There are several debates about the two sources of energy, the renewable and the nonrenewable. We produce and use energy from these two sources for various purposes. Energy plays a crucial role in our daily life and we cannot imagine a situation that we go without electricity.
Almost all our utility equipment inevitably need electricity for their functions. However it is appropriate to evaluate the relative advantages and disadvantages of the two forms of energy. The assessment here starts with Nonrenewable energy:
Nonrenewable energy is derived from the earth. It can neither be repeatedly used nor replaced in short period of time. The coal, oil, natural gas, all belonging to the fossil fuels, constitutes this category.
The present technology makes it too easy to mine the coal and oil from the earth-bed to utilize as energy sources. This process is relatively cheap, affordable and widely available. But the main disadvantage of this form of energy that it is irreplaceable and would exhaust from the earth, by prolonged exploitation. This is because the fossil fuel energy is developed from the decayed bodies of animals and plants remaining buried as deposits for millions of years in the earth- bed.
These are transformed into combustible materials that come out as fuels. By constant exploitation at the present level, these deposits may not last long, for the use of the generations. Nonrenewable energy also contributes adversely to the nature, by way of pollution of the environment resulting from carbon emission. The mining and oil production paves for atmospheric pollution and causes climate change.
Besides destroying the eco-system, oil production leads to pollution of our water beds like lakes, streams and wells and destroy the animals and plants in large scale.
So how about renewable energy? The powe produced from renewable sources is termed as renewable energy. The sources like solar power, windmill power, tidal power, hydro power, bio fuel and biomass are the best examples for this type of energy.
Renewable energy does not cause atmospheric pollution in any manner. It is renewable and efficient and can be produced with locally developed systems. A disadvantage with this energy is that it cannot be economically exploited, stored and reused according to the requirement.
The cost of production will also be exorbitant than the other types of energy, in the present day scenario. It is wrong to believe that the sources of renewable energy always produce clean energy. For example, the wood is a renewable source of energy but when wood is burned in a furnace, the carbons that emit from combustion pollutes the nature.
It similarly happens so, when bio- mass is burned to produce energy. From a comparative analysis, it can be found that the sources of nonrenewable energy are going into extinction by vigorous and irrational exploitation, to meet a major portion of our increasing energy needs.
Hence in the coming years new forms of energy are to be developed that would not pollute the environment. The costs are one of the forbidding factors for exploring the renewable energy at the required level. But the energy generated from solar power will be clean, renewable and possible without exorbitant cost.