Renewable Resources (Chapter 3, Unit 2)

Renewable Resources

A natural resource that can be replenished naturally over time, making it sustainable for continuous use (ex: solar energy, wind energy, water, geothermal energy, and biomass)

Active solar energy collection

The process of using mechanical and electrical devices, such as a pumps, fans, and solar panels, to capture, convert, and distribute solar energy

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP)

The use of mirrors to focus sunlight onto a small area, generating high temperatures that are then used to produce electricity

Solar cookers

A device that uses the energy of direct sunlight to heat and cook food without relying on conventional fuels like wood, gas, or electricity

Photovoltaic (PV) Cells

A device that converts light directly into electricity, being the fundamental component of solar panels, made of semiconductor materials, most commonly silicon, which release electrons when photons from sunlight strike them. The flow of these electrons generates a direct current of electricity

Thin-film solar cells

Photovoltaic cells made by depositing one or more thin layers of light-absorbing semiconductor material onto a substrate like glass, plastic, or metal

Wind energy

The process of harnessing the kinetic energy of moving air to generate electricity or mechanical power

Wind turbines

A device that converts wind energy into electricity by using the wind to spin large blades connected to a rotor, which turns a generator to produce electrical power 

Hydropower

Uses the kinetic energy of moving water to turn turbines to generate electricity

Storage technique

Water stored in reservoirs behind dams passes through the dam and turns turbines

Run-of-river approach

Generates electricity without disrupting the river’s flow 
Water flows through a pipe then returns to the river 
Useful in remote areas away from electric grids 

Pumped-Storage

Water is pumped to a high reservoir and flows downward through a turbine

Hydropower EROI

10:1

Ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs)

A highly efficient heating and cooling system that transfers heat between your home and the ground using buried pipes. In the winter, it pulls low-grade heat from the earth, which has a consistent temperature, and pumps it into your home; in the summer, it reverses the process to move heat from your house into the ground 

Bioenergy

Energy obtained from organic material from living or recently living organism. Includes wood, charcoal, agricultural crops, manure 

Biopower

Technologies like burning, bacterial decay, or conversion to gas/liquid fuels are used to convert biomass into electricity

Bioenergy crops

Fast-growing willow trees, bamboo, and switchgrass

Co-firing

The simultaneous combustion of a biomass fuel with a base fuel, most often coal, in a power plant to produce energy

Gasification

Biomass is heated in a controlled environment with limited oxygen to promote a series of reactions that break down the organic material into a gas, with the main product being syngas (a fuel gas that is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and methane) 

Pyrolysis

This process breaks down materials like biomass, plastics, and waste into valuable products such as bio-oil (liquid fuel), bio-char (solid char), and syngas to convert materials into energy or useful chemicals, reduce waste, and create products like soil amendments and carbon fiber

Biofuels

Energy sources derived from biological materials, such as plants, animal waste, or algae (liquid that powers cars)

Ethanol

A biofuel made by fermenting carbohydrate-rich crops is added to U.S. gasoline to reduce emissions (mostly from corn)

Bagasse

Crushed sugarcane residue used to make ethanol

Biodiesel

Produced from vegetable oil, cooking grease, animal fat, soybeans, oil palms, rapeseed

Cellulosic ethanol

Produced from structural plant material (e.g., cornstalks) that has no food value

Electrolysis

electricity splits hydrogen from water

Hydrogen fuel cell

An electrochemical device that converts hydrogen and oxygen into electricity, water, and heat through a chemical reaction