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7.5-Renewable energy sources - Coggle Diagram
7.5-Renewable energy sources
Solar energy
Using the sun's energy to ethier passively or actively heat a building and the water in the building to replace the need for heaters. Also using solar cellls to capture and convert solar energy into electricity
Pros
no toxic materials
easy to use and low maintenance
No greenhouse gas emission or pollutants
Cons
low energy efficiency- converts only abput 15-20% of the energy collected
cannot produce electricity at night nor in cloudy days, baterries to store that electricity are expensive
Biomass
Burning waste to produce electricity but it does more harm than good so let's just skip that one
Wind Energy
Use of the wind and wind turbines in large amounts in places called windfarms to produce clean electricity
Pros
fast and cheap
increasing energy efficiency and reducing costs
carbon free and pollution free
Wind is abundant, widely distributed and inexhaustible
Cons
visual pollution for some snowflakes
can be too noisy for some snowflakes
needs backup when there isn't much wind
can kill birds if placed poorly
Geothermal
Using the internal heat of the earth to heat up houses and produce electricity
cons
not many hydrothermal sites with concentrations of heat high enough to make it affordable
drilling geothermal wells is expensive and risky
can be non renewable
Deep heat is expensive
Pros
Low CO2 emissions
Medium net energy
could potentially produce moe than enough energy neeeded to power all of the US
Hydropower
Either damming, or using the flow of river and waves to produce electricity
pros
Least expensive renewable energy source
high net energy
large untapped potential
low CO2 emissions
cons
Large land disturbance and displacement
high CH4 emissions from rapid biomass decay in shallow tropical reservoirs
disrupts downstream aquatic ecosystems
Biodigesters
Using organic waste to produce methane to burn for heat and electricity
Only problem of this method is the fact that is only good for local operation, too inefficient for it to be large scale
Hydrogen
The cool new technology that promises high abuncance clean energy, except it doesn't (yet). However with technological advances hydrogen is pretty promising
PRos
little maintenance
more efficient than an internal combustion engine
only product is water
Cons
Fuel cells are expensive
Dangerous to store and transport
net negative energy because there is very little hydrogen gas in the earth's surface, so it must be collected as a byproduct/waste of another process that is usually more expensive than the energy the hydrogen will provide