Monday, March 11, 2013

Which energy resources are renewable: coal, oil, natural gas or wind?

Technically no energy resource is renewed since, once it is used to create energy, the power it contained to meet our energy need is gone forever. It's just that some things such as wind, sunlight, falling water to turn generators, and steam produced by geysers are constantly replaced by nature. That's why we have come to classify them as "renewable"


A good rule of thumb to separate renewable from non-renewable energy resources is that generally if we have to burn, explode, or otherwise destroy the energy resource in order to create energy, it is non-renewable. Nature doesn't seem to replace stuff we destroy; at least not very quickly. It seems to prefer us to use it and then give it back. That's when we call it renewable.


Nuclear energy is a gray area to define since it captures atomic radiation to convert it into heat. Nothing is destroyed. It's just that it's so complicated to do it safely, and inherently risky if done incorrectly, that we haven't learned to utilize it as a popular energy resource that is viewed as universally safe.

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