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Renewable Energy

83 cards · 🇺🇸 English

Solar, wind, hydro and other renewable energy sources.

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Renewable energy

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  1. 1Renewable energy
    Energy made from renewable natural resources that are replenished on a human timescale, including solar, wind, hydropower, bioenergy, and geothermal power
  2. 2Most widely used renewable energy types
    Solar energy, wind power, and hydropower; bioenergy and geothermal power are also significant in some countries
  3. 3Variable renewable energy
    Renewable energy sources with a fluctuating nature, such as wind power and solar power, as opposed to controllable sources like dammed hydroelectricity or geothermal
  4. 4Main motivation to use renewable energy
    To reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change; renewables also cause much less air pollution and noise than fossil fuels
  5. 5Main obstacles to renewable energy deployment
    Fossil fuel subsidies, lobbying by incumbent power providers, and local opposition to land use for renewable installations
  6. 6Is nuclear power considered renewable?
    This is controversial; while some consider it renewable, nuclear energy requires mining uranium, a nonrenewable resource
  7. 7Why are renewables more evenly distributed than fossil fuels?
    Fossil fuels are concentrated in a limited number of countries, while renewable energy sources are available in various forms worldwide
  8. 8Challenge with solar and wind energy
    They are intermittent energy sources - not available constantly, resulting in lower capacity factors; solar only works during the day, and wind varies significantly day-to-day and month-to-month
  9. 9Capacity factor
    The ratio of actual energy production to the maximum possible production; intermittent renewables have lower capacity factors than fossil fuel or nuclear plants
  10. 10How can intermittency of renewables be addressed?
    Through energy storage, demand response, grid improvements, keeping some dispatchable generation on standby, using diversified renewable sources, and smart grids
  11. 11Electrical energy storage
    Methods used to store electrical energy when production exceeds consumption and return it to the grid when production falls below consumption
  12. 12What accounts for 85% of grid power storage?
    Pumped-storage hydroelectricity
  13. 13Green hydrogen
    A more economical means of long-term renewable energy storage in terms of capital expenditures compared to pumped hydroelectric or batteries
  14. 14Sector coupling
    Coupling power generation with other sectors like transport (electric vehicles), industry (hydrogen by electrolysis), or buildings (thermal energy storage) to increase flexibility
  15. 15Cybersecurity risk for renewable energy
    Mass-scale installation of photovoltaic power inverters with remote control vulnerabilities could allow cyberattacks to disable generation from millions of decentralized panels
  16. 16What challenges does climate change pose for renewable infrastructure?
    Extreme weather events like heat waves, wildfires, storms, and flooding can reduce output (solar farms during heat/smoke, wind turbines during high winds or icing)
  17. 17How is solar power generated?
    Either through solar thermal (converting sunlight into heat) or photovoltaics (converting sunlight directly into electricity via the photoelectric effect)
  18. 18Which solar technology accounts for two-thirds of global solar capacity?
    Photovoltaics (PV); it's also growing much faster than solar thermal (170 GW new PV in 2021 vs 25 GW solar thermal)
  19. 19Passive solar
    Construction strategies and technologies that optimize the distribution of solar heat in a building, like solar chimneys, orienting buildings to the sun, and using thermal mass materials
  20. 20Photovoltaic system
    A system consisting of solar cells assembled into panels that convert light into electrical direct current via the photoelectric effect
  21. 21Advantages of PV systems
    Cheap, low-maintenance, scalable, and simple to expand; main disadvantage is poor performance in cloudy weather
  22. 22Where is the world's biggest solar power station?
    Golmud Solar Park in China; four of the ten biggest solar power stations are in China
  23. 23Swanson's law
    Solar module prices drop about 20% for each doubling of installed capacity, defining the 'learning rate' of solar photovoltaics
  24. 24Concentrated solar power (CSP)
    A solar thermal system that uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight onto a receiver, heating water to drive turbines; much more expensive than PV
  25. 25Floatovoltaics
    Floating solar panels on bodies of water; offer increased efficiency and lower water space costs compared to land, but may be more expensive to install
  26. 26Agrivoltaics
    Simultaneous use of land for energy production and agriculture; optimizes land use and can moderate temperatures for crops, but requires shade-tolerant species
  27. 27Long-term technical potential of wind energy
    Believed to be five times total current global energy production, or 40 times current electricity demand, if all practical barriers were overcome
  28. 28Why is offshore wind more productive than onshore?
    Offshore wind speeds average about 90% greater than land, so offshore resources can contribute substantially more energy
  29. 29Conversion efficiency of hydroelectric power
    About 90%, the highest rate in renewable energy
  30. 30Why is water effective for energy generation?
    Water is about 800 times denser than air, so even slow flowing streams or moderate sea swells can yield considerable energy

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