Definition of Renewable Energy

Although a renewable energy definition is relatively simple, what is more challenging is how to transform our world so that everyone has access to these clean technologies.

That is why this site exists, to help educate and raise awareness so that our children and grandchildren can grow up in a beautiful and clean world! :-)

A renewable energy resource is one that is naturally replenished or replaced at a rate that allows for little or no interruption in resources.

The Texas Energy Industries Association wrote an excellent definition of renewable energy, which included the following points.

Renewable energy is:

• Replenished naturally within the environments within a short time frame

• Gathered from sunlight directly (photoelectric, thermal, and photochemical)

• Derived from the sun’s energy indirectly (wind, biomass energy, or water power)

• Acquired via naturally occurring movements within the environment (tidal and geothermal energy sources)

• Not energy that uses non-renewable fossil fuels and does not produce waste from unnatural sources

• Is environmentally friendly

Examples of renewable energy sources that don’t expire would include tidal, wind, wood, water, and solar. Granted, wood may take a bit more time to renew itself, but if forests and woods are planned and maintained correctly, the wood supply would literally never run out. Water sources are replenished by rainfall.

Why is Renewable Energy Important?

Contained in the very definition of renewable energy lies the answer to this question of why these energy sources are important to us and to our environment. Renewable sources of energy are not going to run out. One or more of these renewable sources will always be available provide a means to power our homes, appliances, buildings, heat, and electricity as needed.

The environment will last longer and be cleaner if we would fully harness and utilize the renewable resources available to us.

How is Solar Power Renewable Energy?

Solar power is renewable energy because when the sun is shining, the stream of energy is uninterrupted, or constantly being replenished. It’s free for us to use! Solar energy can be used immediately or it can be stored in order to use it on cloudy days or during the overnight hours. Solar cells that capture solar energy can generate electricity, heat water and/or air, heat indoor spaces, heat food via solar ovens, generate hydrogen, and even provide air conditioning.

Because solar energy cannot only be captured, but also stored, we can use it in the short term and for future use when the sun isn’t shining. In a single day, the sun shining down on the Earth provides the energy equivalent to the amount of energy the world’s population would require over a 27-year span. Isn’t that mind-boggling?

Another aspect of renewable energy might also be that we can continuously capture it and find ways to store it or recycle it until it is needed. We would therefore have an infinite resource of energy (it would never disappear!).

Despite the fact that solar energy was displaced by the introduction of fossil fuels as a more cost effective and convenient source of energy, the realization that we need to find ways to use solar energy and other renewable energy sources has definitely come full circle in recent years.

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