Do they produce heat, electricity, light, what? How do they help us? And is this right: wind gives electric power by turning turbines and solar power gives elecricity by absorbing the sun’s rays? Would absorbing the sun’s rays with solar panels reduce greenhouse gases? And are those sources even renewable? How?
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- Geothermal energy is heat that comes from within that Earth, say from places like underwater volcanic vents, that heat water and turns it to steam, which in turn makes a turbine spin.
– Wind energy is comes from a wind mill with a ridiculously large turbine that creates energy. I don’t know how, but it does.
– Solar energy is rays from the sun that come constantly, never stopping until the position of a solar panel is pointing away from the Sun. The Suns energy is renewable because it will not go away in anyone living today’s lifetime. The Sun is supposed to go into Supernova in 3 billion years, outliving a single thing alive today. Thats why its considered renewable TODAY.
– Water energy is water that is run through a turbine, therefore causing it to spin. Like with the windmill, I have no idea how, but it does.
All of these are renewable sources of energy because not a one of these sources will lose power in anyone living today’s lifetime, unless, by some odd chance, that we get hit by an asteroid, or if theres no one else to use it due to nuclear fallout. Or some other cause that wipes out human life.
what lugash said, but i do want to adress your second question, curent technology is sort of energy neutral. lets focous on solar power. if solar pannels magicly poped out of the blue on peoples roofs then hell yah they would reduce green house gasses. they don’t. solar pannels produce tiny amounts of energy over long periods of time. solar pannels take vast amounts of our curent resource coal to produce. It is widly debated as to weather the life of a solar panel is even worth its cost in coal.
curently all “renewable” energy is doing nothing for us because to harnes it we have to spend some of our finite energy to even think about catching some of the renewable energy in a turbine or whatever. sigh.
Geothermal uses heat to turn a turbine
Wind turns a turbine
Water (dam, tidal, etc) turns a turbine
Solar the photons hit electrons and they move.
All the ones you mentioned are renewable because they aren’t a finite resource like coal.