Your Questions About Renewable Energy Content
James asks…
What is renewable energy content?
I live in Texas and am looking for a new energy provider. I was looking through the options and it can be filtered by “renewable energy content” ranging from 2% to 100%. What do I want here? I don’t know what it means.
So do I want one that is 100%? Or less? Or the least?
admin answers:
That’s the percentage of the energy you receive that comes from renewable sources and not fossil fuels.
For instance:
Company A provides energy to house B. Company A sends house B electricity that is 65% from coal-fired facilities, 25% from wind turbines, and 10% from solar panels. Company A has a renewable energy content of 35%.
Nancy asks…
Compare traditional methods of making electricity versus renewable energy sources. Is one method better & why?
I believe that renewable energy sources is a better method, but it is more expensive. If you could also provide statistics/facts I would appreciate it!
admin answers:
Wind power is actually very cheap, but the only problem is it can’t provide baseload power. It only provides power when the wind is blowing. However, it can provide power at 7-10 cents per kWh, competetive with coal.
Http://climateprogress.org/2008/05/17/wind-power-a-core-climate-solution/
Geothermal is also looking extremely promising, and can also potentially provide affordable power. It can provide power 24/7 as well (baseload power).
Http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2199/76/
http://climateprogress.org/2008/09/27/us-geothermal-is-hot/
Concentrated solar thermal is another great option, and can store energy to be used as baseload. It can be potentially as cheap as coal.
Http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/2205/83/
http://climateprogress.org/2008/07/28/solar-baseload-update/
There are others like solar photovoltaic, tidal, etc.
There’s no question that renewable energy is preferable to traditional (mainly coal) energy, because it’s clean and the fuel source will never run out.
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