There are lots of different forms of renewable energy generation and so the way that they work is various. However there are also similarities so we'll be going through the way that a few of the most used forms work, especially those that can be used on individual properties for energy production.
Renewable Energy: What is It?
Before getting on to how renewable energy is generated, we'll just briefly touch on what renewable energy actually is. That's something most people already know, so not much time will be spent on it. Simply put, renewable resources are the processes that occur naturally and from which we can extract energy without diminishing the amount of energy that they have.
Some of the different forms of renewable energy are Solar Energy, wind energy, Hydro Power (energy from flowing water) and Geothermal Energy (heat from the ground). They can be used in a number of different ways, but we'll be focusing on solar energy and geothermal energy in the form of heat pumps.
Energy from the Sun
One of the most popular forms of renewable energy generation is by way of solar energy. That's because all you have to do is install solar panels on your roof, so most people have the capability to make use of it. There are two very different kinds of solar panels though, ones that create electricity and ones that supply you with hot water.
The electricity producing Solar Power comes from PV solar panels. These are made of a number of solar cells, which are made out of the semiconductor silicon. That's because one of the properties of a semiconductor is that when light hits it, electrons move. Since electricity is flowing electrons, this takes you half the way towards being able to create electricity.
At the moment, this is a particularly popular form of renewable energy in the UK because the government has introduced the feed in tariff recently. This government scheme pays you for each unit of electricity which you produce. At the same time you'll be making savings on energy bills as you get to use the energy also.
The kind of solar energy that provides you with hot water comes from solar thermal systems. This is provided by solar thermal panels, which are designed in such a way that the light from the sun heats them up. There is also going to be a government incentive applied to this sort of system as well soon, the renewable heat incentive.
The renewable heat incentive is going to work in the same way as the feed in tariff, paying you for every unit of energy that you generate with your renewable energy system. This is something that is also going to be applied to ground source heat pumps, which operate on the basis of geothermal energy.
Geothermal Energy
Underground there is a pretty constant level of heat, and the lower down you go the higher the heat level is. That's what is called geothermal energy, and it can be used to heat an individual property with a ground source heat pump. It's also a form of energy that can be used for Electricity Generation.
The electricity production cannot be used on individual properties though because it requires a large power station to be built. There aren't very many of them either because there are only a few places where it is efficient to use this sort of renewable energy generation. They create electricity in the same way that fossil fuels do, by heating water for the steam, and that steam making turbines spin.
The way that geothermal energy can be very useful though is when it is utilised in a ground source heat pump, which can provide your home with hot water. You just need to have pipes installed underground, and refrigerants in these will extract the heat and bring it to your home.
To get extra information on solar energy, author Alexander Davis has written a lot more on the subject at Renewable Energy Generation. Find out additional information regarding how the system works, including the amount of money it's possible to save, and get a free quote for an installation.