Want a Career In Renewable Energy? Know Your Basics

Renewable energy includes solar, wind, hydroelectric, and more, which I am just about to get into. However, these are all very different so do not think of it as just one field. Fossil fuels are found in the earth and formed over millions of years, hence the "fossil" in fossil fuels. Coal is burned which releases heat, which is then used to generate electricity to power our homes and buildings. Among other types of applications, natural gas is used mainly for heating, cooking and electricity. Oil or petroleum is used typically for transportation in cars and aircrafts. Fossil fuels are the majority of energy used at the moment .there is more applications but these are the main ones. Nuclear power is also used to generate electricity, to power our homes and buildings just as coal does. However, the good thing about nuclear power is that is actually environmentally friendly because it does not burn fuel. Although there are cons to this one being radioactivity is dangerous in the event of an accident at the plant.

The main renewable energy resources include solar, wind, geothermal, hydroelectric, biomass and ocean energy. All these are things you could work on in your career. Solar power is of course getting energy from the sun's rays with the use of solar panels. Wind energy is generated from the wind with a turbine that is turned to generate electricity. Geothermal is about extracting heat from the earth. Geothermal wells are drilled into the ground and a pump would transfer hot steam or water from the earth up through the pipes, which is then used to generate electricity. These plants or even ones that exist under our homes need engineers.

Hydroelectric is about using flowing water to generate electricity. A dam is built to stop the flow of water a gate can be opened which will allow the water to flow downhill. The flow of water then creates kinetic energy in a turbine, which is used to generate electricity. One example this is at Niagara Falls there is actually a hydroelectric plant. The plant diverts water that would go over the falls and channels it through a turbine to produce electricity. Then it regroups back at the bottom of the falls. Ocean energy is of course about gaining energy from the ocean. This can be broken up into things tidal energy and wave energy. A turbine is under water, which uses the energy of tidal currents to turn a turbine very similar to how wind energy works. Movement from the ocean water is free so using that can help us generate electricity.

Lockheed Martin, although known as the defense company actually, works on tidal projects and underwater turbines for power generation. Last renewable resource is biomass. Organic matter like plants that is used as fuel. Plants contain energy from the Sun due to photosynthesis and then when this burned is released as heat. However, there are other types of biomass out there such as wood and crops. We also burn coal to create heat in energy but coal is not renewable because it took millions of years to form. Once we burn it we can't just get more even in one lifetime. However, crops and other biomass can be grown quickly and again used for energy. if we look at the most used renewable energy resources in the United States biomass comes first, accounting for 46%. The second highest is hydroelectric at 24% , wind at 21%, solar at 6% and geothermal at 2%. This is surprising because we have solar being talked about in the news more often than anything else. However, it is still a very small percentage of the overall energy being used. If we include all energy sources including petroleum natural gas coal nuclear power and all these renewable energy resources combined get so much. According to the US Energy Information Administration in 2016, renewable energy only accounted for 10% of all energy used. Renewable energy accounts for only 10 percent of all energy use. Fossil fuels make up the majority of energy use and nuclear electric power ties all the renewable energy sources combined.