24-03-2012, 01:23 PM
RENEWABLE RESOURCES
RENEWABLE.ppt (Size: 3 MB / Downloads: 50)
Solar energy technologies use the sun's energy and light to provide heat, light, hot water, electricity, and even cooling, for homes, businesses, and industry.
There are a variety of technologies that have been developed to take advantage of solar energy. These include:
Photovoltaic systems:
Producing electricity directly from sunlight.
Solar hot water:
Heating water with solar energy.
Solar electricity:
Using the sun's heat to produce electricity
Solar process space heating and cooling :
Industrial and commercial uses of the sun's heat.
How it works:
The Sun heats our atmosphere unevenly, so some patches become warmer than others.
These warm patches of air rise, other air blows in to replace them - and we feel a wind blowing. We can use the energy in the wind by building a tall tower, with a large propellor on the top.
The wind blows the propellor round, which turns a generator to produce electricity.
Biomass is a renewable energy source because the energy it contains comes from the sun. Through the process of photosynthesis, plants capture the sun's energy. When the plants are burned, they release the sun's energy they contain.
In this way, biomass functions as a sort of natural battery for storing solar energy.
As long as biomass is produced sustainably, with only as much used as is grown, the battery will last indefinitely.