things and the environment. Most of the energy resources we currently use, such as oil, coal, natural gas and uranium are non-renewable. The supply of them buried in the earth is limited and we are using them up at a rapid pace. Renewable energy resources such as solar energy, wind energy, Small hydroelectricity,geothermal energy? and biomass fuels are becoming increasingly attractive. Solar, water? and wind energy do not send pollutants into the air as occurs with coal and petroleum energy?.

Forests provide heat energy in the form of firewood and lumber to build homes for millions of people. However, , trees can be cut down faster than they can be replaced.

India has less than 0.4 per cent of the world's crude oil deposits and rising oil imports are a major drain on the country's foreign exchange reserves. India expects a steep rise in the annual energy demand for power and transportation in the coming years and has pursued indigenous development of renewable energy technologies; the government has beenfunding renewable energy programs since the early 1980s. The initial emphasis was on the manufacture and commercialization of solar and wind energy with parallel research on several futuristic options including hydrogen energy, geothermal energy, and ocean energy. Several projects were also aimed at exploring alternative road transportation fuels such as alcohol and chemical batteries.

Solar and wind power systems are already in commercial use across the country today. India is now the world's third largest producer of wind energy after the US and Germany, with an installed wind power capacity of 925 MW. India also has one of the world's largest solar photovoltaic industries - more than 350,000 solar photovoltaic systems have been installed in the country, and these contribute to around 28 MW of solar power. The government has also launched a project to establish grid-connected solar photovoltaic power systems in the range of 25 to 100 KW. Research is also under way to develop a 200 KW phosphoric acid fuel cell power plant. More than 200 battery-powered vehicles and 500 alcohol fueled vehicles have been running under projects to tap alternative fuels for road transportation.

The renewable energy sector will receive a major boost in the coming year with the Indian government doubling the annual budget of the Ministry of Non-conventional Energy Sources (MNES) . The funds will be distributed across research programs and also be used for incentives to promote renewable energy technologies.India's hydrogen energy program is part of its New Technologies Initiative.

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[top] [end]Advantages



[top] [end]Disadvantages



[top] [end]Devices






[top] [end]Related topics





[top] [end]External links and references



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy

http://www.nrel.gov

[top] [end]Contributors



User:Grant Ballard-Tremeer 1 September 2003

User:Dr Karabi Dutta 07 September 2003




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Page created: 01 September 2003; Last edited: 20 April 2007; Version: 2
Knowledge Bank text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Pagename: RenewableEnergy @HEDON: QCAA